Jane, having left her apartments in ignorance of what was happening, to stand sponsor at the baptism of the child of Edward Underhill in St. John’s Chapel, found on her return that the cloth of estate, and other insignia of royalty had disappeared from her presence chamber, by order of the Duke of Suffolk himself. The Crown had passed for ever from her, and there was no alternative but a hasty retreat into that private life, from which it would have been well for her had she never been drawn. So much extravagant language has been employed by the partisans of the Lady Jane Grey, in describing her virtues and accomplishments, while her youth and tragic end make her so interesting a figure, that it is scarcely wonderful if we find it difficult to form a sober opinion of one, who appeared for a moment in our annals, and as the price of that appearance, laid her fair young head upon the block. The charm that failed to draw even a murmur of applause from her contemporaries, when she was thrust upon them as Queen has been potent ever since, and there are few who do not unconsciously canonise her on account of her misfortunes. She had been educated severely, in the same kind of intellectual school as that, in which the daughters of Henry VIII. and the learned family of Sir Thomas More had also distinguished themselves. She was a good Latin and Greek scholar, and was further well versed in the doctrines of the Genevan Reformers. The instrument of Northumberland’s ambitious schemes, she had passively acquiesced in the dignity conspired for her, but once raised to the throne, the timid girl of sixteen had suddenly displayed the obstinacy which she had inherited from her Tudor grandmother, and had evinced spirit and determination enough to refuse to share her supposed title with her husband.[305] Had the bold stroke succeeded, which placed the Crown for a moment in her hands, her father-in-law might have lived to repent his temerity.