pains and study, not regarding my service to God, but only to my prince." He died soon after, in all the pangs of remorse, and left a life which had all along been rendered turbid by ambition, and wretched by mean assiduities.

CAPTURE OF CALAIS.

N the latter part of the reign of Mary I. of England, Calais was recovered by the French, and grief for the loss of this place, is said to have caused the queen's death. It had been taken by the English under Edward III., and was the fruit of that monarch's glorious victory at Crecy. Being the only place that they retained of their ancient and extensive territories in France, and which opened to them, at all times, an easy and secure passage into the heart of that kingdom, their keeping possession of it soothed the pride of the one nation as much as it mortified the vanity of the other. Its situation was naturally so strong, and its fortifications deemed so impregnable, that no monarch of France, how adventurous soever, had been bold enough to attack it. Even when the domestic strength of England was broken and exhausted by the bloody wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, and its attention entirely diverted from foreign objects, Calais had remained undisturbed and unthreatened. Mary and her council, composed chiefly of ecclesiastics, unacquainted with military affairs, and whose whole attention. was turned towards extirpating heresy out of the kingdom, had not only neglected to take any precautions for the safety of this important place, but seemed to think that the reputation of its strength was alone sufficient for its security. Full of this opinion, they ventured, even after the declaration of war, to continue a practice which the low state of the queen's finances had introduced in times of peace. As the country

the

adjacent to Calais was overflowed during the winter, and the marshes around it became impassable, except by one avenue, which the forts of St. Agatha and Newham-bridge commanded, it had been the custom of the English to dismiss the greater part of the garrison towards the end of autumn, and to replace it in the spring. In vain did Lord Wentworth, the governor of Calais, remonstrate against this ill-timed parsimony, and represent the possibility of his being attacked suddenly, while he had not troops sufficient to man the works. The privy council treated these remonstrances with scorn, as if they had flowed from the timidity or rapaciousness of governor; and some of them, with that confidence which is the companion of ignorance, boasted that they would defend Calais with their white rods against an enemy who should approach it during winter. In vain did Philip, who had passed through Calais as he returned from England to the Netherlands, warn the queen of the danger to which it was exposed; and acquainting her with what was necessary for its security, in vain did he offer to reinforce the garrison during winter with a detachment of his own troops. Mary's counsellors, though obsequious to her in all points wherein religion was concerned, distrusted, as much as the rest of their countrymen, every proposition that came from her husband; and suspecting this to be an artifice of Philip's in order to gain the command of the town, they neglected his intelligence, declined his offer, and left Calais with less than a fourth part of the garrison requisite for its defence.

His knowledge of this, encouraged the duke of Guise to venture on an enterprise that surprised his own countrymen no less than his enemies. As he knew that its success depended on conducting his operations with such rapidity as would afford the English no time for throwing relief into the town by sea, and prevent Philip from giving him any interruption by land, he pushed the attack with a degree of vigour little known in carrying on sieges during that age. He drove the English from fort St. Agatha, at the first assault. He obliged them to abandon the fort of Newham-bridge after defending

it only three days. He took the castle which commanded the harbour by storm; and on the eighth day after he appeared before Calais, compelled the governor to surrender, as his feeble garrison, which did not exceed five hundred men, was worn out with the fatigue of sustaining so many attacks, and defending such extensive works.

The Duke of Guise, without allowing the English time to recover from the consternation occasioned by this blow, immediately invested Guisnes, the garrison of which, though more numerous, defended itself with less vigour, and after standing one brisk assault, gave up the town. The castle of Hames was abandoned by the troops posted there, without waiting the approach of the enemy.

Thus in a few days, during the depth of winter, and at a time when the fatal battle of St. Quintin had so depressed the sanguine spirit of the French, that their utmost aim was to protect their own country, without dreaming of making conquests on the enemy, the enterprising valour of one man drove the English out of Calais, after they had held it two hundred and ten years, and deprived them of every foot of land in a kingdom where their dominions had been once very extensive. This exploit, at the same time that it gave a high idea of the power and resources of France to all Europe, set the Duke of Guise, in the opinion of his countrymen, far above all the generals of the age. They celebrated his conquests with immoderate transports of joy; while the English gave vent to all the passions which animate a highspirited people, when any great national calamity is manifestly owing to the ill conduct of their rulers. Mary and her ministers, formerly odious, were now contemptible in their eyes. All the terrors of her severe and arbitrary administration could not restrain them from uttering execrations and threats against those, who, having wantonly involved the nation in a quarrel wherein it was no ways interested, had by their negligence or incapacity brought irreparable distress on their country, and lost the most valuable possession belonging to the English crown.

The king of France imitated the conduct of its former conqueror, Edward III., with regard to Calais. He commanded all the English inhabitants to quit the town, and giving their houses to his own subjects, whom he allured to settle there by granting them various immunities, he left a numerous garrison, under an experienced governor, for their defence. After this, his victorious army was conducted into quarters of refreshment, and the usual inaction of winter returned.

DEATH OF QUEEN MARY.

BOUT the beginning of September the queen fell sick of a prevalent disorder, vaguely called a cold, and hot burning fever, which appears to have been nothing more than a bad sort of ague. This sickness was very common that year through all the realm, and consumed a marvellous number, as well noblemen, as bishops, judges, knights, gentlemen, and rich farmers; but, most of all, the clergy and other ancient and grave persons." Other chroniclers tell us that the disease -whatever it was-was fatal only to persons in advanced life: but Mary had long been prematurely old, and when she was attacked, her heart was bruised and broken. She removed from her favourite residence at Hampton Court to Westminster, where she lay "languishing of a long sickness until the 17th of November, when, between the hours of five and six in the morning, she ended her life in this world at her house in St. James's," having reigned five years, four months, and eleven days, and lived a wretched life of fortythree years and nine months. "As touching the manner of her death, some say that she died of tympany: some, her much sighing before her death, supposed she died of thought and sorrow.

Her council, seeing her sighing, and desiring to