Rhode Island American And Providence Gazette

ROMANCE OF HISTORY
KATHERINE GREY.
The really affecting history of Katherine Grey and her husband the Earl of Hertford, forms the tale to which her name is assigned. Queen Elizabeth is here described to be enamoured of the Earl; and after the discovery of his connexion with Katharine, her jealousy vents itself, in confining them to separate apartments in the tower:
We pass over the imaginary interview between the queen and Katherine, and shall commence our extracts with the resolution taken by Elizabeth, who is supposed to be residing in the Tower at the time, to visit Seymour, at the moment when the lieutenant of that fortress has permitted his prisoners to meet, notwithstanding her Majesty's express command to the contrary:
The blood faded from Warner' cheek, his knees knocked against each other, and so violent was the agitation of his whole frame, that he was for some time unable to utter a syllable in reply to the queen's address.
"How now, Sir Edward," said Elizabeth; 'what means this? My resolution is, perhaps, a somewhat singular one: but surely there is nothing in it so appalling that it should banish the blood from your cheek, and prevent your limbs from performing their functions. Lead on I say—.
"Gracious madam' said Warner, 'pause moment ere you take this step.
"Not an instant, Sir Edward,' said the queen. 'How! do you dispute the commands of your sovereign?'
"Then, most dread sovereign, said the lieutenant, seeing that it was impossible to preserve his secret, and throwing himself at the queen's feet," pardon, pardon for the most guilty of your majesty's subjects.
"Ha! said the queen, using the favorite interjection of her father, while his own proud spirit flashed in her kindled eye, and lowered in her darkening brow; 'what dost thou mean? The Earl of Hertford is not in his dungeon,
"What, escaped! Traitor—hast thou suffered him to escape?'
Warner grovelled on the ground in the most abject posture at the queen's feet, and his frame trembled in every fibre as he said, 'He is in the Lady Katherine's apartment.'
"What he there!' shouted the queen as the white foam gathered on her lip, and her own frame became agitated, though not with fear, but with uncontrolled anger. "Guards, seize the traitor"
Several yeomen of the guard immediately entered the apartment, and seized the lieutenant of the tower, binding his arms behind him, but not depriving him of his weapons. The queen, acting on the impulse of the moment, commanded one of the guards to conduct her to the dungeon of the Lady Katherine Grey, and ordered the others to follow her with Sir Edward Warner in their custody. Anger, hatred, fear, jealousy, all lent wings to her steps. The dungeon door was soon before her; the bolts were withdrawn, and with little of the appearance of a queen in her gait and gestures, excepting that majesty which belongs to the expression of highly wrought feelings, she rushed into the dungeon and found Catharine Grey in the arms of Hertford, who was kissing away the tears that had gathered on her cheek.
"Seize him—away with him to instant execution!' said the queen.
The guards gazed for a moment wistfully on each other, and seemed as if they did not understand the command.
"Seize him! I say,' exclaimed the queen. 'I have myself taken the precaution to be present, that I may be assured that he is in your custody, and led away to the death that he has taken so much pains to merit."
The guards immediately surrounded the Earl. but they yet paused a moment ere they led him out of the dungeon, when they saw Lady Katharine throw herself on her knees before Elizabeth, and seize the skirt of her robe.
"'Have pity, gracious queen!' she cried, have pity!'
"'Away minion!' said the queen; he had no pity on himself, when he ventured to break prison, even in the precincts of our Royal Palace.— His doom is fixed."
"Not yet, great queen, not yet!' said Katherine, grasping Elizabeth's robe. 'Can naught save him?
"Naught, save my death, said the queen; and then she added in an under tone, which she did not seem to intend should be audible, while a dark smile played on her lip, or perchance thine.'
"Katherine's ear caught the last part of the queen's sentence, and with the quickness of lightning she exclaimed 'thy death or mine, O queen! then thus, she added plucking from the belt of Sir Edward Warner, who stood by her side with his hands bound behind him, a dagger, and brandishing it aloft, 'thus may his life be spared!'
"A cry of 'treason! treason!' pervaded the dungeon, and the guards advanced between Katherine and the queen, whose life she seemed to threaten, but ere they could wrest the dagger from her hand—she had buried it in her own bosom.
"Now, now do I claim thy promise, Oh queen!" she said as she sunk to the earth, while the blood poured in a torrent from her wound, 'Catharine Grey no longer disturbs thee—spare the life of the princely Seymour.'
"Her last breath was spent on these words— her last gaze was fixed upon the queen—and pressing the hand of her husband, who was permitted to approach her in her dying grasp, the spirit of Katherine Grey was released from all its sorrows.
"The sacrifice of the unhappy lady's life preserved that for which it had been offered up. The queen touched with the melancholy termination of her kinswoman's existence, revoked her despotic illegal order, which she had given for the execution of Hertford, but ordered him to be conducted back to his dungeon, where he remained in close custody for a period of more than nine years. The death of Elizabeth at the expiration of that period released him from his captivity; and then, although he was unable to restore the lady Catherine to life; he took immediate steps to re-establish her fair fame. In those efforts he was perfectly successful, he proved before the proper tribunals the validity of his marriage, and transmitted his inheritance to his son, who was the issue of that ill-fated union."