For the tower again. There poor Anna Boleyn smiled at the shortness of her neck for the headsman's purpose. There poor Jane Shore was left to die in a ditch with hunger and cold, because another of those brutal kings commanded his slaves not to give her food or shelter. While I stood on Shore ditch, I wondered in my mind—“ could there not be found MEN enough in all England, rather to have torn the flinty heart from his carcass.

Volumes might be filled with the deeds of those devils in human shape, but instead of enumerating others, it may be best to follow the path over which their headless trunks were conveyed, back to their former place of confinement. There is something very imposing in the massy buildings of the tower gates and their quadruple guards, in passing under the low, heavy, gothic portals which lead to it, and which have conducted so many, as Shakspeare has it, to "make a bloody supper in the tower." Dungeons and bastiles, inquisition and torture, rush upon the mind, and one thinks of the En

the officers, ladies, &c., came in in dozens. I asked the warden what it meant. Says he, "they have come to see you." "Then," says I, "as this is a place of sights, let us go and see them." I was introduced-when, for ten minutes, there was perhaps more shaking of hands and tender good will than has taken place there since the days of King John and the Magna Charta. First came the hard mailed glove of the veteran of Waterloo. Then the soft glove of the ladies, with hands as white and delicate as used to be seen in that same tower in the golden days of Queen Bess. I then learned, that as soon as I had entered my name on the book in the guard-house, (a thing required of all strangers,) the alarm was given, that the New-York seedsman and Laurie Todd were in the tower. They beat, not to arms however; but the garrison was mostly turned out.

glish Lord Chancellor, who, flaming with love and zeal for the name of miscalled religion, insisted that the lieutenants of the tower should tighten the rack yet more, on which the tender limbs of the beautiful Anne Askew were agonizing, and on the lieutenants' refusal to do so, actually doing it himself. This savage was a refined English gentleman, Mrs. Trollope.

The space between the gates and the moat is extremely gloomy, and has struck a chill upon the heart of many a state-prisoner, as he was conducted across its narrow road. It is here that the mind becomes impressed with the aspect of the place, to a degree of melancholy; the black dilapidated byeward tower, and the drawbridge; the antique-looking yeoman at the gate, the bloody tower, the portcullis which points down its sharp terminations, threatening the assailant; and the gates of oak, studded with iron, and crumbling to decay-are yet perfect enough to show the precautions by which, in former times, they sought to render their fortresses impregnable. On the other side is the gate, under which the prisoners were conveyed by water to their dungeons immediately under the river. It was on that gate that the heads of persons put to death were exhibited on stakes, after pickling to preserve them as long as possible from the action of the weather, according to the barbarous manners of the times. It was under that gate, that Queen Elizabeth entered a prisoner; and while entering, exclaimed, "here landeth as true a subject, being a prisoner, as ever landed on these stairs, and before God I speak it."

One of the most painfully interesting sights in the fortress, is the room that is called the Beaucamp Tower, where many illustrious prisoners were confined; and the sad inscriptions it contained on the

walls, “Jane,” supposed to be Jane Grey, was visible, but destroyed in altering a window; numerous scrawls still remain legible.

In the chapel are interred many of the sufferers from regal vengeance; among them Anna Boleyn, whose beautiful eyes, as she turned them on the executioner, so affected him, he was obliged to have recourse to stratagem to strike the fatal blow. Her body was flung into an old arrow case and interred, while her execrable husband awaited impatiently at Richmond, a short distance from London, the sound of the guns that told him of her execution. The appeal of Anna Boleyn to heaven on her being sentenced to die, is one of the most beautiful on record. "O, Father! O, Creator! thou who art the way, the truth, and the life: thou knowest that I have not deserved this death."

While I held in one hand the axe which severed the head from her body; and in the other the following pathetic letter, which she wrote in the room in which I stood, to try to move to pity the heart of that brute in human shape, Henry the Eighth, her husband, I wondered where then had slept the thunder-bolts of heaven, that the monster was not blasted from the earth. I said to the warden, where now was your Knight Tem plars, heroes sworn to protect the innocent? Cowardly slaves! the fear of a single tyrant made them stand and assent to the murder of his innocent queen. Mrs. Trollope, this king and these mighty champions were some of your refined English gentlemen.

The Letter.

SIR-Your grace's displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange to me, as what to write or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant. Whereas you send to me (willing me to confess a truth, and to obtain your favour) by such a one, whom you know to be my professed enemy-I no sooner received this message by him, than I rightly conceived your meaning. And if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety, I shall, with all willingness and duty, perform your command.

But let not your grace ever imagine, that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought thereof ever presided. And to speak a truth, never prince had wife more loyal in all duty and in all true affection, than you have ever found in Anna Boleyn; with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your grace's pleasure had been so pleased. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my exalted station, or received queenship, but that I always looked for such an alteration as I now find; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation than your grace's fancy, the least alteration I knew was fit and sufficient to draw that fancy to some other object.

You have chosen me from a low estate to be your queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire; if then you have found me worthy of such honour-it is well. But let not a light fancy or bad counsel of mine enemies withdraw your princely favour from me; neither let that stain, that unworthy stain of a disloyal heart towards your good grace, ever cast so foul a blot on

your most dutiful wife, and the infant princess your daughter.

Try me, good king; but let me have a lawful trial, and let not mine sworn enemies sit as my accusers and judges. Yea, let me receive an open trial, (for my truth shall fear no open shame,) then shall you see mine innocence cleared, your conscience satisfied, the ignominy and slander of the world stopped, or my guilt openly declared. So, whatever God or your grace may determine of me, your grace may be freed from open censure; and mine offence being so lawfully proved, your grace is at liberty, both before God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unfaithful wife, but to follow your affection already settled on that party for whose sake I am now as I am; and whose name I could some good while since have pointed unto your grace, not being ignorant of my suspicion therein.

But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but an infamous slander must bring you the enjoyment of your desired happiness, then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin therein; and likewise mine enemies, the instruments thereof. That he will not call you to a strict account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general judg ment seat, where both you and myself must shortly appear; and in whose judgment I doubt not, whatsoever the world may think of me, mine innocence shall be openly known and sufficiently cleared.

My last and only request shall be, that myself may only bear the burthen of your grace's displeasure, and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, who, as I understand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If ever I have found fa