She sent her last message to the king, and acknowledged the obligations which she owed him, in thus uniformly continuing his endeavors for her advancement: from a private gentlewoman, she said, he had first made her a marchioness, then a queen, and now, since he could raise her no higher in this world, he was sending her to be a saint in heaven.

She then renewed the protestations of her innocence, and recommended her daughter to his care.

Before the lieutenant of the Tower, and all who approached her, she made the like declarations; and continued to behave herself with her usual serenity, and even with cheerfulness.

"The executioner," she said to the lieutenant, "is, I hear, very expert; and my neck is very slender:" upon which she grasped it in her hand, and smiled.

When brought, however, to the scaffold, she softened her tone a little with regard to her protestations of innocence.