(_For the Mirror._)


Why did ye me dysseyve,
With faynyng fantzye agenst all equitie and right,
The regall powers onjustly to receyve,
To serve your tornes, I do right well perceyve;
For I was your instrument to worke your purpose by;
All was but falshed to bleere withall myn eye.

_Cavendish's Metrical Visions._


The short but eventful period between the death of the last Henry, and
the succession of his bigoted and intolerant daughter Mary, presents a
wide and fertile field for the inquiring mind both of the historian and
philosopher. The interest attached to the memory of the beauteous but
unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, renders the slightest event of her life
acceptable to every lover of English history; while her youth and
intellectual acquirements, her brief reign of nine days, and finally her
expiation for her _innocent_ crime on the scaffold, combine to rouse the
feelings and excite the sympathy of every sensitive heart.

The marriage of lady Jane Grey, which may be regarded as the principal
cause of her sufferings, was brought about by the ambitious Earl of
Northumberland, a nobleman, the most powerful and wealthy at that
period, in the kingdom. By the marriage of Lord Guilford Dudley with the
Lady Jane, he formed the daring project of placing the crown of England
on the head of his son, in order to consolidate that preeminence, which,