ession, that arrogance
and vanity had not been her only faults, and that she had permitted the
gentlemen who were the supposed partners of her guilt, to speak to her
of their passion for herself.[553]

In January, 1535, Henry's mind had been filled with "doubts and strange
suspicions" about his wife. There had been a misunderstanding, in which
she had implored the intercession of Francis I.[554]

[Sidenote: The probable cause of that coolness.]

[Sidenote: The antecedent probabilities amount to nothing.]

In February, 1536, she miscarried, with a dead boy, which later rumour
dwelt on as the cause of Henry's displeasure. But conversations such as
those which she described with her supposed paramours, lay bare far
deeper wounds of domestic unhappiness; and assure us, that if we could
look behind the scenes, we should see there estrangements, quarrels,
jealousies, the thousand dreary incidents that, if we knew them, would
break the suddenness with which at present the catastrophe bursts upon
us. It is the want of preparation, the blank ignorance in which we are
left of the daily life and daily occurrences of the court, which places
us at such disadvantage for recovering the truth. We are unable to form
any estimate whatever of those antecedent likelihoods which, in the
events of our own ordinary lives, guide our judgment so imperceptibly,
yet so surely. Henry is said to have been inconstant, but those who most
suspected Henry's motives charge Anne at the same time with a long
notorious profligacy.[555] We cannot say what is probable or what is
improbable; except, indeed, that the guilt or every person is improbable
antecedent to evidence; and in the present instance, since, either on
the side of the queen or of the king, there was and must have been most
terrible guilt, these opposite presumptions neutralize each other.

[Sidenote: April. Secret investigation by a committee of the privy
council.]

[Sidenote: April 27. Writs issued for a parliament.]

[Sidenote: Thursday, April 27; arrest of Sir William Brereton; and on
Sunday, April 30, of Mark Smeton.]

[Sidenote: May 1. Tournament at Greenwich.]

[Sidenote: The king goes to London.]

To proceed with the story. Towards the middle of April, 1536, certain
members of the privy council were engaged secretly in receiving evidence
which implicated the queen in adultery. Nothing is known of the quarter
from which the information came which led to the inquiry.[556]
So