rown,--perhaps the possession of it altogether. It may be doubted
whether Elizabeth, under similar circumstances, would have shown the
like tenderness to the interests of her successor.

[Sidenote: PHILIP'S PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE.]

But, however we may be disposed to extenuate the conduct of Mary, and in
spiritual matters, more especially, to transfer the responsibility of
her acts from herself to her advisers, it is not possible to dwell on
this reign of religious persecution without feelings of profound
sadness. Not that the number of victims compares with what is recorded
of many similar periods of persecution. The whole amount, falling
probably short of three hundred who perished at the stake, was less than
the number who fell by the hand of the executioner, or by violence,
during the same length of time under Henry the Eighth. It was not much
greater than might sometimes be found at a single Spanish _auto da fe_.
But Spain was the land in which this might be regarded as the national
spectacle,--as much so as the _fiesta de toros_, or any other of the
popular exhibitions of the country. In England, a few examples had not
sufficed to steel the hearts of men against these horrors. The heroic
company of martyrs, condemned to the most agonizing of deaths for
asserting the rights of conscience, was a sight strange and shocking to
Englishmen. The feelings of that day have been perpetuated to the
present. The reign of religious persecution stands out by itself, as
something distinct from the natural course of events; and the fires of
Smithfield shed a melancholy radiance over this page of the national
history, from which the eye of humanity turns away in pity and
disgust.--But it is time to take up the narrative of events which
connected for a brief space the political interests of Spain with those
of England.

Charles the Fifth had always taken a lively interest in the fortunes of
his royal kinswoman. When a young man he had paid a visit to England,
and while there had been induced by his aunt, Queen Katharine, to
contract a marriage with the Princess Mary,--then only six years
old,--to be solemnized on her arriving at the suitable age. But the term
was too remote for the constancy of Charles, or, as it is said, for the
patience of his subjects, who earnestly wished to see their sovereign
wedded to a princess who might present him with an heir to the monarchy.
The English match was, accordingly, broken off, and the young