d 'Bloody Statute' he has given its laws.

"He will not be Protestant nor Catholic, and, in order to show his
impartiality, he is an equally terrible persecutor of both parties. So
that it has come to pass that we must say, 'In England, Catholics are
hanged, and those not stich are burned.' [Footnote: Leti, vol. I, p.
144. f Tytler, p. 38.] It gives the king pleasure to hold with steady
and cruel hand the balance between the two parties, and on the same day
that he has a papist incarcerated, because he has disputed the king's
supremacy, he has one of the reformed put upon the rack, because he has
denied the real transubstantiation of the wine, or perhaps has disputed
concerning the necessity of auricular confession. Indeed, during the
last session of Parliament, five men were hanged because they disputed
the supremacy, and five others burned because they professed
the reformed views! And this evening, Jane--this, the king's
wedding-night--by the special order of the king, who wanted to show his
impartiality as head of the church, Catholics and Protestants have been
coupled together like dogs, and hurried to the stake, the Catholics
being condemned (as traitors, and the others as heretics!)

"Oh," said Jane, shuddering and turning pale, "I will not be Queen of
England. I have a horror of this cruel, savage king, whose heart is
wholly without compassion or love."

Her father laughed. "Do you not then know, child, how you can make the
hyena gentle, and the tiger tame? You throw them again and again a fresh
prey, which they may devour, and since they love blood so dearly, you
constantly give them blood to drink, so that they may never thirst for
it. The king's only steady and unchanging peculiarity is his cruelty and
delight in blood; one then must always have some food ready for these,
then he will ever be a very affectionate and gracious king and husband.

"And there is no lack of objects for this bloodthirstiness. There are
so many men and women at his court, and when he is precisely in a
bloodthirsty humor, it is all the same to Henry whose blood he drinks.
He has shed the blood of his wives and relatives; he has executed those
whom he called his most confidential friends; he has sent the noblest
men of his kingdom to the scaffold.

"Thomas More knew him very well, and in a few striking words he summed
up the whole of the king's character. Ah, it seems to me that I see now
the quiet and gentle face of this wise man,