borne to the king the Princess Elizabeth, I heard him say, that he
had attained the summit of his happiness, the goal of his wishes,
for the queen had borne him a daughter, and so there was a regular
and legitimate successor to his throne. But this happiness lasted
only a brief time.

"The king conceived one day that Anne Boleyn was not, as he had
hitherto believed, the most beautiful woman in the world; but that
there were women still more beautiful at his court, who therefore
had a stronger vocation to become Queen of England. He had seen Jane
Seymour, and she without doubt was handsomer than Anne Boleyn, for
she was not as yet the king's consort, and there was an obstacle to
his possession of her--the Queen Anne Boleyn. This obstacle must be
go out of the way.

"Henry, by virtue of his plentitude of power, might again have been
divorced from his wife, but he did not like to repeat himself, he
wished to be always original; and no one was to be allowed to say
that his divorces were only the cloak of his capricious lewdness.

"He had divorced Catharine of Aragon on account of conscientious
scruples; therefore, some other means must be devised for Anne
Boleyn.

"The shortest way to be rid of her was the scaffold. Why should not
Anne travel that road, since so many had gone it before her? for a
new force had entered into the king's life: the tiger had licked
blood! His instinct was aroused, and he recoiled no more from those
crimson rills which flowed in the veins of his subjects.