It was in a sun-lit Tudor park that our good friend and scholar, Roger Aseham, first caught sight of Lady Jane Grey. The little child of thirteen summers was reading ". . . Phaedo Platonis, and that with as much delights as some gentelmen would read a merrie tale in Roeeaeeio." The Duke and Duchess, hunting in the glade nearby, had been abusing her cruelly, for they pinched her if she danced ". . . they, good people, knew not what pleasure meant." The scholar felt himself drawn to this tender young flower of learning, and he watched her as she grow up in the court of Edward VI. At fifteen, she had mastered Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and French. She could embroider, and she was passing fair.

But the odious Duke of Northumberland, plotting to transfer the royal crown of England from a Tudor to a Dudley brow, cared nothing for charm or scholarship. He dragged Lady Jane from her bower, gave her in marriage to his son, Guildford Dudley, and confounded for the nonce all other aspirants for the throne. Lady Jane swooned prettily when she heard that the Council in its pliancy had named her Queen of England. Meanwhile London could hear the rumbling of the distant drum, as the Eastern counties rose for Tudor Mary, and Catholic troops moved towards the metropolis. While Ridley harangued the mobile at Paul's Cross, the craven Northumberland capitulated without a struggle. Lady Jane went meekly to the Tower.

There was an attainder, a trial for high treason, a sentence of death. The kindness of the Lieutenant of the Tower was acknowledged, reproachfully, perhaps, by the gift of an inscribed copy of the English Prayer Book. With this as a last act, Lady Jane drew near the scaffold on Tower Hill, beholding on route the gory body of her husband, who had preceded her to the block. The execution took place, amidst popular lamentations, on the twelfth of February, 1554.

The Vagabond, with his hat safely removed from its customary pedestal, will invade the precincts of Harvard 5 at nine o'clock this morning to hear Professor Merriman lecture upon the reign of Bloody Mary Tudor.

TODAY

9 O'Clock

"The Reign of Queen Mary," Professor Merriman, Harvard 5.

"Vertebrate Reproduction," Professor Rand, Biology Lecture Room.

10 O'Clock

"Henry IV," Professor Munn, New Lecture Hall.