2 DECEMBER 1905, Page 3

woman," as in Mr. Froude's theory. She " had excellent

gifts and graces characteristics that were generous and noble," while " her imperfections and mistakes become

dwarfed into insignificance as the determining causes of her failure, by reason of the ascendant in her life of what may be termed fate." Mary had the noble qualities of generosity ; never was there, even when she was in poverty and prison, a more cheerful giver (evidence might be produced from her letters, inventories, and holm&

hold lists). She had the active courage of a brave man rather than the passive endurance of a brave woman. She was as loyal as steel to kinsman, friend, and servant, save

in the appalling moral catastrophe of 1567. In gratitude, so rare among Princes, no mortal was ever more eager and more

steadfast. She pitied the poor, and, it is said, the galley-