Bell and Sons.)—This curious account of the chief events of
Henry's reign, as they struck a Spanish resident in London— trader or mercenary, it is not very clear which—came to light in 1873, and proves well worth the trouble of translating. The writer has no State secrets to disclose, but he can tell what he saw with his own eyes, and what was reported around him. Not much can be said for his accuracy ; he never condescends upon a date, goes wrong about the order of Henry's wives, and places several important events out of their right place. But there are many scenes, such as Anne Boleyn's coronation procession, and the meeting between Henry and Anne of Cleves, at which he was himself present, and his narrative supplies occasional subsidiary de- tails which graver writers have passed over. As a Spaniard, he was naturally a strong partisan of Katherine, but he managed to com- bine a great admiration for Henry with a strong horror of the innovations in the Church. "Oh, what a good King !" he ex- claims ; "how liberal thou wert to every one, and particularly to
Spaniards !" The freshest thing in the chronicle is the account of the foreign mercenaries—Flemish, Burgundian, and Spanish—
in Henry's service. The terms of their engagement, their mythical feats of valour against the Scotch, and their internal brawls, are all set forth at length. It would seem as if the author was one of six foreign jurymen empannelled with an equal number of English- men to try one of them, Guevara, for the murder of a comrade, so precise is his knowledge of all the circumstances of the trial, even to the deliberations of the jury.
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