Sir, now I pray you that at our parting
you will grant me three desires." The
king, right sorrowfully weeping, said: "Madam,
desire what ye will, I grant it." Then
she asked the king, firstly, to pay all merchants
on either side the sea, to whom she owed money;
secondly, to fulfil all vows that she had made to
different churches; and, thirdly, that when God
called him hence, he would choose no other
tomb but hers, and would lie by her side in the
cloisters of Westminster. The king, weeping,
said: " Madam, I grant all your desires." Then
soon after the good lady made the sign of the
cross on her breast, and recommending her
youngest son, Thomas, to the king, gave up
her spirit: which, says Froissart, "I firmly
believe, was caught by the holy angels and
carried to the glory of Heaven, for she had
never done anything, by thought or deed, that
could endanger her losing it. Thus died this
queen of England, in the year of grace, 1369,
the vigil of the Assumption of the Virgin, on
the 15th of August."

Edward partly rebuilt the palace, his wise
prelate, William of Wykeham, being the architect.
He carved the huge inscription, "Hoc
fecit Wykeham," which is still visible on the
Winchester Tower; and when the king seemed
inclined to resent the apparent arrogance, explained
that the inscription meant "the castle
had made him." The weak monarch, Henry
the Sixth, was also born at Windsor, fulfilling
the old prophecy—written probably years after
the event:

    I, Henry, born at Monmouth,
    Shall small time reign and much get,
    But Henry of Windsor shall reign long and lose all.

The wicked Crook Back brought Henry's
body to Windsor from Chertsey. A black
marble slab in the chapel still marks his
grave. He became the saint of Windsor. Rough
ploughmen from the Berkshire villages came
here, with tapers and images of wax; and forest
keepers, their doublets stained with deer's blood
and often with man's blood, used to adore a
small chip of the bedstead of the saintly king, his
spur, or his old red velvet hat, which was supposed
to cure headaches. Prayers to him were
inserted in the service books of the early part
of the sixteenth century, and the old hat stood
high above all the other Windsor relics.

The Royal Tomb House is another centre
of great traditions. It was originally intended
by Henry the Seventh for his tomb.
Henry the Kighth, in the plenitude of his generosity,
gave it to his favourite Wolsey, who
began to rebuild it with all the lavish splendour
in which he delighted. He had determined
to descend into the darkness of a tomb, magnificent
as that of the popes, and to lie in a sarcophagus
worthy of the Pharaohs. But he begged
little earth for charity, far away from that royal
tomb, which was swept away in contempt by
the Parliamentarians, who loathed such pomps
and vanities. The upper part was sold as defaced
brass, for six hundred pounds; and the
black marble sarcophagus lay untenanted, till
it was taken for the righteous purpose of covering
Nelson's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral.
George the Third eventually constructed the
vault beneath the Tomb House for himself and
family.

Windsor Castle possesses two distinct relics of
Quentin Matsys, the famous blacksmith of Antwerp.
On the left of the altar in St. George's
Chapel is a screen of Gothic iron, hammered
out (carved out with a knife one would think) by
Matsys for the tomb of Edward the Fourth.
The king's coat of mail and jewelled surcoat
used to hang near it, but the Puritans carried
them off when they defaced the chapel in 1643.
In the Queen's closet hangs the famous picture
of the Misers, which proved Matsys an
artist, and obtained him the daughter of a
painter for a wife. The painting is hard,
but it is of great excellence; and the details
are highly curious. The faces are
replete with character, but the meaning of
their expression is disputed. Some think that
both men are money-lenders, rejoicing in an
especially hard bargain; many, that one is a
merchant, and the other a partner or clerk
who is outwitting him. After all, the picture's
traditional name probably expresses the real
intention.

There is a tradition that the upper ward of
Windsor Castle was built by Edward the Third
from the French king's ransom, and the lower
ward remodelled from the ransom of the Scotch
king; John was shut up in the Round Tower,
formerly called La Rose, and David in the southwest
tower of the upper ward.

Henry the Eighth used to hawk in the
Great Park, and there too in the long green
glades he held his archery meetings. Years
after her father's death, Elizabeth used to come
to the park to shoot deer with her cross bow.
not unfrequently cutting their throats with
her own hunting knife. There is one more
tradition of Windsor worth remembering. A
public-house in Peascod- street, called the
Duke's Head, was once the house of Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham, the Zimri of Dryden.
Charles the Second used to come from the
Castle, and walk with him to Filbert's, the
house of Nell Gwynne.

QUITE A NEW ELECTION ADDRESS.

FROM A VOTER TO A MEMBER.

MY Honourable Friend!

What is required of Members of Parliament
is, that they should be faithful servants
of the people and of the crown;
failing which, not only the public will suffer,
but the crown, in the absence, interception,
or perversion of a truthful account of the
real state of the country; for, as in the case
of the human body, it is necessary that the
head comprehend the wants of it, in order to
take measures to supply them, so it is with the
body politic. And with the former, the agents
best adapted to administer to its necessities
are sought out. They do not stand on platforms,
and overwhelm folks with long speeches,
often " rivers of words, and drops of understanding,"