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Fekenham offering Jane a pardon, on her way to Trial
George Cruikshank
September 1840
Steel-engraving
12 cm high by 10.4 cm wide, framed
Illustration for Book II, Ch. XXI, of Ainsworth's The Tower of London, facing p. 263.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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By this time, Jane had reached the centre of the arch, when the gate was suddenly pushed aside, and Feckenham stepped from behind it. On his appearance, word was given by the two captains, who marched with their drawn swords in hand on either side of the prisoner, to the train to halt. The command was instantly obeyed. Nightgall paused a few feet in advance of Jane, and grasping his fatal weapon, threw a stealthy glance over his left shoulder to ascertain the cause of the interruption.
"What would you, reverend sir?" said Jane, halting with the others, and addressing Feckenham, who advanced towards her, holding in his hand a piece of parchment to which a large seal was attached.
"I would save you, daughter," replied the confessor. "I here bring you the queen's pardon."
"Is it unconditional, reverend sir?" demanded Jane, coldly.
"The sole condition annexed to it is your reconciliation with the church of Rome," replied Feckenham.
"Then I at once reject it," rejoined Jane, firmly. "I have already told you I should prefer death a thousand-fold to any violation of my conscience; and neither persuasion nor force shall compel me to embrace a religion opposed to the gospel of our Saviour, and which, in common with all his true disciples, I hold in utter abhorrence. I take all here to witness that such are my sentiments — that I am an earnest and zealous, though unworthy member of the Protestant church — and that I am fully prepared to seal my faith with my blood."
A slight murmur of approbation arose from the guard, which, however, was instantly checked by the officers.
"And I likewise take all here to witness," rejoined Feckenham, in a loud voice, "that a full and free pardon is offered you by our gracious queen, whom you have so grievously offended, that no one except a princess of her tender and compassionate nature would have overlooked it; coupled only with a condition which it is her assured belief will conduce as much to your eternal welfare as to your temporal. It has been made a reproach to our church by its enemies, that it seeks to win converts by severity and restraint. That the charge is unfounded her highness’s present merciful conduct proves. We seek to save the souls of our opponents, however endangered by heresy, alive; and our first attempts are ever gentle. If these fail, and we are compelled to have recourse to harsher measures, is it our fault, or the fault of those who resist us? Thus, in your own case, madam — here, on the way to a trial the issue of which all can foresee, the arm of mercy is stretched out to you and to your husband, on a condition which, if you were not benighted in error, you would recognize as an additional grace, — and yet you turn it aside." [Chapter XXI. — "How Lord Guildford Dudley and Lady Jane Grey were arraigned and attainted of High Treason; and How Queen Mary pardoned them," pp. 263-64]
By the time that Cruikshank and Ainsworth were undertaking monthly perambulations of the Tower of London, the old associations with the murder of Richard III's nephews in the Bloody Tower were still current, thanks in part to nineteenth-century productions of The Tragedy of Richard the Third as part of William Macready's Shakespeare Revival. These associations come into play in Ainsworth's novel a number of times; here, the writer and illustrator, showing readers an image of the Bloody Tower as it looked in 1840, expect that Jane's journey from the Brick Tower through the arch of the Bloody Tower on November third is an indication that she, too, as a royal claimant will meet her fate there, although Mary offers her a pardon if she will be reconciled with the church of Rome. As a staunch Protestant, Jane naturally rejects her cousin's offer, which Mary has made through her chaplain, Feckenham. Accordingly, the party proceeds to Jane;'s trial at London's Guildhall. There, at the close of the chapter, Mary offers a startling reprieve unattached to any recanting on Jane's part as Ainsworth closes the first chapter of the September number.
The cast of characters remains the same, with the jailor, Nightgall, leading the procession (left), Jane in the centre, immediately under the teeth of the portcullis, Simon Renard, the Spanish ambassador, just behind her, and Feckenham (right) presenting the scroll, presumably containing the pardon. The reader is reasonably certain that Jane's religious scruples will prevent her accepting the offer of clemency since it is attached to her recanting her Protestant faith. Although readers are now long familiar with these figures, Ainsworth does nothing to develop any of them except Jane beyond the one-dimensional, although Cruikshank's illustrations offer numerous examples of them in their stereotypical roles.
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Last modified 17 November 2017