THE QUEEN OF BREFFNY

“Dervorgilla was a red-haired woman, and it was she put the great curse on Ireland, bringing in the English through MacMurrough, that she went to from O’Rourke.  It was to Henry the Second MacMurrough went, and he sent Strongbow, and they stopped in Ireland ever since.  But who knows but another race might be worse, such as the Spaniards that were scattered along the whole coast of Connacht at the time of the Armada.  And the laws are good enough.  I heard it said the English will be dug out of their graves one day for the sake of their law.  As to Dervorgilla, she was not brought away by force, she went to MacMurrough herself.  For there are men in the world that have a coaxing way, and sometimes women are weak.”

KING HENRY VIII.

“Henry the Eighth was crying and roaring and leaping out of the bed for three days and nights before his death.  And he died cursing his children, and he that had eight millions when he came to the Throne, coining leather money at the end.”

ELIZABETH

“Queen Elizabeth was awful.  Beyond everything she was.  When she came to the turn she dyed her hair red, and whatever man she had to do with, she sent him to the block in the morning, that he would be able to tell nothing.  She had an awful temper.  She would throw a knife from the table at the waiting ladies, and if anything vexed her she would maybe work upon the floor.  A thousand dresses she left after her.  Very superstitious she was.  Sure after her death they found a card, the ace of hearts, nailed to her chair under the seat.  She thought she would never die while she had it there.  And she bought a bracelet from an old woman out in Wales that was over a hundred years.  It was superstition made her do that, and they found it after her death tied about her neck.”

HER DEATH

“It was a town called Calais brought her to her death, and she lay chained on the floor three days and three nights.  The Archbishop was trying to urge her to eat, but she said ’You would not ask me to do it if you knew the way I am,’ for nobody could see the chains.  After her death they waked her for six days in Whitehall, and there were six ladies sitting beside the body every night.  Three coffins were about it, the one nearest the body of lead, and then a wooden one, and a leaden one on the outside.  And every night there came from them a great bellow.  And the last night there came a bellow that broke the three coffins open, and tore the velvet, and there came out a stench that killed the most of the ladies and a million of the people of London with the plague.  Queen Victoria was more honourable than that.  It would be hard to beat Queen Elizabeth.”

THE TRACE OF CROMWELL