 and
instituting a child in the sublimer parts of dancing before they are capable of
making their honours.«
    »But as I have not now the same high opinion of my profession which I had
then, I shall not entertain you with a long history of a life which consisted of
borées and coupées. Let it suffice that I lived to a very old age and followed
my business as long as I could crawl. At length I revisited my old friend Minos,
who treated me with very little respect and bade me dance back again to earth.«
    »I did so, and was now once more born an Englishman, bred up to the church,
and at length arrived to the station of a bishop.«
    »Nothing was so remarkable in this character as my always voting --10.«
 

                                    Book XIX

                                 Chapter Seven

              Wherein Anna Boleyn relates the history of her life.

I am going now truly to recount a life which from the time of its ceasing has
been, in the other world, the continual subject of the cavils of contending
parties; the one making me as black as hell, the other as pure and innocent as
the inhabitants of this blessed place; the mist of prejudice blinding their
eyes, and zeal for what they themselves profess, making everything appear in
that light which they think most conduces to its honour.
    »My infancy was spent in my father's house, in those childish plays which
are most suitable to that state, and I think this was one of the happiest parts
of my life; for my parents were not among the number of those who look upon
their children as so many objects of a tyrannic power, but I was regarded as the
dear pledge of a virtuous love, and all my little pleasures were thought from
their indulgence their greatest delight. At seven years old I was carried into
France with the king's sister, who was married to the French king, where I lived
with a person of quality, who was an acquaintance of my father's. I spent my
time in learning those things necessary to give young persons of fashion a
polite education, and did neither good nor evil, but day passed after day in the
same easy way till I was fourteen; then began my anxiety, my vanity grew strong,
and my heart fluttered with joy at every compliment paid to my beauty: and as
the lady with whom I lived was of a gay, chearful disposition, she kept a great
deal of company, and my youth and charms made me the continual object of their
admiration. I passed some little time in those exulting
