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Deep Learning
with Applications
Using Python
Chatbots and Face, Object, and Speech
Recognition With TensorFlow and Keras
—
Navin Kumar Manaswi
Foreword by Tarry Singh
Deep Learning with
Applications Using
Python
Chatbots and Face, Object,
and Speech Recognition
With TensorFlow and Keras
iii
Table of Contents
Optimizers�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������25
Loss Function Examples��������������������������������������������������������������������������������26
Common Optimizers��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������27
Metrics����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������28
Metrics Examples������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������28
Common Metrics�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������29
iv
Table of Contents
v
Table of Contents
vi
Table of Contents
vii
Table of Contents
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������213
viii
Foreword by Tarry Singh
Deep Learning has come a really long way.
From the birth of the idea to understand
human mind and the concept of
associationism — how we perceive things
and how relationships of objects and views
influence our thinking and doing, to the
modelling of associationism which started in
the 1870s when Alexander Bain introduced the
first concert of Artificial Neural Networks by grouping the neurons.
Fast forward it to today 2018 and we see how Deep Learning has
dramatically improved and is in all forms of life — from object detection,
speech recognition, machine translation, autonomous vehicles, face
detection and the use of face detection from mundane tasks such as
unlocking your iPhoneX to doing more profound tasks such as crime
detection and prevention.
Convolutional Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks
are shining brightly as they continue to help solve the world problems
in literally all industry areas such as Automotive & Transportation,
Healthcare & Medicine, Retail to name a few. Great progress is being made
in these areas and just metrics like these say enough about the palpability
of the deep learning industry:
ix
Foreword by Tarry Singh
–– AI related jobs market is hiring 5x more since 2013 and Deep Learning is
the most sought after skill in 2018
–– the error rate of image classification has dropped from 28% in 2012 to
2.5% in 2017 and it is going down all the time!
x
Foreword by Tarry Singh
xi
About the Author
Navin Kumar Manaswi has been developing
AI solutions with the use of cutting-edge
technologies and sciences related to artificial
intelligence for many years. Having worked for
consulting companies in Malaysia, Singapore,
and the Dubai Smart City project, as well
as his own company, he has developed a
rare mix of skills for delivering end-to-end
artificial intelligence solutions, including
video intelligence, document intelligence, and
human-like chatbots. Currently, he solves B2B problems in the verticals of
healthcare, enterprise applications, industrial IoT, and retail at Symphony
AI Incubator as a deep learning AI architect. With this book, he wants to
democratize the cognitive computing and services for everyone, especially
developers, data scientists, software engineers, database engineers, data
analysts, and C-level managers.
xiii
About the Technical Reviewer
Sundar Rajan Raman has more than 14 years
of full stack IT experience in machine
learning, deep learning, and natural language
processing. He has six years of big data
development and architect experience,
including working with Hadoop and
its ecosystems as well as other NoSQL
technologies such as MongoDB and
Cassandra. In fact, he has been the technical
reviewer of several books on these topics.
He is also interested in strategizing using Design Thinking principles
and coaching and mentoring people.
xv
CHAPTER 1
Basics of TensorFlow
This chapter covers the basics of TensorFlow, the deep learning
framework. Deep learning does a wonderful job in pattern recognition,
especially in the context of images, sound, speech, language, and time-
series data. With the help of deep learning, you can classify, predict,
cluster, and extract features. Fortunately, in November 2015, Google
released TensorFlow, which has been used in most of Google’s products
such as Google Search, spam detection, speech recognition, Google
Assistant, Google Now, and Google Photos. Explaining the basic
components of TensorFlow is the aim of this chapter.
TensorFlow has a unique ability to perform partial subgraph
computation so as to allow distributed training with the help of
partitioning the neural networks. In other words, TensorFlow allows model
parallelism and data parallelism. TensorFlow provides multiple APIs.
The lowest level API—TensorFlow Core—provides you with complete
programming control.
Note the following important points regarding TensorFlow:
T ensors
Before you jump into the TensorFlow library, let’s get comfortable with
the basic unit of data in TensorFlow. A tensor is a mathematical object
and a generalization of scalars, vectors, and matrices. A tensor can be
represented as a multidimensional array. A tensor of zero rank (order) is
nothing but a scalar. A vector/array is a tensor of rank 1, whereas a
2
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
3
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
So, the structure of TensorFlow programs has two phases, shown here:
4
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
To actually evaluate the nodes, you must run the computational graph
within a session.
A session encapsulates the control and state of the TensorFlow runtime.
The following code creates a Session object:
sess = tf.Session()
5
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
6
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Generally, you have to deal with many images in deep learning, so you
have to place pixel values for each image and keep iterating over all images.
To train the model, you need to be able to modify the graph to tune
some objects such as weight and bias. In short, variables enable you to
add trainable parameters to a graph. They are constructed with a type and
initial value.
Let’s create a constant in TensorFlow and print it.
7
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Now you will explore how you create a variable and initialize it. Here is
the code that does it:
8
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Placeholders
A placeholder is a variable that you can feed something to at a later time. It
is meant to accept external inputs. Placeholders can have one or multiple
dimensions, meant for storing n-dimensional arrays.
9
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
You can also consider a 2D array in place of the 1D array. Here is the
code:
This is a 2×4 matrix. So, if you replace None with 2, you can see the
same output.
But if you create a placeholder of [3, 4] shape (note that you will feed
a 2×4 matrix at a later time), there is an error, as shown here:
10
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Constants are initialized when you call tf.constant, and their values
can never change. By contrast, variables are not initialized when you call
tf.Variable. To initialize all the variables in a TensorFlow program, you
must explicitly call a special operation as follows.
11
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Creating Tensors
An image is a tensor of the third order where the dimensions belong to
height, width, and number of channels (Red, Blue, and Green).
Here you can see how an image is converted into a tensor:
12
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Fixed Tensors
Here is a fixed tensor:
13
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Sequence Tensors
tf.range creates a sequence of numbers starting from the specified value
and having a specified increment.
14
Chapter 1 Basics of TensorFlow
Random Tensors
tf.random_uniform generates random values from uniform distribution
within a range.
15
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
I think no English heart ought to say against them. I and others will spend
our blood in their quarrel.'
When they heard this, his men shouted, 'A Wyatt! A Wyatt!' and, instead
of turning their guns against the bridge, turned them against their own Duke
of Norfolk's forces.
The duke and his officers fled, and Brett and his men, crossing the
bridge, joined Wyatt's soldiers, followed by three-fourths of the queen's
troops and more.
For some reason—could it be that Sir Hubert Blair was persuading him
not to go on?—the latter did not push forward with that speed which
characterized the commencement of his enterprise. His forces had increased
to 15,000 men, but he did not reach London until the words of the queen
and the news of the dispersion of the two other bands of rebels, under the
Duke of Suffolk and Sir Peter Carew, had restored the courage of the
citizens.
On the third day, however, the garrison of the Tower began to cannonade
him, which resulted in such mischief being done to the houses in the
vicinity that the people implored Sir Thomas to go away with his troops.
Unwilling to distress them, and hoping to be able to cross the bridge at
Kingston and proceed thence to Westminster and London, where it was not
so well defended, Sir Thomas and my dear knight began the march to
Kingston.
I was told, afterwards, that a London merchant met them on that march,
and that Sir Thomas said to the merchant, 'I pray you commend me to your
citizens, and say to them from me, that when liberty was offered to them
they would not receive it, neither would they admit me within their gates,
who, for their freedom and for relieving them from the oppression of
foreigners, would frankly spend my blood in this cause and quarrel.'
Sir Thomas Wyatt reached Kingston about four o'clock in the afternoon,
where he found part of the bridge broken down and an armed force waiting
to oppose his passage. Bringing up his artillery, however, he swept the
enemy from the opposite bank, and, having hastily made the bridge
passable again with the help of boats and barges, his troops crossed over it.
It was eleven o'clock at night by the time this was done—had his aide-de-
camp a moment to spare for the thought of that other night, when I waited
so long for him by the river there?—and his men were thoroughly
exhausted; but he pushed on. They marched all through that cold February
night, along muddy roads, and, after being delayed by having to remount a
heavy gun that had broken down, reached Hyde Park in broad daylight,
where the Earl of Pembroke awaited them with the royal forces. Lord
Clinton, at the head of the cavalry, had taken up his position, with a battery
of cannon, on the rising ground opposite the Palace of St. James.
The morning was dismal, dark clouds gathered overhead, and it rained
more or less heavily. Sir Thomas' men were worn out, and many had
deserted. Nothing daunted, however, the brave knight divided them into
three companies, and at the head of the largest division, accompanied by his
aide-de-camp, charged Clinton's cavalry with such effect that it seemed to
give way. This, however, was only a stratagem. Clinton allowed Sir
Thomas, his aide-de-camp and four hundred of his followers to pass, then
he closed his ranks, cutting off the main body from their commander.
In the Strand the Earl of Courtenay, with his soldiers, was stationed. He
had engaged to join Wyatt, but had not the courage to do either one thing or
the other, for at the sight of him he fled. Doubly treacherous, he was a
traitor to the queen and also to Wyatt.
At Ludgate, Wyatt found the gates were closed, and Lord William
Howard appeared above them, crying—
This was a truly awful reception, instead of the promised welcome. And
the brave knight must have felt stunned and bewildered as he turned to
assist his troops, only to be met by a crowd of the enemy under Pembroke.
In desperation, Sir Thomas, closely followed by Sir Hubert, fought his way
back as far as the Temple, where he found that he had only fifty followers
remaining. (The other troops, which he had left in Hyde Park, were fighting
at Whitehall and Westminster, but of that he knew nothing, having lost
touch with them and being without cognisance of their doings, which came
to nothing.)
The King-at-arms called upon Sir Thomas to yield and not madly
sacrifice his brave companions, yet he continued fighting desperately.
So much I was told. At the time, Lady Jane and I knew little of all these
happenings, and our suspense was terrible. After the first crashing of our
cannonade, when Sir Thomas attempted crossing London Bridge, nothing
quite so alarming was to be heard in the Tower, only on the next day there
were the booming of guns and the roar of battle in London.
And then news came to us that the brave knights were defeated, that they
had been forced to surrender, and that the Guards were bringing them to the
Tower.
Lady Jane, knowing how my heart was wrung, did all in her power to
sustain me. Forgetting or ignoring the far greater issues she herself had at
stake, she endeavoured to fortify my mind and calm it by prayer and wise
counsel, and now, when it was all over and they were bringing my lover,
with Sir Thomas Wyatt, to the Tower, exerted herself to obtain leave for me
to mingle with the spectators and see them brought in.
'Though perhaps,' she said, 'it will be a doubtful benefit for you to see
your lover in his defeat.'
But my heart craved for one sight of his dear face, and I answered, 'I can
bear it all better, if I see him once more.'
'You shall, dear Margery, if I can possibly compass it,' she said. And
success crowned her efforts, for our warder, having leave of absence, took
me himself to join the crowd hurrying across the Green, towards the
entrance by which those guilty of high treason were brought to the Tower.
It happened that, just as the defeated knights were stepping out of the
boat, a lad's voice in the crowd—it was Saul's, who, I afterwards learnt, had
run away from his master to join the opposite side—shrill, insistent, daring,
broke out into the old cry, 'A Wyatt! A Wyatt!' Sir Thomas did not stir, but
Sir Hubert looked round, with a sudden beautiful smile. Then, as every one
was searching for the boy, with murmured comments on his imprudence
and audacity, I leaned forward, calling out to the prisoners, in a clear,
distinct tone of voice—
'Courage! Defeat may be Victory in disguise. What looks like loss down
here may be counted as pure gain on high!' For it seemed to me that,
however disastrous the result, the fact remained that heroes had done
heroically. Yes, and if success had crowned their efforts, all men would
have praised them. Of that I was assured.
But the sound of my voice, and the sight of my face, as he cast one swift
glance at it, unmanned Sir Hubert, and he had to shade his eyes with his
hand, as they hurried him and Sir Thomas out of the boat and through the
gate; whilst angry, scowling faces turned on me, and my escort had much
difficulty in getting me away uninjured.
I scarcely know how I got back to Lady Jane. Only one thing I clearly
heard as I was borne through the crowd—it was a voice saying, 'They will
both be executed, and the younger one first, because he did not surrender
but was taken prisoner with his sword drawn.'
Mistaken the two men may have been, yet they had the courage of their
convictions and did what seemed to them to be right, and, at least, they
were self-sacrificing, laying down their lives and the joy of living with their
loved ones at the call of duty to their fellow-countrymen.
Queen Mary would kill them for it. What of that? Mankind has often
crucified and killed its noblest friends. And, after all, it would only be their
bodies that were slain; their souls, the best part of them, stripped of their
human dress, would wend their way to the Realms of the Blest, where no
grief, pain, nor fighting could ever disturb them again.
Nevertheless I fell ill with grief and pain, and was unconscious when
they carried me into the house of Sir Thomas Brydges, the lieutenant of the
Tower, where Lady Jane had now been removed.
CHAPTER XXIV
I wished that I could have died too, as I slowly recovered to find that the
very worst results for my dear lady had followed upon Sir Thomas Wyatt's
defeat, for within three days of his being brought to the Tower, Queen Mary
signed her poor young relative's death warrant. Lady Jane was to be
beheaded, as was also her father the Duke of Suffolk.
My dear lady broke the sad news to me herself, as soon as I was well
enough to hear it.
'Margery, you remember when we were at Sion House that I used to read
to you out of my Plato, that we were to hold to the road that leads above
and justice with prudence always pursue?'
'Yes. Yes. I remember every word,' I said faintly, still being very weak.
'I failed in the latter part,' continued Lady Jane. 'It was at the bidding of
others and sorely against my will; nevertheless I was weak and gave way
and failed, therefore now,' she paused, looking at me anxiously, as if to see
if I were able to bear it, 'now,' she continued very softly, 'I have to pay the
penalty.'
I opened my eyes widely, and there must have been a look of horror in
them, for she said quickly: 'Do not—do not take it so. I am willing to suffer
for my fault meekly, that by so doing I may still "hold to the road that leads
above," and you must help me, Margery. I rely upon you to help me,' she
continued earnestly, 'for this is a hard step that I have to take, and I am very
weak.' Her lips trembled. 'But,' she went on bravely, 'a Greater than Plato
has said, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life."
That is the best Crown, Margery, and I, who had no right to an earthly one,
would fain win this Heavenly Crown.'
'Nay, dear one, we will have no buts. It is one of the great laws of life
that he who sins must suffer. I have sinned,' she added meekly; 'I, therefore,
must bear the suffering.'
But it seemed to me the greatest shame that ever was that a being so
sweet and faultless as my dear mistress, who had been domineered over and
bullied until, constrained by love and the keeping of her marriage vow of
obedience, she allowed herself to be placed on the throne, should for so
slight a fault be condemned to suffer death—I knew that the penalty was
death, she having been sentenced to that before and only reprieved for a
time by the clemency of the queen.
'I have only a short time to live,' continued Lady Jane, 'and there is much
to do, for Mary, with a show of kindness, with which I would rather have
dispensed, is going to send her own chaplain, Dr. Feckenham, of
Westminster Abbey, to try to shake my faith and bring me over to her
Church before I die, or perchance because, even at the last hour, if I become
a Roman Catholic, I may be pardoned. I must prepare myself to meet some
of the arguments of the chaplain, for I would fain convince him that
Protestantism is right, rather than that he should damage my belief,' and so
saying she arose, and, fetching a Bible, began to study it assiduously.
Lady Jane left me to myself for a little while, and presently I grew better
and began to plan schemes for getting at the queen and softening her heart
by my singing, in order that I might implore her to pardon my dear lady, or
for assisting the latter to escape from the Tower by inducing my physician
to order me change of air and persuading Lady Jane to exchange clothes
with me and walk out of the Tower in my stead. And then my mistress,
laying down the Bible she was studying, came to sit beside me, and nipped
all my plans in the bud by her first words. For I recognized that she had
found a more excellent way than any I could devise, as her mind was stayed
upon God, and in that Refuge and Strength she was lifted up above all
earthly fears and torments.
'Margery,' she said very gently, 'you have been ill, dear, and your mind is
weakened, so that as yet you only see indifferently, like the man who, on
first being cured of blindness, saw men as trees walking; but I have had
time to consider all things, and God has sent His angels (messengers) to
comfort me, until now I would not have things different if I could. I will
read you part of a letter I have written to my father, who is also condemned
to be beheaded, and who, I am told, grieves more because of having
brought me to this pass than because of his own fate.' And, with that, she
took a newly-written letter from her bosom and began to read—
'That will comfort him, I think,' said my dear lady, as she folded and put
by the letter to await a favourable opportunity for sending it. 'And I mean
what I say, Margery. There is no joy this world can give which would
compensate for the loss of the Heavenly Home that I now feel to be so near.
True, it is a painful gate that I have to pass through, but it will be short, and
it leads straight Home.'
Thus she talked, and I saw that to disturb her faith, with any chimerical
schemes for escape from it would be cruel in the extreme; also I determined
not to sadden her last earthly hours by my grief, for there would be all the
years after she had gone in which to mourn, but to do my best to brighten
her last short days. Kissing her hand, therefore, I said that she had greatly
comforted me, which made her exceedingly glad.
Then she arose, and wrote in Latin, with a pin, on the wall of her room
some lines, which she translated thus—
And again—
'Yes, Margery,' she said, turning to me, 'in spite of all my faults, I have
held to the road that leads above, and when the shadows are passed by, then
I hope to see the glorious light.'
'If any one ever will see it, you will,' said I, again kissing her hand and
looking with the deepest admiration into her sweet young face, which
seemed to me to bear the seal of Heaven's own peace.
CHAPTER XXV
I do not like to think of how the soul of my dear young mistress was
harassed during those last few days by the visits and arguments of Queen
Mary's chaplain, Dr. Feckenham.
Mistress Ellen, who had been sent for to keep my dear lady company
during my illness, and who remained with us until the end, and I sat, with
our needlework, at one end of the apartment, whilst these conferences were
going on. We did not hear all that was said, but only enough to show that,
learned and clever as was Lady Jane's opponent, he was beaten over and
over again by the wise and able manner in which she answered his
arguments.
'What took He but bread? What brake He but bread? Look, what He took
He brake, and look, what He brake He gave, and look, what He gave they
did eat; and yet all this while He Himself was alive and at supper before His
disciples, or else they were deceived.'
But the priest would not admit that she was right in that, or in the other
statements she made so clearly and forcibly; he was, however, so won by
her gentle and courteous demeanour that he prevailed upon the queen to
allow her to live three days longer than the time at first specified, that he
might be able more effectually to convince her mind.
This short reprieve was the only good he did, to my thinking. But Lady
Jane said that having to answer his arguments strengthened and fortified her
mind against all doubts, because whilst searching in her Bible for the right
answers to give him she gained a deeper insight into the Truth.
'You must remember always, dear Margery,' she said to me, 'that a really
good thing does not lose by being examined. For examination only reveals
more and more of its intrinsic worth.'
The fact was that she answered all Dr. Feckenham's arguments with such
strength and clearness and such firm conviction as showed plainly that
religion had been her chief study, and that now it fortified her, not only
against the fear of death, but also against all doubts and apprehensions.
It was always with relief, however, that we saw the priest depart, for the
strain of all this arguing upon our lady's mind was extremely great, and
indeed she was looking worn and tired out.
On the Sunday evening, which was to be her last in this world, she wrote
a letter in Greek to her sister Catherine, and put it with a New Testament in
the same language which she was bequeathing to her. At my request she
translated for me the first part of her letter, which ran, as nearly as I can
remember, as follows;—
'I am sending you, my dear sister Catherine, a book which, though not
outwardly trimmed with gold or curious embroidery made by the most
artful fingers, yet intrinsically is worth more than all the precious mines of
which this world can boast. It is the book, my best loved sister, of the law of
the Lord; it is His Testament and last Will, which He has bequeathed to us
—it will lead you to the path of eternal joy, if you read it desiring to follow
its counsels, and will bring you to an immortal, everlasting life. It will teach
you how to live and how to die.'
It was in our last talk together, before the fatal day of her execution, that
my dear lady bestowed upon me her beloved Plato, advising that I should
learn to read it in the language in which it was written.
'I cannot teach you Greek now, dear Margery,' she said, 'but there will be
others.'
I made a gesture of despair. What should I care for others when she had
gone? I could not speak without breaking down, so I said nothing. And
Lady Jane seemed to understand, for she was very sweet and kind.
'It will always be a consolation to you, Margery,' she said, 'to remember
that you have been the greatest comfort to me. Ever since I first saw your
sweet face entering the drawing-room at Sion House I have loved you
dearly. I had been praying for some one to come to me who was young like
me—I feel old now, dear, though it is scarcely a year since then, but so
much that is sad has happened.'
I stroked her hand and kissed it, for I could not speak, and if I had
spoken my poor words might have spoiled the interview.
And then it was that she asked me to write an account of that last year of
her life, relating exactly how it happened that she was made queen, and how
the throne passed away from her, leaving in its stead a scaffold; also
describing how it came about that the head which had worn a crown was
forfeited, and that for an error of her mind her poor frail body was killed,
adding, 'Margery, others may write more learnedly of the matter, but I
would fain be represented to posterity as I am rather than as I am supposed
to be. And God will help you, if you ask Him,' she said, seeing my fear and
dread that I should not be able to do it properly.
'It is not fine writing that is wanted,' she went on, 'but a plain,
unvarnished statement of the facts. And, Margery,' she said in conclusion,
'you must also tell the story of brave Sir Thomas Wyatt's insurrection and of
your dear knight's gallant efforts to cause me to reign over this land, and to
gain back the throne for me. I have been thinking, dear, that I was hard
upon them always in my great desire to be left alone. But since you told me
that Sir Thomas Wyatt's object was against Queen Mary's Spanish marriage
and that Sir Hubert's motive was to save England from bigoted Roman
Catholicism and Spain and the Inquisition, I have come to view the matter
differently, and so will others, if you tell them exactly what they thought.
Come, Margery, look up, dear one, for you have a great work before you,
and you must take heart and live to do it. You have to vindicate the honour
of two noble knights and of your mistress, and clear their names, which
have been smirched and blackened by the tongues of powerful enemies. No
one can do it but you, dear, in exactly the same way, for your loving eyes
have seen us as we are and not as we are supposed to be; and you possess
Love, the master-key, which can explain all that has appeared so wrong and
presumptuous and rebellious in our lives. You must do this for me, Margery,
and for your dear knight, Sir Hubert, and for Sir Thomas Wyatt.'
I promised that I would, and she blessed and thanked me very solemnly,
saying that she was sure that God would give me strength and wisdom for
the task.
And I thought then that this must be the special work which Master
Montgomery said might be given me to do when I left home and went to
London.
CHAPTER XXVI
The fatal day of the execution dawned at last, and I would that I could
draw a veil over its direful happenings. But my lady's charge is upon me to
tell everything exactly as I saw it occur, and so I cannot pick and choose.
It was February 12, a dull, cold morning, and within the Tower people
went about with dismal faces, as well they might, for most were sorry for
my poor young mistress.
She had passed a great part of the night—her last night—in prayer, and it
was only at my earnest entreaty that she at length lay down for an hour or
two before morning broke. Then she slept as sweetly as a little child, and
Mistress Ellen and I stole on tiptoe to the bedside to look at her, as those
look who will not see the loved face any more.
I could fancy once that her lips moved in her sleep, pronouncing the
name of Dudley, and doubtless even her sleeping thoughts were with her
young husband, who was also that day to suffer the same extreme penalty of
the law, but not at the same place. He was to die upon Tower Hill, where the
authorities dared not execute his poor young wife, lest the sight should
appeal to the hearts of the people, causing them to rise in a mass to prevent
the double execution. She therefore was to die upon the scaffold erected
before St. Peter's Chapel on the Green, within the Tower.
When the time came for her to rise we shrank from awaking her to such
a fate, but at length were obliged to do so; and though for a moment a look
of terror crossed her face, it quickly changed to one of the sweetest
resignation. She thanked us gently for not allowing her to sleep too long,
and, except that she was pale, her manner appeared to be much as usual.
It had been arranged that Sir Thomas Brydges, the lieutenant of the
Tower, in whose house we were, was to escort her to the scaffold, but first
he had the melancholy task of conducting her husband, Lord Guildford
Dudley, out of the Tower to the more public scaffold on Tower Hill, where a
vast concourse of people were assembled.
Early in the morning the queen had sent Lady Jane permission to have an
interview with her husband, but she, thinking that this would be too trying
for them both, declined the favour, saying she would meet him within a few
hours in heaven.
As she stood at a window looking out, however, she saw Lord Guildford
Dudley going to execution, and an hour afterwards beheld men bearing his
corpse back to its last resting-place in St. Peter's Chapel.
Immediately after that terrible sight she wrote down in a book three short
sentences in Greek, Latin and English.
'If his slain body shall give testimony against me, his blessed soul shall
render an eternal proof of my innocence in the presence of God.'
'The justice of men took away his body, but the Divine mercy has
preserved his soul.'
Dr. Feckenham came from the queen to attend her to the scaffold, and I
was afraid that he would trouble her; but I noticed as I followed them, with
Mistress Ellen, that my lady was not attending to his words, but kept her
eyes fixed upon a book of prayers in her hand.
The passing bell began to toll slowly and solemnly. It was almost more
than I could bear, and the sound of it seemed to startle Lady Jane, for she
looked up; and then, appearing for the first time to perceive the faces
around her, she bowed and spoke to them, saying to Dr. Feckenham—
'God will abundantly requite you, good sir, for your humanity to me,
though your discourses give me more uneasiness than all the terrors of my
approaching death.'
I did not scream, but felt as if my heart would burst, and the physical
pain almost overpowered the mental.
Thus we walked across the Green to the scaffold, where there were not
so many people assembled, some dreading much to see so sad a sight as the
execution of my dear lady.
She was not shedding a tear all the time, but bearing herself with meek
and gentle dignity, and Mistress Ellen and I were weeping bitterly behind
her.
And now she stood on the scaffold and spoke to the spectators, and this
was what she said, as nearly as I can remember—
'My lords, and you good Christian people, which come to see me die, I
am under a law, and by that law, as a never-erring judge, I am condemned to
die; not for anything I have done to offend the queen's majesty, for I am
guiltless—but only that I consented to the thing that I was forced into——'
She went on to confess herself a sinner and deserving of death, but thanked
God that He had given her time to repent of her sins and to trust herself to
her Redeemer. Then she continued—'Pray with me and for me whilst I am
yet alive, that God, of His infinite goodness and mercy, will forgive my
sins, how numberless and grievous soever against Him; and I beseech you
all to bear me witness that I here die a true Christian woman, professing and
avouching from my soul that I trust to be saved by the blood, passion and
merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour only, and by no other means, casting far
behind me all the works and merits of my own actions as things so far short
of the true duty I owe that I quake to think how much they may stand up
against me. And now I pray you all, pray for me and with me.'
The bell went on tolling, and the great dark birds hovered overhead,
while the sound of sobs and bitter weeping was also to be heard.
Only Lady Jane shed no tears, as kneeling, she repeated the Psalm,
Miserere mei, Deus—
'Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness: according to
the multitude of Thy mercies do away with mine offences.
And so on, the words of penitence, grief and supplication in those clear
young tones rising from the slight, black-robed figure and mingling with the
louder, harsher sounds of woe and death, went to our hearts and reached
more surely still the heart of Him Who is touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, and without Whom not even a sparrow can fall to the ground.
When she had repeated the whole Psalm, Lady Jane arose, and turning to
Mistress Ellen and me, gave us her gloves and handkerchief, and Sir
Thomas Brydges asking for some token, she bestowed upon him her prayer-
book, having first written in it a few lines, at his request. These were, as
nearly as I can remember them—for she showed them to me, thinking no
doubt that they would comfort me, who could scarcely see them for my
tears—
And now, with hands that trembled a little, she attempted to undo the
fastenings of her heavy black dress, and perceiving that she bungled over it,
the executioner offered to assist her, but she turned immediately to us her
gentlewomen, upon which we took off her dress, and gave her a
handkerchief to bind over her eyes. She did this herself, and then the
executioner, kneeling before her, asked her for pardon, which she gave him
most willingly.
'Yes, madam.'
'Will you take it off before I lie down?' she asked, pointing to the
handkerchief.
'No, madam.'
*****
It was the first time I had ever heard her speak of Him, or indeed of
religion, for she always averred that to do is better than to talk; therefore her
three words now made all the more impression.
'He gave her to us in the first instance,' was the reply. 'And I know,'
gently added the good woman, 'that He has taken her through a quick,
though painful, door into the glory beyond. There, doubtless, her joy is so
extreme as to have caused her already to forget the pain that went before,
and there it behoves us to try and follow her.'
And with that Mistress Ellen ran out of the room, for she was well nigh
breaking down herself, in spite of her brave words.
But I turned my face to the wall and lay weeping a long while.
CHAPTER XXVII
CONCLUSION
Home Again
Mistress Ellen was a wise woman; she had brought me out of the Tower
that I might recover, away from the scenes which were full of memories of
our dear lady; and now, when I was slowly regaining my health in the poor
lodgings, which were all we could afford, knowing that the best thing for
me would be some useful occupation, she urged that I should begin at once
upon the task which my dear lady had left to me.
I therefore sat down before a quantity of clean blank writing paper, a pot
of ink and a stock of new quill pens. There were the materials for the
framework of my book, and I had the will to do it, yes, and the ability, for I
could write a pretty hand and string sentences together, as my lady knew,
and my brain was teeming with the facts I had to tell; but there was
something lacking, because now I could not write a word. Whenever I lifted
up my pen to try and set one down a shadow came between me and the
paper, so that I could see nothing except the dear face of my lover as I saw
it last when he raised his hand to hide his eyes, and a voice said in my heart,
'He is not dead yet, though he is condemned. He is languishing in the Tower
prisons, condemned to death, yes, but not dead yet, and while there is life
there is hope.'
Yet I had been told there was none for those who entered the Tower by
the Traitors' Gate.
I was sitting one day as usual before my writing materials, unable to set
down a word, and thinking over all this again and again, when there was a
loud knocking at the house door, and presently our landlady came up to us
ushering a visitor into the room.
It was Jack Fish, and the sight of his broad face and burly figure brought
to my mind most vividly the times when, with Sir Hubert, I had met with
him before. Almost I saw again the half-filled cart in the old shed in Sussex,
and, through the dim light, my dear knight's handsome face emerging from
the heap of straw in the corner at the sound of this good man's cheery voice,
assuring us that he would send our enemies away. Also I seemed to hear
again the rolling of the coach and trampling of horses' feet upon the queen's
highway, later on, as Master Fish's voice pointed out our danger and
particularly mine in the coach, suggesting that I should leave it and escape
on horseback, which advice, being carried out, saved me from again falling
into my enemy's hands; and, most of all, the sight of Master Jack Fish
brought to my mind vividly my dear imprisoned knight.
I wept, too, then, though I had been thinking that I had no more tears to
shed, and the page that I was to write upon became wet and bleared.
'What have they done to her?' I heard Master Fish inquiring aside of
Mistress Ellen, adding low, 'Don't tell me that they tortured her in the
Tower, or——' in his mighty indignation he became inarticulate, but made a
gesture as if he could kill some one.
'The torturer was Grief, and the instrument that was used was the child's
heart,' answered my companion very softly. 'It is a size too big for her weak
frame,' she added.
'Aye, aye.' He muttered something which I could not hear, but Mistress
Ellen's rejoinder startled me—
'Hair is a mere detail. It began to grow grey when her lover was brought
into the Tower, and became white the day we lost our lady.'
Jack Fish began to walk up and down the room in no little agitation.
Suddenly he stopped short and returned to me.
'Would it comfort thee, dear,' he said, with great gentleness, 'to know that
thou hast been avenged in Sussex, where that brute, Sir Claudius Crossley,
in endeavouring to escape from the just punishment of his ill deeds, came
into collision with a party of rough fellows, some of whom had once been
his devoted followers in deeds of violence, who, turning upon him when he
was down, seized and drowned him in the very same pond by the roadside
in which he had himself been used to drown witches?'
I shuddered.
'Poor wretch!' I said. 'May God have prepared him for his end!'
'And now,' said my visitor, 'we must look to thee.' For he perceived that
his information about Sir Claudius had scarcely enlivened me. 'We must
look to thee,' he repeated. 'Thou hast had it a bit rough,' he added tenderly.
'Sometimes the storm of life gathers and breaks upon one all at once—but it
spends itself—it spends itself,' he faltered and almost broke down, because
for the first time I looked up and he saw my eyes, 'and then, for all the
future,' he continued hurriedly, 'there is a great calm. God grant that it may
be so with thee, my child!' and he laid his hand tenderly upon my poor
spoilt head.
Then I opened my heart to the good man, telling him all about my dear
lady's execution, and that my true lover, Sir Hubert Blair, still lay in the
Tower under sentence of death, adding that it was my dread, night and day,
that they would take his life in the same way as that in which they had
already taken my poor mistress's.
'If they do I shall die,' I wailed. 'I cannot live! I cannot live if Hubert is
beheaded too!'
'There is only one person in the land who can do it,' he said at length.
'Queen Mary can pardon your lover, if she likes.'
Queen Mary, the murderer, as she seemed to me, of her poor young
relation, my dear mistress, and of many, many more. Was it likely that a
heart so hard could be touched by another woman's woe? Was it possible
that the hand which signed Lady Jane's death warrant would sign the pardon
of a much more aggressive rebel at my request? Yet memory recalled to me
a woman, unhappy, lying sleepless on her bed, to whom I sang, with the
result that my singing touched her heart, arousing generosity and kindness.
Could I possibly obtain the chance once more of singing to her, and then,
haply, pleading, pleading as for my life and more than life, that she would
spare my lover?
I broke out into eager words, acquainting Master Fish with the manner in
which I got into the Tower before to go to my dear lady, by singing to the
queen, and then winning the boon from her; and he listened very feelingly,
almost as much excited about the matter as I was. When I had told him all,
he asked the name of the physician by whose means I had obtained access
to the queen, and where he lived; and when I acquainted him with the fact
that it was Dr. Massingbird, who had a surgery in the Strand, though he was
frequently at Court, he left me in haste, saying that he would go to see what
could be done.
*****
For this terrible thing happened to me. I could not sing a note. Now, in
the extremity of my need, when so much depended on my singing, though I
opened my mouth, no sound proceeded from it. My voice had gone.
'Madam, she is the same girl, I assure your Majesty,' said the Court
physician in his courtliest tone.
'She cannot be the same!' cried the queen angrily. 'This is no young girl
with golden hair and a sweetly pretty rosebud face. This is a woman, with a
sad, pale countenance, and—and white hair.'
'It is sorrow,' said the physician gently, 'which has changed the pretty
child into the grief-stricken woman, and a terrible anxiety and dread is even
now crushing her heart and killing her.'
'Yes, killing her. Death has already laid his hand upon her hair—her
pretty golden hair—bleaching it white, then, going downwards, he has
taken her voice—we did not know that until she stood up here to sing——'
'Pooh!' exclaimed Mary, still angrily. 'What stuff! She looks a peevish
woman,' and, disgustedly, 'she cannot sing.'
'Can the caged lark sing? Can those whose "tears have been their meat
day and night" sing? Can the broken heart burst forth into singing? Can the
mourner sing for joy and gladness? This poor young lady,' he turned to me,
laying a kind, fatherly hand upon my shoulder, 'this poor young lady has
lost her best friend on the scaffold, and her lover, a lad of twenty-one, lies
in the Tower under sentence of death. These things have bleached her hair
and taken the colour from her face; moreover, as we have just discovered,
they have robbed her of her voice.'
'Is this true?' The queen's deep voice asked the question of me, but the
effort of trying to answer it, of attempting to express some of the words of
pleading for my lover and of beseeching for his life, was more than I could
bear, and I fell down unconscious at Queen Mary's feet.
*****
When I came to myself, the queen was holding a cup to my lips, and
calling upon me at the same time to wake up and hear some joyful news.
I opened my eyes and looked into her face incredulously. What joyful
news could there be for me, who had parted company with joy long since?
Sorrow I knew, and pain and disappointment, but not joy. It was so long
since joy had visited me that I could scarcely believe in its possibility.
'Come! Come! Try to rouse yourself,' said Dr. Massingbird. 'Her Majesty
is going to be very good to you.'
'No,' I said, 'do not deceive me. I could not even sing to her. I lost the
opportunity which you were so good as to get for me,' and I sighed heavily,
having hoped so much from it.
'Meg Brown,' she said, and the old assumed name startled me, 'I am
going to give your lover, Sir Hubert Blair, a free pardon——'
The physician explained that the queen was about to pardon my beloved.
'Yes, that I am,' said Mary, quite good-naturedly. 'The rascal does not
deserve it. But I do it for your sake, because I think you have suffered quite
enough.'
'And I have not even pleaded for him!' I said to myself, and must have
spoken aloud, for the queen answered—
'Your white hair and your sorrowful face, together with your good
friend's words, have pleaded for your lover more eloquently than any
singing could have done.'
'Take her away, Dr. Massingbird; she is looking very ill. I will make out
the proper papers and send them to Sir Thomas Brydges, who will do the
rest. 'Margaret'—she spoke to me—'what you need now, to restore you to
health, are happiness and country air. You must let Sir Hubert Blair take you
home to your father's house near Brighthelmstone. (These last words
disclosed the fact that Queen Mary knew who I was.)
*****
Of the meeting with my dear one, when he came to me out of the Tower,
I cannot adequately write—such times are not for strangers' eyes—the relief
and joy of it are thrilling my heart even yet, after ten years, as they will no
doubt for the whole of my remaining life.
From the Tower Sir Hubert came to me in the poor lodgings in Fleet
Street, and they were poor no longer; and praise and thanksgiving ascended
from them to Almighty God, who had softened Queen Mary's heart and
given back my lover from the jaws of death.
'Betsy has led me such a life with her tongue,' said my father, 'that I have
threatened to turn her out of the house many and many a time, but she
would not go,' and he laughed, drew me to him, and kissed me. 'I was very
anxious about you, Margaret,' he said more gravely, 'and made many
inquiries as to your welfare, but I could not deprive poor Lady Jane of your
help and the solace of your presence at such a time.'
'Nor did I wish to leave her,' I rejoined. 'Indeed, I could not have done
so.'
And then I took my dear Hubert to see Master Montgomery, who was
mightily pleased with him, and told us that he had prayed for me every day
since first I went to Isleworth, in the old church in which he ministered. He
was immensely interested to hear of all that I had passed through, and the
work that had been given me to do, and my love for my dear lady, of whose
terrible fate he had only hitherto received a garbled and imperfect account.
And, as I told him the sad story, lit up here and there with gleams of beauty
from my lady's faith and hope, sitting safely there in his quaint study,
between him and my dear knight, the whole history took shape in my mind,
and I knew how I should best be able to tell it with pen, ink and paper.
A few days after that we heard that Master Montgomery, together with
other Protestant ministers, was to be turned out of his benefice; but before
that happened he married me and Sir Hubert Blair in the old church, where
my mother was buried, and where I had worshipped almost all my life.
The living was then handed over to a Roman Catholic priest, and my
father took his good old friend, Master Montgomery, into his own house,
where he prayed and preached to the household, in our private chapel,
besides instructing my brothers in Greek and Latin, and the way in which
they should conduct themselves, and the Faith as it is revealed to us in the
Testament of our Lord.
Here, too, my brothers, Jack and Hal, now bearded men, delight to come.
For the shooting, or the fishing, or the hunting, they say, though I know that
they like to see their sister incidentally, and her husband too, whom they
admire greatly.
And here I have, at length, after long years, completed the task given to
me by my dear lady, in memory of whom I have named our little daughter
Jane, whilst our boy, our only son, we called Tom, after Sir Thomas Wyatt,
in the hope that he may grow as brave and heroic as the knight in, we trust,
a far happier cause.
The sun is sinking in the west as I lay down my pen, and the shadows
fall across the old stone sundial on the lawn, around which Sir Hubert has
had inscribed, in letters of gold—
'Hold to the Road that leads Above; and Justice with Prudence by all
means pursue.'
And I think that I hear again the sweet tones of my lady's voice saying—
'It is like our dear Lord's teaching, though it was uttered more than four
centuries before He came to live as a Man upon earth.'
'A Greater than Plato said, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
thee a Crown of Life." That is the best Crown, Margery.'
THE END
EPILOGUE
And first, as to myself, I have sighed, smiled, and then again wept over
these pages, as in them I relived through the exciting, tragic happenings of
the year of my life which changed me from a thoughtless child into an
extremely earnest-hearted woman, and I think, as the record has taken such
deep hold of me, it will also impress others, and know that it will do so in
proportion to the greatness of their souls. For little souls find only small
things everywhere, whilst big ones, like my Lady Jane's, find things so
great and glorious as to lift them over life's petty details into the vast, wide
prospects of the children of God, who see from the Delectable Mountains
straight into the Heart of the Kingdom.
As to the way in which Lady Jane would regard this book were she
looking at it, I have no fear. She would see that I have in every respect
endeavoured to fulfil her wish that I should represent facts as I saw them,
and not as they appeared to be to others.
And with regard to the aspect my poor little work has in the eyes of our
Heavenly Father, it is impossible to know. I can only pray Him to
mercifully grant that what is false and unworthy in this narrative may be
forgotten, whilst what is good, true and beautiful, may sink deeply into the
hearts of its hearers, and always, always be remembered as long as life shall
last.
MARGARET BROWN.
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