meekly gave them up. Each day brought some new

misery. The court of King's Bench condemned him; the court of Star Chamber condemned him; the court of Parliament condemned him. All these courts of justice left his punishment to the crown. Happily for him, the court of Durham House was one of poesy and love, not one of frenzy and revenge. 'Let him fall as on a feather-bed,' was whispered round the circle. Wolsey had to quit York Place; to yield his property to the crown; to lay down his commissions from the Pope. But he was only sent to Esher, one of his country-houses, till the royal pleasure should be further shown. The citizens made holiday to see him go. A thousand boats were on the Thames when he embarked at York Stairs; for every one outside the circle thought he was committed to the Tower. His barge pushed up the stream.

5. On climbing Putney Hill, he met the welcome face of Norreys, who was bringing him a message and a ring; bidding him good cheer, and hinting that he who had cast him down might raise him up once more. Wolsey slipt from his mule, plucked off his cap, knelt in the mud, and blessed the master who had struck him to the ground. 'Gentle Norreys,' said the Cardinal, if I were lord of a realm, one half thereof were insufficient reward to give you; but I have nothing left me but my clothes; therefore I desire you to take this small reward of my hands. When I was in prosperity I would not gladly have departed with

it for a thousand pounds.' It was a charm ; a chain of gold, with a cross of gold, in which lay a piece of the

true cross.

6. Rochford was created Earl of Wiltshire in England, with remainder to his heirs male, and Earl of Ormond in Ireland, with remainder to his heirsgeneral; so that George was now called Viscount Rochford, Anne was called Lady Anne Boleyn, and Mary was called Lady Mary Carey. Warham was invited to resume the marble chair; a compliment to his learning and his services; but the primate was eighty years of age. Warham declined the Seals, and Bellay feared that no more priests would occupy the Chancellor's place. More, a layman, was selected : partly for his wit and genius, qualities in vogue at the new court, and partly for his knowledge of the King's affair. Long before Henry consulted his confessor, he had talked with More about the 'secret cause' which led him to exalt the Papal power.

7. A wit, a scholar, and a writer of the highest rank, More would have been a man to shine in the new court, even in a company of Wyats and Cranmers, if his timid and conservative spirit had not shrunk from joining in a march of which he could not see the end. More was no bigot. If he loved his Church, he loved his country also; and his reading told him that the Church of England was a sister, not a vassal, of the Church of Rome. When Henry raised the Pope too high, More warned him from that dangerous ground. Yet while he read

events in the broad light of day, he lacked the moral courage to adapt his actions to his facts. His enmity to some of the reformers, and especially to Tyndale, was the ulcer of his fame. That enmity was not unmixed with fear. 'I pray God, son Roper,' he exclaimed, in one of the typical sayings of his life, that some of us, high as we seem to sit now on the mountains, treading heretics under our feet like ants, do not live to see the day that we would gladly wish to be in league with them, to suffer them to have their churches by themselves, so that they will be content to let us have ours peaceably to ourselves.' More rivalled Tunstall in his zeal for buying up and burning Bibles. in spite of his fanaticism, he was a favourite. Anne approved of More's accession. Catharine spoke of him as being the one true counsellor of the King. With Henry he had always been a favourite; yet More had never closed his eyes to the uncertain terms on which he held this favour. 'Yea,' he one day said to Roper, after Henry had been showing him some kindness, 'I find his grace my very good lord, indeed, yet I have no great cause to be proved thereof; for if my head would win him a castle in France, it should not fail to go.' Seals, well knowing what he had to

price he was to pay in case he failed. in which the Cardinal had perished,

timid lawyer to outlive the storm?

Yet,

More took the do, and what a

Riding a gale how was this

139

CHAPTER IV.

EUSTACE CHAPUYS.

1530.

1. PEACE being signed, Charles had a right to have an agent near his uncle, but the post was one for which a man of singular genius was required; a man of easy manner and still easier virtue; since his business would be that of helping Catharine and defaming Anne, of hiring spies and buying votes, and plotting to upset the government without offending the more obvious diplomatic rules. In Eustace Chapuys, master of requests, he had a man of law, a man of the world-urbane, alert, unscrupulous -who understood affairs, as his Report had shown; a man with wit enough to please the King, and gallantry enough to charm the Lady Anne; yet ready, on a hint from his employer, to defame with slander and destroy with perjury the hosts on whom it was his cue to fawn. Chapuys was chosen for the post; and from the hour of his arrival on the Thames, his spies were at the gates and in the ante-rooms of Durham House.

2. With artful eyes he scanned the scene in

which he was to play henceforth a leading part. Catharine was at Greenwich, Henry at Westminster. Mary was with her mother, and from time to time the King himself took barge and paid them visits of respect. Henry was hoping to proceed in his affair with the assent of Charles, if not of Catharine. 'God is my witness,' he declared to Chapuys, 'that no fault in Catharine moves me; I am acting only for the general weal.' On Chapuys asking to see the Queen, Wiltshire, as the lord-in-waiting, took the Savoyard to her apartments. Catharine eagerly inquired for news. 'She told me all about her own affairs,' he wrote to Charles, and asked me if I knew the doings of people here. I gave her good advice, by which she seems to be consoled.' Yet Chapuys felt some doubt of Catharine's main position that her nuptials with the King were good in law. He sought for evidence that she had not been Arthur's wife; but he was never able to convince himself that Catharine told the truth.

3. Lady Anne was living at Durham House with her father and mother, surrounded by a court of wits and scholars-Wyat and Rochford, Cranmer, Latimer, and Shaxton. Chapuys noted as an evil sign that Bellay, Bishop of Bayonne, was paying her an eager court. Anne was the subject of his keenest study. He had come to London with a bad impression of her character and conduct. He supposed she was some brazen hussy, living with the King in open shame, as he had seen the mistresses of emperors