law and fact, the dowager Princess of Wales. The woman might be pitied, but her rank as Queen was tacitly denied. Like all her kindred, Anne believed the King was free. Reports of his approaching nuptials with Madame Renée were afloat. Such rumours caused Anne Boleyn no surprise; for she had heard such things discussed at Hever Castle and Howard House, as long ago as she could recollect any talk of men. If Henry turned his eyes from Madame Renée towards an English lady, he might do so free from blame. But Percy's image was not yet effaced, nor was her anger at their separation spent. Her uncle and the Cardinal were still her enemies. Yet Henry, being a King, could not be driven away from Hever, like an ordinary man. He took advantage of his rank to keep her in his sight. At length he got from her a ring, and pressing it on his little finger said he would always wear it for her sake.

7

CHAPTER II.

MAY-DAY DREAM.

1526.

1. A SECOND Court of Love was formed, though with a more imposing figure in the palmer's part. Percy was gone, with much repining, to his noble bride. Shrewsbury was cheating him about the lady's portion, and the bride and groom were sickening on their splendid hearth. Percy could not forget his love, nor Lady Mary that a rival owned his heart. Linked in a marriage without love, a man of many talents, and a woman of many virtues, were driving each other crazy with their mutual spite. Percy and his consort knew they had been sacrificed by Wolsey; and in the crowds who watched the Cardinal hastening to his fall, no eyes were glittering with a fiercer hate than those of Percy and his miserable wife. The Border chief was gone away-the majesty of England bore his palmer staff.

2. A greater and a lesser minstrel sang the lady's charms-her playmate Wyat and her brother George. Rivalry, so needful to the course of a poetic passion,

set the muse of Wyat on her wing. The troubadour is slighted in his heart. The bard who loves so well and serves so faithfully:

'And dearly have I held also

The glory of thy name,'

is forgotten in the face of this new suitor for her smiles :

Broken now are her behests,

And pleasant looks she gave.'

The minstrel pines in thought, yet casts no blame on the dear object of his verse :

'I have no wrong where I can claim no right.'

The very poverty of his pretension, as against this splendid rival, is paraded as a cause of his platonic woes:—

'I am all comfortless,

Since I of blame no cause can well express.'

The palmer has her time, her word, her smile, her pity; while the bard, who has been true to her so long, is left unnoticed in the crowd:

Song, sonnet, ode, and roundel, bear the burthen

of this lofty and poetic strain.

3. The tone throughout is grave and pure:

'I may not sigh in sorrow deep

Nor wail the want of love,
Nor I may neither crouch nor creep
Where it doth not behove.

But I of force must needs forsake

My faith so fondly set;

And from henceforth must undertake
Such folly to forget.'

The minstrel tries, and tries in vain, to oust the idol from her seat. She will not be dethroned, and cannot be replaced. At length, he yields his spirit to the golden chain; for even though another has obtained her heart, he will remain her servant to the end:

'Though for goodwill, I find but hate
And cruelty my life to waste;
And though that still a wretched state
Should pine my days unto the last;

Yet I profess it willingly,

To serve and suffer patiently.'

The sentiment breathing through all the minstrel's songs and sonnets is that of resignation to his fate.

4. Was the palmer growing jealous of a minstrel so discreet? The palmer was a minstrel also; and a minstrel yearning for poetic fame. He too, had written songs and sonnets. and sonnets. He was dreaming of a tragedy, in which his songs and sonnets might be introduced. The spirit of his verse was neither

lofty nor etherial, and the younger critics of the court were apt to smile at his pretensions to the poet's crown.

many claims on grew out of his

5. Wyat, the minstrel, had Henry, other than those which piping in a Court of Love. His father's service had been faithful, and his own deserts were high. Henry was fond of his society, and spent so much time in his chamber, that Wyat's room became, in popular phrase, a pathway into royal favour. When a man obtained a grant, an office, a preferment, it was commonly said, 'He has been in Wyat's closet.'

6. Russell, one of the six gentlemen of the bedchamber, had been abroad some time; chiefly in Italy, waiting near the camp of Bourbon, and watching the great drama in the Milanese. On Wolsey's change of policy, much going to and fro of men was needed; for a league of priests and princes, dukes and kings, had to be formed, in which a hundred jarring enmities and interests were to be combined. Wyat was sent abroad, but ere the year was out he was again at court.

7. Wolsey was too busy with his schemes to take much notice of a May-day game, that seemed to him no more important than the usual masques. He thought the King dishonest in his suit to Anne, and he had no objection to dishonest love. A graceless priest, he took so little care to hide his shame, that everybody knew Tom Winter as his son. This lad was now at school in France, where