at Windsor waiting on the King. Carey was absent, and Norreys, left alone, required assistance in the ante-room. Each afternoon, the King went out into the park, and either rode or walked about till late, when he came in to dine. As he was passing into his closet, Anne whispered, in her pleasant banter, to the Cardinal's servant, that his master was forgetting her. The Cardinal's messenger,' she said, 'has come to court, and neither been to see me nor sent me any token of remembrance!' Wolsey was, in truth, omitting to observe his customary guile. Heneage excused him, saying his master was overcome by work. Then ask his grace,' said Lady Rochford, to bestow a morsel of his tunny on me.' The King passed in to dinner, and while he sat at meat, he ordered Heneage to carry down a dish into Lady Rochford's room. Anne invited Heneage, as the Cardinal's man, to stay and dine with them, saying, she wished she had some of the Cardinal's good things, such as carps and shrimps, to set before him! All her bantering words were instantly reported to the Cardinal's eye.

7. Jean du Bellay, Bishop of Bayonne, came to London as ambassador, to help the Cardinal in seating a French woman on the English throne. Bellay, a lively wit and learned canonist, was quick of eye; but he was full of Wolsey's plans and notions, and he needed time to clear his sight. Putting their wits together, the Cardinal and ambassador agreed that in a week or two the King would gain his

senses, and the maid of honour would be flung away. Wolsey was waiting for that change; and now and then, deceived by false appearances, he played too carelessly the part he had assumed of Anne Boleyn's friend.

8. Campeggio was instructed by the Pope to see the Queen, to work on her religious feelings, and induce her to retire into a holy house. Such things were often done. Jeanne de France and Juana the Excellenta had passed from thrones into conventual cells. A similar hint was given to Catharine, by a man who honoured her. 'It is most rare,' Erasmus wrote to her, 'to find a lady born and reared in courts, who binds her hope on acts of devotion, and finds her solace in the word of God. Would that others, more especially widows, would learn to follow your example; and not widows only, but unmarried ladies too, for what so good as the service of Christ? He is the Rock-the Spouse of pious souls and nearer than the nearest human tie. A soul devoted to this Husband is at peace alike in good and evil times. He knows what is best for all; and is often kindest when He seems to turn the honey into gall. Every one has his cross to bear; without that cross no soul can enter into rest!'

CHAPTER IV.

CRANMER.

1528.

1. ANOTHER argument was needed, not for Catharine only, but for Anne; which other argument was found by accident in a singular quarter and an unknown man. A rich and ready talker, with a fair amount of learning, and an eye for dogs and deer, as well as dialectics and humanities, was Thomas Cranmer, Doctor of Divinity, and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Cranmer was a curious study. Though a bold and dashing sportsman, who could tame the wildest horse and draw the longest bow, he had so little confidence in himself that he declined the easiest task, and quailed beneath an inferior's eye. He knew his weakness, and explained it by the drubbings he had borne in childhood from a tyrant and a dunce. Timid in heart, yet bold in speech, Cranmer had fallen in love with Black Joan, niece of the hostess of the Dolphin tavern, and forfeited his fellowship by leading her to church. But this first wife having died before his years of grace were out, he had been welcomed back into his

college room, in which his wit, his learning, and his modest manner, made him a general favourite. Loving his books, and shrinking from the eyes of men, he was content to close his door, to say his office, and confine his hopes between the college garden and the lecture-hall. Such was the retiring man who in a few short months was to become a ruler of events.

2. In the early days of May, the Court, now moved to Greenwich, was alarmed by several persons in the household falling sick. The Queen, the Princess Mary, and their households, were at Greenwich for the Mayings. Lord and Lady Rochford and their daughters, Anne and Mary, were at court. Henry and Catharine lived apart; but every one was treating Catharine with respect the partisans of Charles as Queen, the partisans of Henry as Princess of Wales. Henry looked on Catharine as his brother's widow, though he gave her still the titular rank of Queen, as due to her until the Court had met and judgment had been given. Revels and jousts, with all the customary games, were on, when some of Catharine's maids fell sick. The Princess Mary was attacked, and the infected rooms had to be cleared.

3. Anne was removed by Lady Rochford from the Queen's apartments to a lodging in the tilt-yard, where her parents hoped she might escape attack. 'Her reign is over,' chuckled the French prelate, seeing her move from the palace. Wolsey shared in this

opinion of his colleague. Fox, the King's almoner, found her on his return from Italy in these new lodgings. Fox had brought, as he supposed, a breve from Orvieto; and the King, not waiting for his story, sent him to the tilt-yard to report what he had done. Anne heard the almoner with sparkling eyes, and when he spoke of Gardiner's zeal in hurrying on the legate, she became so wild in her excitement as to call the almoner Gardiner, and to promise him a fit reward for his success. Henry dropt in to hear his story out. When Anne retired into an ante-room, Henry asked his almoner for letters. One of his letters was from Clement, a second from Stafileo, a third from Gardiner. Pushing the other two aside, he opened that from Gardiner, and going to the window, read the contents to himself in silence. Fox explained to him what Clement was prepared to do.

4. The King was highly pleased, and, sending for Anne, desired the almoner to go through all the details once again. Much questioning took place as to the terms in which the breve was drawn, as to the Pope's private views in the matter, and as to all the tissues of intrigue going on in Rome. Fox went on to Wolsey, whom he found at Durham House-York Place being in the decorator's hands -and though the Cardinal was gone to bed, the almoner was admitted to his room. On reading the breve with reference to his purpose, Wolsey, was perplexed. He sent for Rochford, and the des