and a grandson of the murdered duke might one day rule at Howard House. How scornfully these Poles and Nevilles, Staffords and Plantagenets, looked at men like the new keeper of Penshurst Park, and the new lord of Southo Manor, no one needs to say!

3. Bitter blood was made for Boleyn and Norreys by these acts; but in the hour of triumph no man stops to count the consequences of his victories. Montagu and Abergavenny were thrown into the Tower with Buckingham. Montagu was the eldest son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret of Salisbury. His connexion with Buckingham was close; his sister Ursula being married to the Duke's eldest son. Abergavenny was the Duke's son-inlaw, having married his youngest daughter, Lady Mary. Orders were given to seize Wiltshire, the Duke's brother; Northumberland, the Duchess's brother; and Margaret of Salisbury, her son's motherin-law. But Wolsey, having read the peers a lesson, had no wish to drive them into actual war. No fresh arrests were made. Northumberland placed his son, the dashing Percy, as a sort of hostage, in the Cardinal's house, where he was soon to meet the young lady whom that Cardinal was calling out of France.

4. Red Piers, "Mairgread Geroit," and their son James, had come to London, where Piers persuaded Henry and his Council that the Geraldines were faithless to his cause. Kildare being called from Dublin, "Mairgread" had the elfish joy of hearing her brother ordered into custody. O'Carrol and O'Brien broke into disorder, on which Piers asserted

that Kildare had sent a priest to stir them up. The King deprived Kildare of the deputy's seat; and offered the lieutenancy to Surrey, as a hard, rapacious soldier, who would fight his way from Dublin to Donegal through fiercer spirits than any "Mairgread Geroit" could invoke. Surrey took Piers with him to Ireland, leaving James in London as a hostage, where he might be near his cousin Anne, when she came home from France. Surrey winked at Piers' illegal style; a rough admission that the Brehon law still reigned within the English Pale. "Mairgread" seemed to exercise a spell on Surrey, who not only recommended Wolsey to appoint "Sir Piers" Lord-Treasurer, but begged the King to reconcile the Ormond litigants, and promote a match between his niece, Anne Boleyn, and James Butler, the eldest son of Piers.

5. The King was but too glad to strengthen his position on such easy terms. Anne being the daughter of an officer in his household, he had a customary right in the disposal of her hand; but he had recently strained this customary right in connexion with her sister, and was anxious not to wound a faithful servant and a powerful house a second time. William Carey, one of the gentlemen of his chamber, courted Mary Boleyn; but the younger brother of Sir John Carey of Plashey, though a man of ancient lineage, was rejected by the family as no proper mate for a grandchild of the Great Duke. Mary had given her hand to Carey in a private marriage; yet though Henry graced the rite, and made an offering in the church, much anger was

provoked, and neither Carey nor his wife was reconciled to the family chiefs. This passage made the King more cautious. Anne was of marriageable age. Yet Henry could not ask the Boleyns to receive proposals for her hand till he had full authority from Sir Piers to act. Surrey was asked to see the Earl of Ormond (Henry giving him the title he had seized), and learn from him, in a more formal manner, whether he desired to have Anne Boleyn for his son? If so, the King proposed to take that matter on himself as one of service to his crown.

6. Surrey spoke to Piers, and also to the Irish Council. Every one in Dublin, he informed the Cardinal, desired to see a match between Anne Boleyn and James Butler. James the Irish heir, would have the title, and should have as much of the estate as Lady Margaret might be willing to resign. The Irish Council, he reported, had considered all the ins and outs of the affair. James was in England, as a hostage for his father and the Butler sept; a youth, as loud of tongue and quick of hand as either "Mairgread" or Sir Piers. It would be well to tame him with an English wife. Void of all feeling for his niece, Surrey would strengthen his connexion in the Pale by any sacrifice of her future life. Reminding Wolsey of their former talk, he said: "At our being with your Grace, divers of us moved you to cause a marriage to be solemnised between the Earl of Ormond's son, being with your Grace, and Sir Thomas Boleyn's daughter; we think if your Grace caused that to be done, and also a final end to be made between them for the title of lands

depending in variance, it should cause the said Earl to be better willed to see this land brought to good order." Wolsey approved his scheme. The youth, he said, was "active and discreet," and Surrey's plans for making peace in Dublin gave him an excuse for keeping James Butler in his sight.

7. Some sort of instrument was drawn by Wolsey's orders, as a form of contract for a union of Anne with James. But obstacles were raised. Lady Margaret hated Piers. Boleyn disliked this sale of his daughter by a brother-in-law whom he had no good cause to like. And there was Anne herself! Month after month slipt by, and Anne remained in France with Claude. Red Piers became impatient for results; for he was looking to enjoy the deputy's chair in consequence of this connexion. Wolsey was abroad; and Henry wrote to him that something must be done. "On my return," said Wolsey, in reply, "I will talk with you how to bring about this marriage." Wolsey was full of wiles and schemes, and felt no doubt of his success. Boleyn was at Oudenarde, carrying on a secret correspondence with the Emperor's agents. Charles was opening his campaign against the French, and Wolsey was again an object of intrigue in every camp in Europe. Suddenly the Cardinal faced about. Choosing the side of Spain, he entered into that false Treaty of Bruges, by which Charles was to marry Princess Mary, and England was to enter on engagements hostile to the French. Before the news of his decision reached the Court of Paris, Anne Boleyn was recalled from France.

CHAPTER V.

Twenty-one.

1521-22.

1. AT twenty-one, Anne Boleyn, in obedience to a royal order came to England; leaving good Queen Claude and pious Madame Renée to regret her loss on personal grounds, while François raised his voice against her going on political grounds. "I think it very strange," said François, "that this treaty of Bruges should have been concealed from me.... and that M. Boleyn's daughter should have been carried home." Her lithesome form, her sparkling eyes, her fawnlike ways, were long remembered in the Court of Blois, and fired prosaic almoners into song and rhyme.

2. From her cradle upwards, Anne had been a bright and elfin' child. Her mother was a reigning beauty in two royal circles, but the Howards were à Saxon race, with light blue eyes, fair flesh, and rounded figures. Anne was of another type. No English roses reddened on her cheek; no English plumpness smoothed her bust; no English languor brooded in her eyes. These eyes were quick with southern light.

"The lively sparks that issue from those eyes'

were sung by her poetic champion, Wyat, as--"Sunbeams to daze man's sight."