but anger and respite for a few days only." Clement was too timid for the Queen.

7. Wiltshire set out for Italy with Stokesley, Lee, and Benet in his train, leaving Lady Anne at Durham House under Cranmer's eye and Lady Wiltshire's charge. His presence in the Papal court was meant as answer to the calumnies put forward by Quiñones and the friars, no less than a direct announcement that the King was fixed on making Anne the partner of his throne. Charles for an instant lost his head. "Silence!" he cried to Wiltshire, "let the others speak; you are a party to the suit." Wiltshire was calm. "I am here," replied the English peer, "not in the name of my child, but in that of my sovereign. If your Majesty agrees to what I ask, my master will rejoice; if not, your disapproval will not prevent the King of England from demanding and receiving justice." Nothing could be done in Italy, and Wiltshire took his leave of Charles, convinced that justice must be sought in a more independent court.

8. Parliament was more impatient than the King. When the two houses met in July, a rumour passed along the benches that the Pope was threatening to excommunicate every one who counselled and abetted Henry in a second match. This threat was met by other threats. A letter of remonstrance to the Pope was signed by primates, dukes, earls, prelates, barons, abbots, knights, and commoners, announcing that the end had come; that either justice must be done, or England would proceed by other means, Clement replied in anger and alarm;

advising his dearly beloved children to be prudent in their language; and asserting that he was not causing the delay. In deference to Lady Anne, a last experiment was tried by sending Cranmer to the Papal court. Cranmer amused the Pope, who named him Supreme Penitentiary; but wit and argument were obsolete in Rome. A brutal soldiery were masters of the Capitol. Cranmer retired beyond the Alps, and the great passion of the age began to slake itself with blood.

CHAPTER VI.

Last of Wolsey.

1530.

1. WOLSEY was the first to fall. By meek behaviour he was half disarming hosts of foes, when sickness came to help him with the King and Lady Anne. On hearing of his illness, Henry sent Sir William Butts to Esher, for the fallen man was still the Cardinal of York. When Butts returned, the King received him in Lady Anne's presence, and inquired his news. "How doth yonder man? Have you seen him?" "Yea, sir," answered Butts who had a kindly feeling for the Cardinal. "How do you like him?" The physician was a courtier, and an adept in his trade. "Forsooth, Sir, if you would have him dead, I warrant your grace he will be dead within these four days, if he receive no comfort from you and Lady Anne."

2. "Marry," cried the King, "God forbid that he should die. I pray you, good Master Butts, go again to him, and do your cure upon him; for I would not lose him for twenty thousand pounds." The doctor instantly rejoined, "Then must your Grace send him some comfortable message, as shortly as is possible." "Even so I will-by you. Therefore make speed to him again, and ye shall deliver him from me this ring, for a token of our good-will and

favour towards him. This ring he knoweth very well; for he gave me the same; and tell him I am not offended with him in my heart. . . Bid him be of good cheer, and pluck up his heart. I charge you come not from him until ye have brought him out of all danger of death." Henry turned to Lady Anne. "Good sweetheart, I pray you, as you love us, to send the Cardinal a token, with comfortable words, and in so doing you shall do us a loving pleasure." No appeal of charity was made in vain to that tender heart, even for a treacherous and artful foe. Anne took the golden tablets from her side, and gave them to the King's physician, "with my gentle and comfortable words, and commendation to the Cardinal."

3. Wolsey rose in bed to see and kiss these gracious gifts; and from that hour he rallied in his health. Norfolk became alarmed. To drive this enemy away from Esher, he began to pull the house about his ears, on pretext of removing a handsome gallery, which Wolsey had built, to the King's palace at Westminster. Wolsey had several houses near the court, at Richmond, Farnham, Staines; but these three places had been seized under the sentence in the Star Chamber, and patents for them had been granted to Fitzwilliam, Russell, and Norreys; so that a party was created in the closet and the ante-room against the Cardinal, like that which he had formed in years gone by against the friends of Buckingham. Assisted by these gentlemen, Norfolk induced the King to send the Cardinal for change of air into his diocese of York.

4. A perfect actor, Wolsey put off the part of haughty Cardinal to assume the part of suffering Saint. When Adrian entered Rome as pontiff, he had taken off his shoes and hose, passing along the streets and by the bridges, bare of foot and leg, like a poor beggar, till he reached the marble stairs of his too splendid home; an act of humility which had won for him the reverence of every eye in Rome and every heart in Christendom. Wolsey, affecting this dramatic meekness, drew the eyes and hearts of people towards him; for his power to dazzle and deceive remained; and after laying down the part of Flambard, he was capable of assuming that of Becket. "We were wrong to throw him on a feather-bed,” his foes began to whisper; "he may rise again: let us make an end of him." The fight was sharp, and men who stood outside the list were doubtful as to which would bite the dust.

5. Wolsey sought support in the religious orders and the wilder partizans of Rome. He dallied with the wandering friar and listened to the Maid of Kent. Such friars as William Roy had been his sharpest critics; but the minister was still a cardinal, and, as a pillar of the Church, he had a claim on every servant of the Pope. These humbler friends of Catharine led him to a curious choice. Seeing the need of making peace with one set of enemies, and finding that the cause of Catharine was becoming more and more the cause of Rome, he turned his face once more from France towards Spain. A shrewd Venetian doctor, Agostino, was employed as agent. Through Agostino, he could send his messages to