of the £16,000 paid by France to the worthy son of Henry VII, the empire engaged to pay 40,000 marks. Henry would consequently gain by breaking his word; and indeed he was 80 delighted with Wolsey's arrangements, that he lost no time in congratulating him on his success. (4) The reader must, while perusing the official correspondence between Pace and Wolsey, imagine himself to be under some somuiferous influence. That insatiate minister was by no means satisfied with the favours he had received from Henry. His scarlet hat, his two crosses as legate, his Archbishopric of York, his great seals, his thirty benefices were not enough; before ascending the throne of St. Peter, he wished to fight at the head of the 6,000 archers whom England had levied for the purpose of invading France.(b) It might have been said that the laurels gained by Julius II. prevented his sleeping. He wished to wield a sword as large as that which Michael Angelo had placed in the Pontiff's hand. As general-in-chief of the army of expedition, it would be for him to prepare the royal residences on the road to Paris. Henry would only have to follow.(c) The king was ready to obey all the whims of his minister; so that the poet was right when he said that Wolsey had a covenant with Satan.

While these negotiations were pending, Wolsey's letters to Francis evinced the

(a) The king has received your two letters, dated Calais, the 4th of this month. By these, his highness perceives the serious disputations between your grace and the emperor's ambassadors, for his indemnity of such sums of money as his grace, by likelihood, shall lose, if he break with the French king, and join the emperor, according to his desire; and that your grace has so handled this matter, that you hope he shall have yearly paid 40,000 marks, instead of the £16,000 paid by the said king.-MSS. Cotton, Cal. D. VIII., p. 92.

(b) The king also perceiveth that in case the army of 6,000 archers shall be sent forth in aid to the emperor, your grace then intendeth to order and govern the same yourself at their arrival to the said emperor, and to proceed actually with them. His highness doth remit this unto your grace's wisdom.-MSS. Cott., Galba, B. VII., p 13.

(e) Et si ibitis parare legi locum in regno hereditario, majestas ejus quum tempus erit opportunum sequetur.-MSS. ib. p. 93. This singular Latin is written in the king's own handwriting.

greatest affection and devotedness to that monarch. Henry declared that there was not a particle of truth in the on dit that he was partial, and reminded the prince of the services he had always rendered him. Duprat, one of the ablest diplomatists that Francis could find to represent him at Calais, deceived by Wolsey, thus wrote to his master: "Sire,-The cardinal, on going to Mass, informed me of his being so unwell that he could scarcely keep his saddle. He asked me if I had a litter. Could I get one, I should send it him, though it cost me twice the value. However, your majesty would do well to send him one. You know him; and I feel assured that such a mark of your majesty's attention would not be lost."(d)

The litter did not arrive in time. Gattinara, the emperor's chancellor, recommenced his discussion with Duprat, and finished by declaring that his master would hear of no condition until he had received satisfaction from France ;(e) and Wolsey, upon this pretext, left Calais to treat directly with the emperor. The cardinal deceived the French ambassador. He left for Bruges, whither he had been summoned by a letter from Charles, (f) after pretending to be exceedingly annoyed by Gattinara's obstinacy. His real object was to give the King of England sufficient time to prepare for war against France.(g) Wolsey left with a suite of 400 gentlemen, and traversed those very plains which he had crossed once before with a confidential

letter from Henry VII. to Maximilian. The had not changed. There were scenery the long plains of Artois, divested of trees, but rich in pasture land. What a change had taken place in the traveller! Fifteen years ago, none would have stopped to look at the poor priest as he passed along alone and without attendants; now the population ran forward eager to gaze on one who had cited emperors and kings to his bar. Fifteen years ago, on a hired horse, he hurried on without taking any rest, bathed in perspiration, and worn out by fatigue; but now, seated under a pavilion with a parasol having a gold handle, over his head, to protect him from the rays of the sun, he went by short stages, surrounded by lords, dukes, and peers of the realm, who held his stirrup when he wished to dismount. Fifteen years ago he could scarcely have raised sufficient money to buy a windmill : now he could for ready cash, purchase the whole tract of country between Calais and Bruges. Fifteen years ago, he enjoyed his small revenue in peace of mind. Who could tell now if he was not eaten up with remorse, and if while on the road he did not feel more than once the pangs of a conscience ill at ease; for he was too rich to be innocent, too powerful to be at ease? Wolsey was received at Bruges, as if he had been a powerful sovereign, and conducted to the imperial palace where Charles embraced him before all his courtiers. A sumptuous suite of apartments had been prepared for him. Sentinels kept guard at his door by night and day. His table was covered with meats of every kind prepared by the best cooks,(a) and, adds the facetious chronicler, wine was not deficient. (b) The prelate, a jovial guest, by no means a despiser of good cheer, did too much honour to his host's table, and suffered a little from indigestion; however he attributed his indisposition to the pressure of business.(c) princes; making longer mine abode here to perfect the said truce rather for keeping your grace out of the wars till ye might sufficiently be furnished for the same, than for any other cause or occasion. MSS. Galba, B. VII.,

P. 45.

(a) Hall. (b) Hall.

(c) Wolsey's letter to the king, 24th Aug. -MSS. Galba, B. VII., p. 1 1.

Henry unacquainted with the real origin of his favourite's illness, censured him severely for neglecting his health, and bade him do so no more.(d) His indisposition was not by any means severe; for a few days after, Wolsey recommenced his work, and signed in his master's name a league offensive and defensive in conjunction with Charles against Francis. This treaty was called the Bene placitum.(c)

It now became the King of England's good pleasure to break his word, to tear up those very conventions signed under the invocation of the Holy Trinity, and to perjure himself in the eyes of God and man. Some English historians have endeavoured to justify his conduct by asserting that he was only a tame instrument in the hands of Wolsey; however, Henry was no longer a child, but was actuated in every step he took by ambition. At the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he had stopped while enumerating his titles, and dared not add King of France, but now, emboldened by the success of his Premier, the Machiavel lian arch priest, (f) he was willing, if he could, to steal a crown. But he did not think of Francis, of that sword with which the Chevalier de Bayard had armed his master, after the battle of Marignano, and of that God who waits not for eternity to punish acts of treachery.

On his return to Calais, Wolsey met the French ambassadors. Nothing in his conduct could awaken the slightest suspicion; he was never more courteous. While speaking of Francis, he lauded his character as a prince, and Duprat imagined that he might trust in the unchangeable affection of the King of England. After dinner, therefore, he took the cardinal aside, and told him that Francis had more confidence in Henry than in any other of his allies.(g)

Henry wrote thus about this time: "I fear that when Francis discovers all that bas occurred at Bruges, he will lay an

(d) MSS. Galba, ib. pp. 99 and 113.
(e) MSS. Galba, B. VII., p. 104.
(f) Turner.

(g) The Chancellor of France, after he had dined with me, declared expressly, that the king his master hath in you his most affiance before all other princes.-MSS. Galba, B. VII., p. 50.

embargo on the English vessels that are in port at Bordeaux, and will stop the payment of my pension."(a) These apprehensions were well-founded, but Wolsey lost no time in inspiring his master with confidence, alleging that it was impossible for Francis to be so soon acquainted with what had transpired at Bruges,(b) and besides he would have too many enemies to attempt to confiscate the English vessels or stop the pensions.(c) The cardinal soon found a pretext (furnished him by chance) for breaking off the conference. He had drawn up a project of peace between the rival powers, entirely in favour of Charles, when it was bruited abroad that Bonnivet, who had, while at London, thoroughly studied Wolsey's character, had appealed to arms by taking forcible possession of Fontarabia,(d) and bad thus opportunely exposed to view the plot that England was hatching. Wolsey, as arbitrator, decided that France had violated the peace, by this act on the part of her admiral, and that consequently Henry was compelled by the treaty of Noyon to aid Charles. It was then asserted that Francis, the model of chivalry, was faithless, and that Charles, Wolsey's accomplice, was a prince of irreproachable loyalty. Henry, who had promised his daughter in marriage to the two princes at once, who violated without a blush all that man regarded as sacred; who, while countng with the one hand the money so religiously paid him by his "good brother," whom he betrayed, with the other essayed the sword he was about to draw against

(a) Wolsey thus writes on the 4th Septem. ber, 1521: Considering the dangers that might ensue, by taking your navy at Bourdeaux, and the suspicion that might be impressed on the French king's mind, by the abstaining of your said navy from thence, which might cause him to refrain, and stop your pension payable unto you within brief time; you desire me to consider what is best to be done.-MSS. Galba, B. VII., p. 50.

(b) As yet for any bruit, or any thing concluded with the emperor, they have no manner suspicion. MSS. ib. p. 51.

(c) I think the French king, troubled and infested with so many enemies and armies on every side, will beware how he attempts any thing against you, whereby he shall give occasion or provoke you to break with him and join his enemies.-MSS. ib.

(d) Lingard.

him, was, for a short time, regarded in the light of an honest man; and when we call to mind that history has been for some time the innocent accomplice of this prince and his minister, ought not our hearts to bound with joy in applauding him who has collected at the British Museum all the documents which throw such light on the diplomatic intrigue of Bruges?

Wolsey only looked forward for the reward promised him by the emperor. The chair of St. Peter was about to become vacant, and he aspired to it, as if the tiara, even in a political point of view, could possibly be the reward of diplomatic skill.(e) Leo, who had not participated in the plotting at Bruges, had just obtained possession of Parma and Piacenza. Sforza had returned to Naples. The French were threatened with expulsion from Italy, and Schinner, that implacable enemy to all foreigners, would sing a Te Deum in the Basilica of St. Ambrose, in honour of his mountaineers. But the Pope did not long enjoy his triumph. He breathed his last on the 21st of September, 1521, at Magliana.

The conclave assembled on the morrow of his death. At that solemn hour, Wolsey, actuated by fear, or perhaps by hypocrisy, hesitated, as if he dreaded the responsibility of the papacy which Julius II. and Leo X. had adorned. He spoke of his weakness to his protectors, and even murmured forth the word humility.(f) But the demon tempted him by exhibiting to him the tiara, and Wolsey yielded. For him was the glory of the Vatican, the papacy, and the world; and we are sure, that like Richard III., he would have willingly given up all his grandeur for a horse to convey him to Rome. He despatched messenger after messenger to Charles to remind him of his promise to Pace, pressing him to gain or buy the votes. The sacred college deliberate; the cardinals are in their cells. Each evening the votes of the day are burned and the ashes thrown into the fire, the smoke of which announces to the people that the Holy Ghost is still mute. At last he has spoken, and a barbarian is

(e) Fiddes. (f) Fiddes.

Adrian, the new Pope, was indeed elected by Divine Providence. Now that, thanks to the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, theology, history, philosophy, painting, music, sculpture, language, have successively revived, that Rome has again become the source of light to Christendom; the world is no longer in need of a Pope who is an artist. What it now wants, and what it has in Adrian, is a poor priest, who, on entering Rome, takes off his shoes and traverses the streets barefooted, having no other cortège than the blind and the paralytic.(b) Wolsey, and here we would speak of the Church as of an empire, at the Vatican, would have been like the golden calf. " Fortunately, God was more powerful in His little finger!" to use an expression of Luther's, than Charles who had four crowns in his shield, or Henry, who called himself King of England and France, or Wolsey, who led kings and emperors.

The cardinal had been deceived by his accomplice. Charles, forgetful of his promise, had but feebly supported Wolsey's shameful intrigues; but happily he knew how to appease him. In a trip which he made about this time to London, and of which Hall has described the various incidents,(c) the emperor promised to increase his pension, (d) and Wolsey, through gratitude, promised also on his side, to devote himself soul and body to the emperor's cause. There was yet a glimmering of hope left. Adrian VI. was a sickly old man, and could not possibly live long. Charles accordingly, on the Pontiff's decease, promised to do all he could to get Wolsey the tiara,() and the cardinal said within himself, "I shall be Pope." While waiting for the tiara, he solicited and obtained the prolongation of his authority as legate in England. Wolsey

(a) Campeggio informed Wolsey of Adrian's election. MSS. Vitell. B. V., p. 7.

(b) Coming on foot to Rome, before his entry into the city, he did put off his shoe.— Life of More.

looked on his two crosses as something very beautiful, and was delighted at hearing his valets continually crying out to the people, "Room for the Chancellor !" "Room for his Holiness's legate!" while Adrian was descending the steps of the Vatican, leaning on his staff, which he had not given up since he left Tortosa."(f)

IN May, 1522, Sir Thomas Cheyney took leave of the King of France. (a) To the ambassador's declaration, that Charles on leaving for Spain, had left his cause in the hands of his ally, the King of England, Francis replied with true nobleness of heart that he believed, that till that moment, Henry never had any reason given him to complain of his conduct; that he had conscientiously kept his oath, and been faithful to his word; and that in his cause he well knew, with the aid of God, how to defend his crown; and added, smiling, that after such a rupture, he would not take a single step towards England.(b)

Francis could no longer be deceived. A league had been mysteriously formed against France under the direction of Wolsey. Francis, in order to occupy the King of England, thought of diverting his attention with regard to Scotland and

(a) Despatch of Cheyney to Wolsey.-MSS. Galba, p. 225.

(b) Despatch of Cheyney to Wolsey.-Ib.

Ireland. Seduced by brilliant promises, the Earl of Desmond, the chief of a powerful party in Ireland, engaged to raise the country as soon as the French army should have landed, and on the conquest of the island being effected, to share it with Richard de la Pole,(c) the sole representative of the House of York. Another adversary, whom Francis desired to oppose to his perfidious enemy, was the Duke of Albany, appointed, at the request of the Queen Dowager, Regent of Scotland.

Margaret had quarrelled with her husband, from whom she wished to be divorced, for she had heard that James IV., her first husband, lived three years after the engagement at Flodden, and that he was consequently still living at the time when she had given her hand to the Earl of Angus. Albany might be serviceable to France; the truce between England and Scotland had just expired. Henry offered to renew it on condition of the Duke of Albany being

(c) Lingard.