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indignation were sufficient to cast me and all my posterity into utter ruin and destruction; but, he being my singular good and favorable Prince, and my Lord Cardinal my good lord, hath, and doth clearly excuse me in thy lewd fact, and doth rather lament thy lightness, than malign me for the same, and hath devised an order to be taken for thee, to whom both thou and I be more bound then we be able well to consider: I pray to God, that this may be unto thee a sufficient admonition to use thyself more wisely hereafter; for that, as I assure thee, if thou dost not amend thy prodigality, thou wilt be the last Earl of our house; for, of thy natural inclination, thou art disposed to be wasteful and prodigal, and to consume all that thy progenitors have, with great travail gathered, and kept together with honor; but loving the King's majesty, my singular good and gracious lord, I trust, I assure thee, so to order my succession, that ye shall consume thereof but a little; for I do not intend, I tell thee truth, to make thee my heir; for, thanks be to God, I have more boys that, I trust, will prove much better, and use themselves more like world-wise and honest men, of whom I will choose the most likely to succeed me. Now, good masters and gentlemen, quoth he, unto us, it may be your chances hereafter, when I am dead, to see these things, that I have spoken to my son, prove so true as I speak them: yet, in the mean season, I desire you all to be his friends, and to tell him his fault when he doeth amiss, wherein

ye shall show yourselves friendly unto him; and here, quoth he, I take my leave of you; and son, go your ways into my lord, your master, and attend upon him according to thy duty. And so he departed, and went his way, down the hall, into his barge."

In the meanwhile, a similar task was imposed on Sir Thomas Boleyn, who, however unwilling to relinquish such an advantageous connection, was equally prompt in obeying the king's wishes, and consented to withdraw his daughter from the court, without suffering a murmur to escape his lips. It was otherwise with Anne, who, naturally high spirited and ingenuous, could neither suppress nor conceal her resentment. She was, however, so far from penetrating the real cause of her disappointment, that she attributed it exclusively to the Cardinal's malicious interference; and, on leaving the palace, protested with an impetuosity which, fatally for herself, she never learnt to control, that she would some day find the means to requite the injury.

CHAPTER V.

Anne Boleyn's Retirement at Hever Castle.Recal to Court.-Celebrated by Sir Thomas Wiatt.-Progress of Henry's Attachment.

ON quitting the court, Anne Boleyn indignantly retired to her father's favorite residence, at Hever Castle.* The aspect of this edifice, which had been originally built in the reign of Edward the Third, was venerable and imposing. In its moated walls, its Gothic turrets, and

* Hever Castle, in Kent, derives its name from a Norman Baron, who, under Edward the Third, obtained the King's licence to embattle his manor-house. By his daughters it was conveyed to the families of Cobham and Brown. The former having acquired the whole by purchase, sold it to Geoffrey Boleyn. On the death of Sir Thomas Boleyn, in 1538, Henry, with matchless rapacity, claimed it in right of a wife, from whom, previous to her being beheaded, he had been divorced. The manor was afterwards settled on the Lady Anne of Cleves; after her death, granted to Sir Edward Waldegrave, from whose family it passed to the Humphreys, and finally to the family of the Medleys, in Sussex.

military drawbridge, might be traced the same stern features of feudal magnificence which reigned in the majestic towers of Wresil Castle, that ancient seat of the Percies, of which she had so lately hoped to become the mistress. The entrance to this mansion was by a gateway, flanked with round-towers, and protected by a portcullis; but hospitality reigned within that mansion, of which the approach was rude and uninviting. The spacious hall recalled the image of baronial festivity, and on the windows of the long, winding gallery, Anne Boleyn might trace a series of heraldic honors, sufficiently illustrious to challenge alliance with the house of Percy. In her mother's right, she beheld the four-coated shield of Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray; whilst with still greater exultation she traced the eight quarters of Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, Ormond, that emblazoned her paternal escutcheon.* The wainscoted apartment which she occupied, with plain oaken pannels, is yet in existence.

* The armorial bearings of the Boleyns, with an additional shield of the Waldegraves, are still preserved on the windows of the castle. For Ormond, there is argent, three buckles, gules; a shield of four coats for Brotherton, Howard, Warren, Mowbray; a shield of eight coats for Bulleyn, Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, Ormond.-Anne Boleyn's armorial bearings were originally-argent, a chevreux between three bulls' heads, couped sable. When she was created Marchioness of Pembroke, these were disused, and another was granted.-See Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England.

The long gallery she so often traversed with impatience, still seems to re-echo her steps; and after the vicissitudes of three centuries, the impression of her youth, her beauty, and singular destiny, remains fresh and vivid to the susceptible imagination. In reverting to the tragical history of the passions, we cease to measure the distance that separates us from a departed age; and whilst each surrounding object wears an antiquated aspect, we revert with lively interest to those records of suffering and feeling which can never become obsolete the image of one, whose heart has long ceased to throb with human emotion, still speaks to our sympathies, and imperatively appeals to our pity or our justice.

The settlement of the Boleyns in this neighbourhood, originated with the prosperous citizen, Sir Geoffrey, who, not satisfied with having acquired the manor of Blickling, in Norfolk, secured to his heirs a retreat in Kent, by purchasing from the ancient family of the Grandisons the manor of Kemsing, including the villages of Hever, Scale, and Brocas. In the eyes of his successor, Sir William Boleyn, Rochford Hall possessed more attractions; but Sir Thomas, who probably found his revenue inadequate to the support of that stately mansion, eagerly embraced every opportunity to extend his Kentish demesnes; and having exchanged with the King, New Hall, in Essex, for certain rights of property in this county, he enlarged the bounds of Hever Castle, embellished the surrounding plantations, and

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