proclaim the stroke of death, and look with eagerness for the fatal flag, which was to assure him she breathed no more !*

* There is a tradition, that the King went from Richmond to a spot where he could hear the guns, and discern the black flag, that announced Anne Boleyn's ex

ecution.

CHAPTER VI.

Commencement of the Process for the Divorce.

DURING a long series of years, Cardinal Wolsey had been the envied favorite of fortune, contending with monarchs in power, and surpassing them in magnificence.

The establishment of his household was truly regal*; and whenever he left his palace, it was with the air of a conqueror who demanded a triumph. During term time, his daily progress to Westminster Hall was watched and hailed like the pageant of a public festival. Habited in crimson robes, with a tippet of black sables about his neck, he mounted, with

* Three tables were served in his hall within the palace. In his kitchen presided a master-cook, habited in a suit of velvet or satin, and decorated with a chain of gold: a superfluous population of yeomen and grooms swarmed in each department, having under them a troop of menials, by whom its duties were effectively executed. The chapel was served with a dean, and forty persons of various denominations. Eight hundred individuals are said to have been in his household.

a semblance of apostolical humility, a mule trapped in crimson velvet. Before him were borne, in state, the symbols of his authority: -first was displayed the broad seal of England; the Cardinal's hat was then exhibited ; two red crosses next attracted the eye; and beyond marched two pillar-bearers in solemn state*: on either side rode nobles and gentlemen; whilst four footmen preceded the Cardinal's mule, each presenting the gilt poleaxe, the ensign of justice, to the awestricken spectator. Wherever the sublime Legate approached, he was greeted with spontaneous obeisance; "On, on my masters!" was vociferated from every quarter: "Room for the Cardinal! make way for my Lord Cardinal !” On alighting at the Hall he was surrounded by numerous suitors, to whom he assumed an air of courtesy, rather condescending than gracious; and it was observed that he often applied to his nostrils a hollow orange, filled with sponge steeped in aromatics and

* This procession is thus described by Skelton :

With worldly pomp incredible,
Before him rideth two prestes stronge,
And they bear two crosses right longe,
Gapynge in every man's face:

After them follow two laymen secular,
And eache of them holdinge a pillar,
In their handes stead of a mace.
Then followeth my Lord on his mule,
Trapped with gold.

Then hath he servants five or six score,
Some behind and some before.

vinegar, avowedly to protect himself from contagion. Owing to a defect of sight, his looks seemed averted from the misery which sometimes reached his ear without touching his heart. Such was Wolsey, the butcher's son, the Boy-Batchelor of Magdalen College, -the adventurer of Calais ! Every morning witnessed the renewal of these honors, and every night he retired to rest, fatigued, if not satisfied, with the incense of adulation.

Under this flattering exterior of felicity, a secret discontent corroded the Cardinal's breast; and all the prosperity of his former life, perhaps, scarcely counterbalanced the mortification he experienced, when to Adrian succeeded Julius de Medici in the papacy; an event which at once disclosed to him the Emperor's ingratitude, and his own credulous facility. To aggravate his chagrin, fortune continued to smile on Charles, who triumphed by the very means he had used to arrest his progress, and obscure his glory.

By an article of the treaty contracted between Charles and Henry, it was stipulated that the latter should furnish a monthly subsidy to the Duke of Bourbon, who commanded the imperial troops in Italy, and depended on this supply for their subsistence. At the end of the first campaign (in 1524), Wolsey, who had already entered into a secret correspondence with an agent in the interest of France, recalled the English troops, and privately withheld the money so anxiously expected. In this emergency the Duke of Bourbon,

with the courage of desperation, attacked the French army, and obtained the celebrated victory of Pavia, in which Francis "lost all but life and honor." It was, perhaps, not the least galling of Wolsey's chagrins, that he had publicly to celebrate mass in honor of a monarch who repaid his services with unkindness and contempt. Fortunately for the Cardinal, Henry, who piqued himself on preserving the equilibrium of power, became alarmed at the progress of his ally, and readily agreed to enter into clandestine engagements with the Regent Louisa, to effect the liberation of her son, and to preserve untouched, the integrity of the French empire.

It is a melancholy reflection, that, in civilised as in barbarous nations, the most unoffending or meritorious individuals are often the victims immolated to the insatiable spirit of conquest, or the calculations of sordid policy. Of this truth, one of the best scholars of the age, Dr. Richard Pace, (the meritorious successor to Dean Colet, at St. Paul's,) was destined to become the unfortunate example. Eminently distinguished by that elegance and delicacy of taste which seem in unison with correct moral feeling, he had attracted Henry's notice by the purity and eloquence of his Latin compositions; and was frequently employed by him as a diplomatic agent in Germany and Italy. Seduced by the blandishments of royal favor, this almost ascetic recluse, to whom a library was in reality dearer than a kingdom, suffered himself to be drawn into the snares