第88章 CARDINAL WOLSEY(24)

"At last, thou art in my power, accursed being!" cried Henry."Thou art hemmed in on all sides, and canst not escape!""Ho! ho! ho! "laughed Herne.

This shall prove whether thou art human or not," cried Henry, taking deliberate aim at him with the dag.

"Ho! ho! ho!" laughed Herne.And as the report rang through the room, he sank through the floor, and disappeared from view.

"Gone!" exclaimed Henry, as the smoke cleared off; "gone! Holy Mary!

then it must indeed be the fiend.I made the middle of his skull my aim, and if he had not been invulnerable, the bullet must have pierced his brain.

"I heard it rebound from his horned helmet, and drop to the floor," said Bouchier.

"What is that chest?" cried Henry, pointing to a strange coffin-shaped box, lying, as it seemed, on the exact spot where the demon had disappeared.

No one had seen it before, though all called to mind the mysterious hammering; and they had no doubt that the coffin was the work of the demon.

"Break it open," cried Henry; "for aught we know, Herne may be concealed within it."The order was reluctantly obeyed by the arquebusiers.But no force was required, for the lid was not nailed down; and when it was removed, a human body in the last stage of decay was discovered.

"Pah! close it up," cried Henry, turning away in disgust."How came it there?""It must have been brought by the powers of darkness," said Bouchier;"no such coffin was here when I searched the chamber two hours ago.

But see," he suddenly added, stooping down, and picking up a piece of paper which had fallen from the coffin, "here is a scroll.""Give it me!" cried Henry; and holding it to the light, he read the words, "The body of Mark Fytton, the butcher, the victim of a tyrant's cruelty."Uttering a terrible imprecation, Henry flung the paper from him; and bidding the arquebusiers burn the body at the foot of the gallows without the town, he quitted the tower without further search.

XII.How Wolsey was disgraced by the King.

On the following day, a reconciliation took place between the king and Anne Boleyn.During a ride in the great park with his royal brother, Suffolk not only convinced him of the groundlessness of his jealousy, but contrived to incense him strongly against Wolsey.Thus the queen and the cardinal lost the momentary advantage they had gained, while Anne's power was raised yet higher.Yielding to her entreaties not to see Catherine again, nor to hold further conference with Wolsey until the sentence of the court should be pronounced, Henry left the castle that very day, and proceeded to his palace of Bridewell.The distress of the unhappy queen at this sudden revolution of affairs may be conceived.Distrusting Wolsey, and putting her sole reliance on Heaven and the goodness of her cause, she withdrew to Blackfriars, where she remained till the court met.As to the cardinal himself, driven desperate by his situation, and exasperated by the treatment he had experienced, he resolved, at whatever risk, to thwart Henry's schemes, and revenge himself upon Anne Boleyn.

Thus matters continued till the court met as before in the Parliament-chamber, at Blackfriars.On this occasion Henry was present, and took his place under a cloth of estate,--the queen sitting at some distance below him.Opposite them were the legates, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the whole of the bishops.The aspect of the assemblage was grave and anxious.Many eyes were turned on Henry, who looked gloomy and menacing, but the chief object of interest was the queen, who, though pale as death, had never in her highest days of power worn a more majestic and dignified air than on this occasion.

The proceedings of the court then commenced, and the king being called by the crier, he immediately answered to the summons.

Catherine was next called, and instead of replying, she marched towards the canopy beneath which the king was seated, prostrated herself, and poured forth a most pathetic and eloquent appeal to him, at the close of which she arose, and making a profound reverence, walked out of the court, leaning upon the arm of her general receiver, Griffith.

Henry desired the crier to call her back, but she would not return; and seeing the effect produced by her address upon the auditory, he endeavoured to efface it by an eulogium on her character and virtues, accompanied by an expression of deep regret at the step he was compelled to take in separating himself from her.But his hypocrisy availed him little, and his speech was received with looks of ill-disguised incredulity.Some further discourse then took place between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester; but as the queen had absented herself, the court was adjourned to the next day, when it again met, and as she did not then appear, though summoned, she was pronounced contumacious.After repeated adjournments, the last session was held, and judgment demanded on the part of the king, when Campeggio, as had been arranged between him and Wolsey, declined to pronounce it until he had referred the matter to the Pope, and the court was dissolved.

About two months after this event, during which time the legate's commission had been revoked, while Henry was revolving the expediency of accomplishing the divorce through the medium of his own ecclesiastical courts, and without reference to that of Rome, a despatch was received from the Pope by the two cardinals, requiring them to cite the king to appear before him by attorney on a certain day.

At the time of the arrival of this instrument, Campeggio chanced to be staying with Wolsey at his palace at Esher, and as the king was then holding his court at Windsor, they both set out for the castle on the following day, attended by a retinue of nearly a hundred horsemen, splendidly equipped.