Cromwell, if the King was really anxious to secure this desirable wife, not to press the former point, money being so scarce in Spain and the Netherlands that the Emperor would rather leave his niece unwed, than part with so large a sum. At the close of the sitting the Duke of Aerschot begged Wriothesley to stay to dinner, and gave him the chief place at table and pre-eminence in all things. The fare was abundant; four courses of ten dishes were served in silver, with "covers of a marvellous clean and honourable sort," and carvers and waiters stood around, and attended as diligently to the Ambassador's wants as if he were a Prince. Later in the evening the Duke's brother-in-law, the Marquis of Berghen, who was always well disposed to the English, came to supper, and chatted pleasantly for some time, but shocked Wriothesley by asking him if it were true that all religion was extinct in England, that Mass was abolished, and that the bones of saints were publicly burned. Cromwell's Commissioner, who had himself plundered the shrines of St. Swithun at Winchester and of St. Thomas at Canterbury, could hardly deny this latter charge, although he declared stoutly that only such money-making devices and tricks of the friars as the Rood of Boxley and the tomb of Becket had been unmasked. But, in spite of the outward civility with which the Ambassador was treated, he realized that all good Catholics in Flanders looked on him with horror and disgust. [Sidenote: JAN., 1539] MARY'S APPEAL]