'I shall not go out at all to-morrow, but remain entirely within my own walls; but summon the Bishop of London by authority of mine hand, to wait upon me at ten o'clock to-morrow. Remember, Cavendish, that I do not wish it to be known, the cause why I remain at home to-morrow. I have old friends, dear friends, whom I have deserted for many years now sleeping beneath my roof. Let the utmost respect be paid them; for if it were the last day of my grandeur, I could not devote it to a better purpose than the revival of friendship. 'Alas, Master Cavendish, I fear my fortunes will not long stand. How happy I ought to feel that they have stood thus long, so as to permit me to gratify the friends of my youth. Mistress Alice is gone; and I know not how it is, I feel as if a load of care was gone along with her. 'Thou shall sup with me this night. My aged friend did well to retire. I shall have much to talk to thee about; meantime prepare.' The Cardinal never was so happy, or so truly great, as he was that evening in speaking of all the days of his youth, and relating anecdotes which came, as they always do come, with great grace from great men. 'When great men speak, the falling pin is heard, But when the poor--his case must be deferred.' CHAPTER XXXIX. THE CHANGE. What a wonderful softening thing is adversity. It may come in the shape of poverty; it may come in the severity of calamity; it may come in the loss of a friend; or it may come suddenly by seeming accident. But when it does really come, when the poor mortal, great and powerful, is made to feel it--oh! how heartily does he desire the return of his mother's tenderness, or his father's generosity. A great man like Wolsey, a companion to one of England's proudest, though not her best nor her worst monarch, one of superior ability, as well as most absolute authority, was likely to feel the neglect of such a prince; and, falling from the favor of ambition, his great mind was softened to think of the friends of his youth. Ambition is a bold horse; he mounts his fences well; he leaps over walls, gates, ditches, and hedges, and goes at a slashing pace over the country. He requires to be well kept in hand, and not to be pushed too hard at first. He must be well trained, well directed, and curbed in at first. He is apt to be like Grey Hermit, the royal huntsman's old favorite, so well depicted in Grant's picture of the 'Queen's Stag Hounds.' Davis had enough to do to keep him in order for the first burst of the hunt; for he was '_wild as the wild deer_' and threw himself over his fences like a mad horse; but by dint of a master manager, he would sober down into a steady pace, and 'shine at the last when all others were in shade.' So, affliction coming upon the ambitious man, sobers him down to the steady realities of his work.