The object of De Freston's visit was to persuade him to intercede with Dame Joan Wolsey, or, as it was then termed, Wuley, to part with her son for a time, that he might go to Oxford. There was no kind of difficulty, in a pecuniary view; though, had there been such, it would have been no disgrace whatever to his after career. But, as we have said, Wolsey was related to Edmund Daundy, a man who was ready to serve him, hand and heart. With such powerful friends as De Freston and Daundy, there could be no difficulty, as has been stated there was by some writers, in his being sent to Oxford. All the circumstances of the time tend to corroborate this fact. His father, likewise, was an independent man, upon the most intimate terms of friendship with all the leading men and merchants in Ipswich, and had no mean estates at the very period when some biographers speak of his poverty. His will is fortunately in existence, and is now acknowledged, by all modern historiographers, to prove that he was a man of considerable possessions. He leaves his property to his wife--for his son Thomas had, before his decease, intimated his intention of becoming a priest; and this may be the reason for the father's 'lands and tenements in St. Nicholas' parish, and his bond and free lands in the parish of Stoke, being left to his widow, and only a priest's portion, for prayers, being appointed for his son in that will.' The fact was, Thomas Wolsey was an only child, the pride of his parents, and the particular hope and delight of his attached mother. She had been alive to his disposition from infancy; she saw his eager aptitude for learning; she first fed and then encouraged it, and, being herself a woman of considerable attainments for her day, she rejoiced in the growing fame of her son. She had, however, taken a decided aversion to the priesthood as a profession for her son, and fearful lest, by going to Oxford, she should lose him, she had set her face against all the suggestions of his friends, and the arguments of her relatives. If prejudice alone had operated upon the mind of this excellent woman, she would not have been, as she was, so calmly forcible in her decisions against the measure; but she little thought what a powerful battery was to open its artillery upon her that day. The party arrived at the mansion of the wealthy burgess, and was welcomed by him with that hearty favor which he always bore to De Freston and his friends. 'Right welcome art thou, most noble lord--right welcome to my house and home. I did not expect to see thee, fair maiden, but, as thou art come, thou must be a coadjutor in our suit; and, if I mistake not, thou wilt carry more weight with Mistress Joan than all our united forces.' The maiden felt a little surprised, and, if truth be told, young Wolsey felt a no small degree of joy in the interest excited at the moment. Ellen could not help saying--