Now she sat on a seat, and watched her young attendants playing, while
she turned over the pages of her prayer book. One pair especially her
eyes followed with pleasure--the uncommonly beautiful Anna of Norfolk
and young Henry Algernon Percy of Northumberland, Hotspur’s descendant.
The pair were playing with roses; the youth had an armful of white and
the girl an armful of red roses, which they threw at each other, singing
as they lid so.
It was a beautiful sight, but the Queen became sad: “Don’t play like
that, children,” she said; “it awakens memories which ought to sleep in
the Tower, where Only the dead can sleep quietly. Besides, the King, and
consequently the Cardinal, will be vexed; they sit there in the library.
Play something else!”
The two young people seemed not to understand. Accordingly the Queen
continued: “The Wars of the Roses, children, did not end altogether at
Bosworth but--in the Tower happened much that is best forgotten. Take a
book and read something.”
“We have been reading all the morning,” answered Anne surnamed Boleyn or
Bullen.
“What are you reading then?
“Chaucer.”
“_The Canterbury Tales_? Those are not for children: Chaucer was a
jester. You had better take my book. It has beautiful pictures.” The
young Percy took the little breviary, and, going down the path as though
they sought the shade, they both quietly disappeared from the Queen’s
eyes.
But from the library four eyes had followed them, those of the King and
the Cardinal, while they turned over the folios.
The King was uneasy, and spoke more for the sake of speaking than
because he had something to say, and so did the Cardinal.
“You ought to aim at the Papacy, Cardinal, as Hadrian’s successor.”
“Yes, so they say.”
“What about the votes?”
“They are controlled by the Emperor Charles V and King Francis I.”
“How can one bring such a discordant pair into harmony?”
“That is just what requires diplomatic skill, sire.”
“You cannot stand on good terms with both.”
“Who knows? The Emperor has taken Rome, and placed the Pope in the
Castle of St. Angelo ... that was a droll stroke! Then the soldiers in
jest, under the windows of the Castle, called out for Martin Luther as
Pope.”
“Name not his cursed name,” growled the King, but more in anger at what
he saw in the rose-garden than at the mention of Luther.
The Cardinal understood him. “I do not like a union between
Northumberland and Norfolk,” he said.
“What do you say?” asked the King. He was angry that Wolsey had read his
thoughts, but did not wish to betray himself.
“Anne is really too good for a Percy, and I find it improper of the
Queen to act as a match-maker, and let them go alone in the shrubbery.
No, that must have an end!”
“Sire, it is already at an end; I have written to Anne’s father to call
her home to Hever.”
“You did well in that, by heaven! Two such families, who both aim at the
succession, ought not to unite.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account