when I will either make or marre, or ever I come againe. I will put myself in prease, to see what they will be able to lay to my charge.” “Mary,” quoth I, “then in so doing you shall doe wisely, beseeching God to send you good lucke, as I would myselfe[147].”’ Cromwell performed his promise well. He dined with Wolsey on that All-hallowne Day, and later helped him to discharge his servants, causing his chaplains to pay part of the yeomen’s wages, in return for the benefices and livings which they had received from the Cardinal; setting an example himself, with unusual liberality, by a contribution of five pounds to this end. He then desired of Wolsey leave to go to London, which was granted, and he departed immediately with Ralph Sadler, his clerk. No one knew better than Cromwell that the best place for him to ‘make or marre’ the Cardinal’s fortunes and his own, was in the Parliament which was to meet November 3 (two days later), and, ‘being in London, he devised with himself to be one of the burgesses[148].’ He sat as a member from Taunton, as the records of Parliament attest[149], but there are very contradictory reports about the way in which he obtained his seat. According to Cavendish ‘he chaunced to meete with one Sir Thomas Rush, knighte, a speciall friend of his, whose son was appointed to be a burgess, of whome he obtained his rome, and so put his fete into the parliament house.’ This may possibly be true, but it is not the whole truth, for a letter of November 1, from Sadler to Cromwell, the genuineness of which it is impossible to doubt, hints at a good deal more than is to be found in Cavendish’s account, which must have been made from Cromwell’s own story about his proceedings[150]. This letter reads as follows:--