Pageantry has indeed at all times been the device of rogues to catch fools. Of course, sometimes the rogue takes as much pleasure in getting up and participating in the show as the fool does in beholding it. Wolsey took delight in it, because it enabled him to display his wealth; but there was also policy in it when such display seemed to prove his loyalty. But the exhibition is not without its dangers. When it is made to a man who is envious and covetous, and, moreover, has not only the will but the power to gratify his avaricious longings, the risk is very great. As we have already seen, it was fatal in Wolsey’s case. He had to surrender Hampton Court to Henry VIII. much as a traveller gives up his purse and watch to the well-armed highwayman. True, for this truly princely present Henry bestowed upon Wolsey the manor-house of Richmond, an old and favourite residence of his predecessor, Henry VII., and also of Henry VIII. himself in the early part of his reign; but it was particularly galling to the ancient servants of Henry VII. to see the recent habitation of their Sovereign occupied by one whom they considered an upstart, and they joined in the popular outcry against Wolsey, concerning whom it was remarked that strange things had come to pass since ’a bocher’s dog should live in the manor of Richmond.’ But though the palace of Hampton Court was now the King’s property, Wolsey’s connection with it was not totally severed from it at once. In 1527 Wolsey, by the desire of the King, feasted the ambassadors from the King of France in the building. The preparations for, and the feast itself, are related with terrible prolixity by the gentleman usher Cavendish, already quoted; as his description gives a fair specimen of what was then a grand banquet, we quote from it the following passages: