Knight saw Wolsey on his way through France and hoodwinked him as to his true mission by means of a bogus set of instructions, though the Cardinal was evidently suspicious and ill at ease. This was on the 12th September 1527, and less than a fortnight later Wolsey hurried homeward. When he had set forth from England three months before he seemed to hold the King in the hollow of his hand. Private audience for him was always ready, and all doors flew open at his bidding. But when he appeared on the 30th September at the palace of Richmond, and sent one of his gentlemen to inquire of the King where he would receive him, Anne sat in the great hall by Henry's side, as was usual now. Before the King could answer the question of Wolsey's messenger, the favourite, with a petulance that Katharine would have considered undignified, snapped, "Where else should the Cardinal come but where the King is?" For the King to receive his ministers at private audience in a hall full of people was quite opposed to the usual etiquette of Henry's Court, and Wolsey's man still stood awaiting the King's reply. But it only came in the form of a nod that confirmed the favourite's decision. This must have struck the proud Cardinal to the heart, and when he entered the hall and bowed before his sovereign, who was toying now with his lady-love, and joking with his favourites, the minister must have known that his empire over Henry had for the time vanished. He was clever and crafty: he had often conquered difficulties before, and was not dismayed now that a young woman had supplanted him, for he still held confidence in himself. So he made no sign of annoyance, but he promptly tried to checkmate Knight's mission when he heard of it, whilst pretending approval of the King's attachment to Anne. The latter was deceived. She could not help seeing that with Wolsey's help she would attain her object infinitely more easily than without it, and she in her turn smiled upon the Cardinal, though her final success would have boded ill for him, as he well knew.