But I will soon find it
out. Attempt to give the alarm, and I will cut thy throat."
With this he proceeded to the back of the north ambulatory, and finding
the door he sought unfastened, raised the latch and walked softly in.
But before he got half-way down the passage, Doctor Sampson himself
issued from an inner room with a lamp in his hand. He started on
seeing the king, and exhibited great alarm.
"The Cardinal of York is here--I know it," said Henry in a deep whisper.
"Lead me to him."
"Oh, go not forward, my gracious liege!" cried Sampson, placing himself
in his path.
"Wherefore not?" rejoined the king. "Ha! what voice is that I heard in
the upper chamber? Is she here, and with Wolsey? Out of my way, man,"
he added, pushing the canon aside, and rushing up the short wooden
staircase.
When Wolsey returned from his interview with the king, which had been
so unluckily interrupted by Anne Boleyn, he found his ante-chamber
beset with a crowd of suitors to whose solicitations he was compelled
to listen, and having been detained in this manner for nearly half an
hour, he at length retired into an inner room.
"Vile sycophants!" he muttered, "they bow the knee before me, and pay
me greater homage than they render the king, but though they have fed
upon my bounty and risen by my help, not one of them, if he was aware
of my true position, but would desert me.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390