[English draft begins here.][ [457] "Wherefore after all preparations made for that purpose and the banns openly asked, the said marriage between the said Queen and Duke was solemnized at Greenwich in presence of the King, the Queen, and such other nobles and estates of this realm as then were attending in the Court, on Sunday the 13th day of this instant month of May, and with the same all the said estates and others of this realm be very glad and well pleased. And considering that there be no mo privy to the said secret marriage made between them in France, but only the said French King and none privy here unto but the King, to whom the said French King and Duke disclosed the same, the said Sir William Sidney shall say that the King's Grace desireth and perfectly trusteth that for the honour of the said French Queen and for avoiding of all evil bruits which may ensue thereof, he will reserve and keep the same at all times hereafter secret to himself without making any creature privy thereunto, like as the King shall do for his part. And at this point the said Sir William Sidney shall pause, noting and marking substantially what answer the said French King shall make hereunto to the intent he may certify the said Archbishop of York and the Duke of Suffolk thereof accordingly."
Thus Suffolk and Wolsey laboured to repair the damage, but with little effect; secrecy had become impossible, the news was over Europe.
Here ends the via dolorosa to their open marriage, and now, after this hour in a fierce light which revealed the very beating of her heart, Mary sinks back into the cloud of obscurity which covers the lives of people neither politically nor criminally important. Occasionally, as will be seen hereafter, the cloud lifts, only to close down again almost immediately. Of her married life little can be found, and if the well-known stanza written on their portrait indicates anything, it is a certain loving tolerance on the part of Suffolk for his capricious, warm-hearted wife.
"Cloth of gold do not despise,
Though thou be matched with cloth of frize:
Cloth of frize be not too bold,
Though thou be matched with cloth of gold."
CHAPTER XI
AFTERWARDS
SO far as consecutive dated documents go, Mary's history comes to an end with her open marriage, for this last chapter is largely made up of odds and ends of information, undated letters, dated scraps, as tantalizing in their laconic information as the fuller undated letters in their vagueness. When possible from internal evidence, the letters have been dated, but generally this is not so, and they are chiefly valuable as accentuating that pleasant trait in Mary's character, already noticed in her history, her readiness to use her influence to help her dependents. The letters are with few exceptions addressed to Wolsey, and they show in their language, which one cannot help but believe to be the expression of genuine feeling, that she never forgot his help in her time of trouble. With one exception, the question of the divorce of Katharine, we have absolutely no data to show what was her attitude towards the circling events of the ensuing eighteen years, and this chapter is found to bear the same relation to the foregoing ones as the stick does to the rocket.