“If his majesty will listen to my counsel, he will throw off the pope's yoke altogether,” rejoined Anne. “Nay, your eminence may frown at me if you will. Such, I repeat, shall be my counsel. If the divorce is speedily obtained, I am your friend: if not—look to yourself.”
“Do not appeal to me, Wolsey,” said Henry, smiling approval at Anne; “I shall uphold her.”
“Will it please your majesty to peruse this despatch?” said Wolsey, again offering Catherine's letter.
“Take it to my closet,” replied the king; “I will join you there. And now at last we are good friends, sweetheart.”
“Excellent friends, my dear liege,” replied Anne; “but I shall never be your queen while Wolsey holds his place.”
“Then, indeed, he shall lose it,” replied Henry.
“She is a bitter enemy, certes,” muttered Wolsey as he walked away. “I must overthrow her quickly, or she will overthrow me. A rival must be found—ay, a rival—but where? I was told that Henry cast eyes on a comely forester's daughter at the chase this morning. She may do for the nonce.”
X.
Of the Mysterious Disappearance of Herne the Hunter in the
Lake.