Page:The Queens of England.djvu/326

286 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. him sensible of Anne's preference to himself. Playing at blows shortly after with several nobles and gentlemen, among whom was Wyatt, Henry affirmed a cast to be his, which the others declared not to be so ; he, pointing with the finger on which was the ring, repeatedly addressing himself to Wyatt, said, "I tell thee, Wyatt, it is mine," laying a peculiar emphasis on the word mine. Wyatt, recognizing the ring, took the jeweled tablet from his breast, and holding the lace by which it was suspended in his hand, replied, "If it may please your majesty to give me leave to measure it with this lace, I hope it will be mine," and he stooped down to measure the cast. The king, recognizing the tablet, having frequently noticed it in Anne Boleyn's posses- sion, angrily spurned away the bowls and exclaimed, "It may be so — but then I am deceived !"* and broke up the game. He then hastened to the lady of his love, to whom he revealed his suspicions, which she quickly dissipated by declaring the truth, and Henry became more in love with her than ever, in conse- quence of the jealous pangs he had for a brief interval endured. For one so keenly observant of men and matters, Cardinal Wolsey was for a long time surprisingly ignorant of his mas- ter's real intentions toward Anne Boleyn, judging him possessed of a fleeting fancy. When the cardinal returned from his em- bassy to France, whither he had been sent to conciliate a friend- ship between Francis the First and Henry, as well as to propose a marriage between the Duke of Orleans, the second son of Francis, and the Princess Mary, the surprise could only be equaled by the alarm he experienced, when Henry revealed his matrimonial engagement with Anne Boleyn. Aware that to at- tempt to shake the king's resolve on this point would not only be utterly useless, but would inevitably draw on himself the dis- pleasure of his sovereign, he concealed his feelings and de- termined, by delaying as long as he possibly could the proceed- ings for the divorce, to give Henry time to be weaned from Anne Boleyn before its accomplishment, counting on the natural fickleness and caprice of his master for the probability of this result. Cardinal Wolsey felt a peculiar repugnance to Anne Boleyn. Whether it originated in having observed certain demonstra- tions of dislike on her part, occasioned by the recollection of his having broken off her engagement with Percy, the only man ^Extracts from the "Life of Anne Boleign," by George Wyatt, Esq., p. 7, printed in Cavendish's "Life of Cardinal Wolsey," p. 427.