The King's Achievement

ristopher's departure t

nd went bac

ted such things as the price he must pay for his occasional duty visits to his parents. He could not help respecting the piety of his father, but he was none the less bored by it; and the atmosphere of silent cynicism that seemed to hang round his mother was his only relief. He thought he understood her, and it pleased him sometimes to watch her, to calculate how she would behave in any little domestic crisis or incident that affected her, to notice the slight movement of her lips an

that he was recalled by affairs; and there was sufficient truth in it, too, for one of the memoranda bore on the case of Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent, and announced her apprehension.

*

atch was reported to have taken a wife, and Cromwell desired information about this; Ralph had ridden out there one day and gossipped a little outside the parsonage; an inn-keeper a few miles to the north of Cuckfield had talked against the divorce and the reigning Consort; a mistake had been made in the matter of a preaching license, and Cranmer had desired Crom

by his master, he left his other servants to carry up the luggage, and set ou

hundredth time thinking of the hist

appointed privy-councillor, Master of the Jewel-house, and Clerk of the Hanaper in the Court of Chancery. At the same time he was actively engaged on his amazing system of espionage through which he was able to det

onfidential agent! Was there any lim

even as he hesitated in the entrance, Cromwell shambled down the stairs with a few papers in his hand, his long sl

lighted up briskly as he saw Ralph standing there,

into the carriage. Mr. Morris handed the bag through the window to his mast

ed out his papers now, shook them out briskly, and was soon explaining, marking and erasing. Cromwell leaned back in his corner and listened, putting in a word of comment now and again, or dotting down a note on the back of a letter, and watching Ralph with a

Torridon," he said. "I

em all

diness for the next subject; but Cromwell spoke no more of business for the present,

great occasion to the funny fellows. There was one who said that since Frith would have no purgatory, he was sent there by my Lord to find out for himself whether there be such a place

and asked ho

for Frith than for a dog, but Frith smiled on him

urt, when the carriage drove up to the house in Throgmorton Street

Hackney," he said as he stepp

e hall. Supper was brought up almost immediately-a couple of woodcocks and a salad-and the two sat down, with a pair of servants in blue and silver to wait on t

re?" He took a peach from the carved roundel in the centr

as simpler to report all conversations in general that had any suspicious bearing, and that he himself was most competent to judge whether or no they should be followed up. Ralph, too, had become completely reassured by now that no injury would be done to his own status among his friends, since his master had never yet

father's house, knowing that Cromwell did not want more than a

in-law, Nicholas, spoke of her prophecy of his Grace's death. It is the

uoted Cromwell gravely. "Your brother-in-l

is,

ught so. And what

f the Lady Katharine, sir. I hear

he Religio

hesi

favourable side, but I heard a good deal against them, too. There was a secular

omwell, with the same

ance, sir; the pars

inute's silence. "She is in my Lord of Canterbury's hands,

knew it was no go

cast her," went on Cromwell presently. "And Bocking and Hadleigh

ubject of Naboth's vineyard and the end of Ahab the oppressor. There had been a dramatic scene, Cromwell said, when on the following Sunday a canon of Hereford, Dr. Curwin, had preached against Peto from the sam

n the King so wrathful. I suppose it was partly because the Lady Katharine so cossetted them. She was always in the church at

icative on the subject of the Religious houses, but Ralph had

ead with his new arms and scrolls-a blue coat with Cornish choughs and a rose on a fess between three rampant lion

d gone he turne

but it is greater than those other mat

wn, and himself took a chair by the table, lifting the ba

es lined with forty pound. Well, he disproved that, and I am glad of it, glad of it," he repeated steadily, looking down at his ring and turning it to catch the light. "But th

ced up at Ralph a mome

id again, "and I wish to be.

s heart beginning to quick

m," said his master, "a

see how it ca

your service, sir,

This is what I thought of. That you should go to him from me, and feign that you are on his s

Cromwell drummed his fingers softly on

my brother Chris who, as I told you, has gone to Lewes at t

still loo

onable. And for the rest-well, I

life the ex-Chancellor had led since his resignation of office, of his house at Chelsea, and the

he air," he said, "as

weather-prophet. He mis

en Anne is no friend of

e qu

om they were speaking, but he assented to all that was said, and added a word or two about Sir Thomas More's learning,

touch of bitterness, "the last time that I was there. I

Cromwell had suffered somewhat f

n," he went on presently with a sententious air, "they a

at the other a

our Lady matins one d

e. I remember I was ve

ns with him, and Ralph watched that heavy smoot

lly of wise men. There is always clay mixed with gold. I suppose nothing bu

rave. Then there fell a long silence, and Cromwell again fell to fingering his signet-ring, ta

ng here soon. Then you will see about that matter. Remember I wish to k

*

itness, and saw that while the directions had been plain and easy to understand, yet that not one word had been spoken that could by any means be used as a handle against Cromwell. If anyone in England at that time knew how to wield speech it was his master;

on the backs of old letters lying on his master's table. Matters of Church and State, inextricably confused to other eyes, was simple to this man; he understood intuitively where the key of each situation lay, and dealt with them one after another briefly and effectively. And yet with all this no man wore an appearance of greater leisure; he would gossip harmlessly for an hour, and

e scenes than he could understand or even perceive, and recognised that the position of Sir Thoma

in times of peace, and that these were times of war. To call upon a friend, to eat his bread and salt, and talk familiarly with him, and to be on the watch all the while for a weak spot through which that friend might be wounded,

*

orey above, which was occupied by Mr. Morris and a couple of other servants. The lower storey Ralph used chiefly for purposes of business, and for interviews which were sufficiently numerous for one engaged in so many affairs. Cromwell had learnt by now that he could be trusted to say little and to learn much, and the early acts of many little dramas that had ended in tragedy had been performed in the two gravely-furnished rooms on the ground floor. A good deal of the law-business, in its early stages, connected with the annulling of the Ki

wers with brass handles, and in the centre of the table was a deep well, covered by a flap that lay level with the rest of the top. Another table stood against the wall, on which his meals were served, and the door of a cupboard in which his plate and knives were kept opened immediately above it, designed in the thickness of the wall. There were half-a-dozen chairs, two or three other pieces of furniture, a backed settle by the

for his master and op

Mr. Ralph, sir," he said. "I

into his servant's hands without speaki

rils and it smelt powerfully of spirits, and he laid it down again, smiling to himself. A torrent of explanation from a schoolmaster who had been reported for speaking against the sacrament of the altar, calling the saints to witness that he was no follower of Fryth in such detestable heresy. A dignified protest from a Justice of the Peace in Kent who had been reproved by Cromwell, through Ralph's agency, for acquitting

d been growing on him rapidly of late, as his master perceived his competence, and it gave him no thrill to docket this o

out one candle carefully, and set t