CHAPTER XL.

THE INTERVIEW.

De Freston entered first, and was most graciously welcomed; Ellen entered next, and the Cardinal's heart beat with a pulsation which would require quicker counting than any physician could enumerate.

Yet the very man who had denied himself the slightest natural movement of affection, so many years before, when he gave her hand to his rival, could now seize both, and unite them with cordiality, in which his own soul liberally rejoiced.

His first words gave indication of a good heart.

'I rejoice to see you both. I am glad that years have not separated you, and that I have greater felicity, as a Cardinal, in joining your hands with my own, after the long lapse of years, than I had as a priest, when standing at the altar of St. Lawrence. Come, my dear friends, be seated, and, if ye can imagine yourselves in Freston Tower, do so.'

This was the honest, simple, undisguised language of a great heart, and could not be heard without emotion. Ellen and Latimer felt it, and each thought, though they did not say it, 'Wolsey is a great man.'

De Freston thanked Wolsey for his kindness, and for the reception he had given them.

'I have done you no kindness, but I have pleased myself; and now, to be very candid with you, I must tell you at once that I must inquire into the cause of your being a prisoner in London.'

'That is soon told. You know well, Wolsey, my sentiments upon religious matters. I need hardly tell you that I am a Reformer--a friend to the true church--hating, abjuring, and detesting those dreadful doctrines of the Papacy, against which I conceive every lover of truth should struggle with uncompromising and unconquerable determination.

'You cannot be a stranger to my love of truth. You know me well, and that I have entertained Bilney, Bale, and others, whom I account worthy of honor; men of learned and enlightened minds, instruments of spreading the truth.

'For these things I became distasteful to some nobles, and was accounted a disaffected member of the church, and even accused of being a heretic. Lord Wentworth, acting under the orders of the Bishops of London and Norwich, and by your mandate, has seized my person and brought me hither; but I have not offended my conscience, and, therefore, hope to be acquitted.'

I have seen and known many abuses in the church,' replied Wolsey, 'from very early days; and had I been elected Pope of Rome, I should have endeavored to restore the Church of Rome to her ancient purity, and have raised her to what she truly is--the successor of St. Peter; but that cannot be. I have now no hopes thereof, but I am still desirous of reforming many corruptions prevalent in that portion of the Romish Church which abides in England. I have punished many priests, I have issued my mandates against all irregularities, and will yet hope to see a great improvement in the church.

'But, at the same time, I shall not conceal from thee that I do not approve of those heretical tenets which upstart preachers are now everywhere disseminating. I love the truth, and am glad to find that yesterday thy friend Bilney recanted his bold heresies, and has returned to the body of the church a penitent.'

'_Bilney recanted!_' was the involuntary exclamation of all. 'Bilney recanted!

'Yes, I am informed he did penance, and stood at Paul's Cross weeping.'

'Weep he will do,' replied De Freston, 'weep he will do, bitterly. That man has an honest heart. He loves truth purely for truth's sake, and in a moment's fear he has forsaken the truth. I am sure he will repent of this step more than of any he ever took in his whole life.'

Ellen wept. She wept to see her father's earnest emotion, and she felt as if something of life and happiness had left her.

'Let not the Lady Ellen weep,' said the Cardinal. 'I shall not condemn thy father because he speaks boldly. Thou needest not be afraid; I am thy friend and his. I pray thee, weep not.'

Tender words from great men are apt to make tears flow the faster. Ellen's mortification was extreme; for she had hoped the firmness of faith in this good man would not have been shaken by any terrors. She sighed, but spake not.

It was not in Wolsey to triumph over the sufferings of any one, and much less over those of a woman, and that woman one whom he loved in his youth, and for whom he then felt such a sincere respect that he would rather spare it a pang than create it one.

He was sincere in his hope that, as Bilney had been so intimate with Lord De Freston, and had been so much admired by him, that, in mentioning his recantation, he should prevail upon him likewise to recant privately before Tonstall, without any further exposure.

He had not succeeded, but had rather created in that venerable nobleman's mind an additional argument for his own firmness.

De Freston sighed and said--

'Great minds are overcome by terrors, where little minds are often supported. Bilney has been a leader, a master-spirit, one to whom men have looked for example as well as precept. I do, therefore, grieve the more at his defalcation, and take it as a warning to myself, lest, in the hour of adversity, I should fall away.

'O, my Lord Cardinal! I loved that man as I used to do thyself. I had great hopes of him. I had formed the highest expectations of him, and even now I will not despair of him.'

'Nor I either; I think he will become an ornament to the church.'

'And so do I; but not to the Church of Rome.'

'To what church then?'

'To the church of Christ.'

'Is not the Church of Rome the church of Christ?'

'Not whilst she holds the doctrines of presumption instead of those of faith; not whilst she propagates falsehood for truth; not "whilst she loveth and maketh a lie;" not whilst she debases her communicants by giving them half a sacrament for the whole, and even makes that half idolatrous by her false persuasions.'

'She is one of those evils under the sun which King Solomon saw--viz., "_a servant when he reigneth_," for she ought to be the servant of God; but she pretends to reign with a king's dominion, and cannot therefore be a true servant. Thou hast sought this at my tongue, Cardinal, and I am not ashamed thereof, neither do I ask pardon for giving thee a plain answer.'

'I can pardon thee without thine asking; but here comes Tonstall, and if thou wouldst return in peace to thine own dear Freston Tower, let me advise thee to speak more cautiously before him than before one who feels some gratitude for the past.'

'I can but speak to thee, my lord, as I would before my judge. I will not compromise the truth for any Bishop of London.'