CHAPTER XLV.

THE COURTIER.

'But here comes the faithful Cavendish; he will tell us more of the real state of our dear friend's mind, and how he took the king's displeasure.'

That faithful servant, who admired and loved his master and attended him diligently, and did his business as his secretary so faithfully that Wolsey would gladly have preferred him before a better master, entered the hall with Latimer.

He had changed his riding costume for one adapted to the age when the luxurious warmth of sofas, cushions, and couches was unknown, and, in general, a high-backed, elaborately-carved chair, with good, firm, oaken seat, was the ornamental place of the guest before the cheerful blaze of the English fire.

One of Daundy's bloodhounds lay at De Freston's feet, smooth with velvet ears, long and shining, not so pendent as those of the old slot hound; but equally tinged with that black rim so indicative of the true breed.

He was a dog of most grave countenance, and except when put upon the scent, or at play with Ellen's young staghound, exhibited about as much animation as Van Amburg's lions when their master was not near them.

He opened his huge eyes as Cavendish seated himself and looked at him as if a courtier was a strange animal in De Freston's hall.

'Be seated, my young friend; a cup of posset after your ride will do you good.'

It was brought, and as exercise in that day in the shape of a journey was a much more difficult and stirring thing than it is now, when a man can breakfast in London from Ipswich and dine again at the same place he started from without using his legs or his horse's legs for a hundred yards, it was so much the more relished, and gave the generous Cavendish comfort.

'I have been five days journeying from the court. I have been many, many more journeying from the North, and glad am I, after some weeks of anxiety, to find myself a tenant of this hospitable hall. My gracious master used frequently to tell me I should enjoy the beauties of your pleasant scenery.'

'Not exactly at this time of the year, Master Cavendish, unless you are particularly partial to wild fowl shooting; but you shall want for nothing which we can give you to make you welcome. How fared your master in his latter end?'

'Alas! not so well as I could have wished. His latter hours were greatly disturbed by the king's suspicions of his fraudulent dealing with regard to fifteen hundred pounds! which sum my master had borrowed of divers persons to pay us, his poor servants.

'How did that disturb him?'

'He took it deeply to heart, that, having given up all he possessed, whatsoever had come to him from his position in the realm, that the King should show so little favor to him as to demand of him that which he had borrowed from private individuals.'

'Alas, poor Wolsey!' exclaimed De Freston, 'what is the favor of a prince worth? He gives thee honors and wealth, and takes them from thee, and robs thee in thy poverty.'

'Hush! my Lord De Freston. I am now the King's servant!'

'I am no traitor to the king, nor do I wish to speak treasonable, but truthful words to thee, Master Cavendish. Thy royal master seems to have been much too hard upon thy spiritual master. Deny it if thou canst.'

'I deny it not; for I heard that honest man say to Sir William Kingston: "Oh, good Lord! how much doth it grieve me, that the king should think in me any such deceit wherein I should deceive him of any one penny that I have. Rather than I would, Master Kingston, embezzle, or deceive him of one penny, I would it were moulten and put in my mouth. This money that you demand of me, I assure you that it is none of mine, for I borrowed it of divers of my friends to bury me, and to bestow among my servants, who have taken great pains about me like true and faithful servants."'

'I cannot help thinking that thy royal master showed more avarice than love in this matter.'

'Alas! I think so too, in honest truth, my lord; for though, when I told the king how earnestly my master blessed him, yet did he seem more anxious about his money than his blessing. But kings must not be judged like other men.'

'Not in their generation, Master Cavendish; but posterity will not spare a bad man, though he be a king. Your poor master found but little reward for his services to his Majesty, or to his country. He had better not have been ambitious of vain glory.'

'Alas! my master's memorable words will sound on many ears as proverbial of every minister of temporal power, who thinks he may exalt himself by infidelity to God, if he be but eminent for his loyalty. I am sure my master was a most loyal subject--a most obedient subject. He hated rebellion in any shape.'

'But hold!' said Latimer, 'his ambition destroyed his principles, and he became a mere time-serving minister of the State, when he ought to have been, with his holy vows, the free servant of the living God.'

'It is true, Master Latimer, it is too true, and hence his dying conviction--common to all ambitious servants who seek to reign by their master's favor--for my master exclaimed to Sir William Kingston: "If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. But this is the just reward that I must receive for my diligent pains and study that I have had to do him service, not regarding my service to God, but only to satisfy his pleasure."'

'It is a lesson to us all,' said Ellen, 'and thou, Master Cavendish, wilt remember it, and I trust wilt save thy conscience in this respect, not putting too high a value on thy new station.'

'I thank thee, lady. It is good for me to come into this country that I may be admonished by such a kind lecturer against the precipice down which my master fell so rapidly. I thank thee, lady, honestly.'

'Nay, thou art welcome, Mr. Courtier, and I trust we shall see thee better rooted in thy faith than courtiers generally are, who accommodate their opinions so nicely to their master's will, that they have no conscience but for their master's pleasures.'

'Good again! indeed thou art good in thy advice; but thou must not expect to make me an heretic!'

This was tender ground to touch upon, at such a moment, and in a first visit too. Ellen had lain too long under the ban of being called and cursed as a heretic, to mind what kings or courtiers might say or do.

Her faith was fixed, pure, simple-minded, solid, and steady, and no man could make her waver any more in her faith than they could in her principles of life.

They conversed long on their favorite topic--the Cardinal and his fortunes, his boyhood and his youth--and Cavendish was then enlightened upon many points which he might most fairly have revealed, and would have done, but for fear of his royal master.

'Tempora mutanta, et nos mutamur in illis.'

We are not, in the nineteenth century, afraid to speak truth upon any subject, and equally scorn the imputation of rebellion in so doing, as we do the idea of vapid popularity, merely for the sake of bread. We do not now-a-days worship great men for the sake of what we can get out of them; for there is little to be had, even by the humblest, since patronage, and learning, and talent, and literature, are all brought now to Mammon's hammer.

He is a bold man who speaks the truth, and he is but a coward, be he whom he will, who is afraid to do so. The man who loves another, is afraid of no man, for he can do injury to no one, and is ready to lay down his life for his brother.

Such was Lord De Freston, such was William Latimer, and such was Ellen, as the sequel will show, in the end of this tale of Freston Tower.

'Alice De Clinton,' said Cavendish, 'lives somewhere in this part of Suffolk. Have you seen her?'

'Is it likely, Master Cavendish, after our interview at York Place? She does live at her ancestral residence, Goldwell Hall; but she looks down with utter contempt upon us heretics, and I verily believe would burn us all, house, home, and Bible, provided only she could immortalise her pride.'

'Oh, Mistress Latimer! surely thou art uncharitable in thy judgment.'

'If thou art not perverted in thine own, thou wilt thyself soon perceive it. We will direct thee to her dwelling, and leave thee to the candor of thine own mind. If thou dost pronounce her more humbled in her present dwelling than when she abode in thy master's palace, then say that we are bigots, and Alice De Clinton is liberal.'

The visit was projected for the morrow. Meanwhile, with hearts of pity, Latimer and Ellen sincerely mourned over the death of Cardinal Wolsey.

They mourn'd to think a man should die In sorrow for his loyalty; But more they mourned the fall of friend, Deserted in his latter end; They felt correction 'neath the rod, And thus were true to man and God.'