)
a link to bind Charles to Henry; and he may have thought that a
service to Suffolk would secure him a powerful friend at the English
Court, a calculation that was partly justified by the suspicion under
which Suffolk henceforth laboured, of being too partial to Francis.
Yet it was with heavy hearts that the couple left Paris in April and
wended their way towards Calais. Henry had given no sign; from Calais,
Mary wrote to him saying she would go to a nunnery rather than marry
against her desire.[194] Suffolk threw himself on the King's mercy;
all the council, he said, except Wolsey, were determined to put him to
death.[195] Secretly, against his promise, and without Henry's
consent, he had married the King's sister, an act the temerity of
which no one has since ventured to rival. He saw the executioner's axe
gleam before his eyes, and he trembled.

[Footnote 193: _L. and P._, ii., 224.]

[Footnote 194: _L. and P._, ii., 228.]

[Footnote 195: _Ibid._, ii., 367.]

At Calais, Mary said she would stay until she heard from the King.[196]
His message has not been preserved, but fears were never more strangely
belied than when the pair crossed their Rubicon. So far from any attempt
being made to separate them, their marriage was publicly solemnised
before Henry and all his Court on 13th May, at Greenwich.[197] In
spite of all that happened, wrote the Venetian ambassador, Henry
retained his friendship for Suffolk;[198] and a few months later he
asserted, with some exaggeration, that the Duke's authority was
scarcely less than the King's.[199] He and Mary were indeed (p. 084)
required to return all the endowment, whether in money, plate, jewels
or furniture, that she received on her marriage. But both she and the
Duke had agreed to these terms before their offence.[200] They were
not unreasonable. Henry's money had been laid out for political
purposes which could no longer be served; and Mary did not expect the
splendour, as Duchess of Suffolk, which she had enjoyed as Queen of
France. The only stipulation that looks like a punishment was the bond
to repay the cost of her journey to France; though not only was this
modified later on, but the Duke received numerous grants of land to
help to defray the charge. They were indeed required to live in the
country; but the Duke still came up to joust as of old with Henry on
great occasions, and Mary remained his favour