sh nobleman--was obliged to make a friend of the great Cardinal
Wolsey.

He was a gay man, who could dance and jest, and sing and drink; and those
were the roads to so much, or rather so little, of a heart as King Henry
had. He was wonderfully fond of pomp and glitter, and so was the King.
He knew a good deal of the Church learning of that time; much of which
consisted in finding artful excuses and pretences for almost any wrong
thing, and in arguing that black was white, or any other colour. This
kind of learning pleased the King too. For many such reasons, the
Cardinal was high in estimation with the King; and, being a man of far
greater ability, knew as well how to manage him, as a clever keeper may
know how to manage a wolf or a tiger, or any other cruel and uncertain
beast, that may turn upon him and tear him any day. Never had there been
seen in England such state as my Lord Cardinal kept. His wealth was
enormous; equal, it was reckoned, to the riches of the Crown. His
palaces were as splendid as the King's, and his retinue was eight hundred
strong. He held his Court, dressed out from top to toe in flaming
scarlet; and his very shoes were golden, set with precious stones. His
followers rode on blood horses; while he, with a wonderful affectation of
humility in the midst of his great splendour, ambled on a mule with a red
velvet saddle and bridle and golden stirrups.

Through the influence of this stately priest, a grand meeting was
arranged to take place between the French and English Kings in France;
but on ground belonging to England. A prodigious show of friendship and
rejoicing was to be made on the occasion; and heralds were sent to
proclaim with brazen trumpets through all the principal cities of Europe,
that, on a certain day, the Kings of France and England, as companions
and brothers in arms, each attended by eighteen followers, would hold a
tournament against all knights who might choose to come.

CHARLES, the new Emperor of Germany (the old one being dead), wanted to
prevent too cordial an alliance between these sovereigns, and came over
to England before the King could repair to the place of meeting; and,
besides making an agreeable impression upon him, secured Wolsey's
interest by promising that his influence should make him Pope when the
next vacancy occurred. On the day when the Emperor left England, the
King and all the Court went over to Calais, and thence to the place of
meeting, betw