d disappeared. The Court was then at Greenwich, nearly all the
lords, the bishops and the several councils lying in the Palace to
await the coming of Anne of Cleves on the morrow. She had reached
Rochester that evening after some days' delay at Calais, for the
winter seas. The King had gone that night to inspect her, having been
given to believe that she was soberly fair and of bountiful charms.
His courteous visit had been in secret and in disguise; therefore
there were no torchmen in the gardens, and darkness lay between the
river steps and the great central gateway. But a bonfire, erected by
the guards to warm themselves in the courtyard, as it leapt up or
subsided before the wind, shewed that tall tower pale and high or
vanishing into the night with its carved stone garlands, its stone men
at arms, its lions, roses, leopards, and naked boys. The living houses
ran away from the foot of the tower, till the wings, coming towards
the river, vanished continually into shadows. They were low by
comparison, gabled with false fronts over each set of rooms and, in
the glass of their small-paned windows, the reflection of the fire
gleamed capriciously from unexpected shadows. This palace was called
Placentia by the King because it was pleasant to live in.

Cromwell mounted the steps with a slow gait and an arrogant figure.
Under the river arch eight of his gentlemen waited upon him, and in
the garden the torches of his men shewed black yew trees cut like
peacocks, clipped hedges like walls with archways above the broad and
tiled paths, and fountains that gleamed and trickled as if secretly in
the heavy and bitter night.

A corridor ran from under the great tower right round the palace. It
was full of hurrying people and of grooms who stood in knots beside
doorways. They flattened themselves against the walls before the Lord
Privy Seal's procession of gentlemen in black with white staves, and
the ceilings seemed to send down moulded and gilded stalactites to
touch his head. The beefeater before the door of the Lady Mary's
lodgings spat upon the ground when he had passed. His hard glance
travelled along the wall like a palpable ray, about the height of a
man's head. It passed over faces and slipped back to the gilded
wainscoting; tiring-women upon whom it fell shivered, and the serving
men felt their bowels turn within them. His round face was hard and
alert, and his lips moved ceaselessly one upon another. All those
serving p