"And so preserved the Lady Anne Boleyn," rejoined the cardinal. "Art
sure of it, knave?"

"As sure as your grace is of canonisation," replied Patch. "That shot
should have brought you a rich reward, friend--either from the king's
highness or the Lady Anne," remarked Wolsey to the keeper.

"It has brought me nothing," rejoined Fenwolf sullenly.

"Hum!" exclaimed the cardinal. "Give the fellow a piece of gold, Patch."

"Methinks I should have better earned your grace's bounty if I had let
the hart work his will," said Fenwolf, reluctantly receiving the coin.

"How, fellow?" cried the cardinal, knitting his brows.

"Nay, I mean no offence," replied Fenwolf; "but the rumour goes that
your grace and the Lady Anne are not well affected towards each other."

"The rumour is false," rejoined the cardinal, "and you can now
contradict it on your own experience. Harkee, sirrah! where lies
Tristram Lyndwood's hut?"

Fenwolf looked somewhat surprised and confused by the question.

"It lies on the other side of yonder rising ground, about half a mile
hence," he said. "But if your grace is seeking old Tristram, you will
not find him. I parted with him, half-an-hour ago, on Hawk's Hill, and
he was then on his way to the deer-pen at Bray Wood."

"If I see his granddaughter Mabel, it will suffice," rejoined the
cardinal. "I am told she is a comely damsel. Is it so?"

"I am but an indifferent judge of beauty," replied Fenwolf moodily.

"Lead my mule across this swamp, thou senseless loon," said the
cardinal, "and I will give thee my blessing."

With a very ill grace Fenwolf complied, and conducted Wolsey to the
farther side of the marsh.

"If your grace pursues the path over the hill," he said, "and then
strikes into the first opening on the right, it will bring you to the
place you seek." And, without waiting for the promised blessing, he
disappeared among the trees.

On reaching the top of the hill, Wolsey descried the hut through an
opening in the trees at a few hundred yards' distance. It was pleasantly
situated on the brink of the lake, at the point where its width was
greatest, and where it was fed by a brook that flowed into it from a
large pool of water near Sunninghill.

From the high ground where Wolsey now stood the view of the lake was
beautiful. For nearly a mile its shining expanse was seen stretching out
between banks of varied form, sometimes embayed, sometimes running out
into little headlands, but everyw