Henry's power; and for weeks Chapuys begged for permission
to see her in vain. "Ladies were not to be trusted," Cromwell told him;
whilst fresh Commissioners were sent, one after the other, to extort, by
force if necessary, the oath of Katharine's lady attendants to the Act of
Succession, much to the Queen's distress.[122] At length, tired of
waiting, the ambassador told Cromwell that he was determined to start at
once; which he did two days later, on the 16th July. With a train of sixty
horsemen, his own household and Spaniards resident in England, he rode
through London towards the eastern counties, ostensibly on a religious
pilgrimage to Our Lady of Walsingham. Riding through the leafy lanes of
Hertfordshire in the full summer tide, solaced by music, minstrelsy, and
the quaint antics of Chapuys' fool, the party were surprised on the second
day of their journey to see gallop past them on the road Stephen Vaughan,
one of the King's officers who spoke Spanish; and later, when they had
arrived within a few miles of Kimbolton, they were met by the same man,
accompanied this time by a humble servitor of Katharine, bringing to the
pilgrims wine and provisions in abundance, but also the ill news that the
King had ordered that Chapuys was to be forbidden access to the Queen. The
ambassador was exceedingly indignant. He did not wish to offend the King,
he said, but, having come so far and being now in the immediate
neighbourhood, he would not return unsuccessful without an effort to
obtain a more authoritative decision. Early the next morning one of
Katharine's old officers came to Chapuys and repeated the prohibition,
begging him not even to pass through the village, lest the King should
take it ill. Other messages passed, but all to the same effect. Poor
Katharine herself sent secret word that she was as thankful for Chapuys'
journey as if it had been successful, and hinted that it would be a
consolation to her if some of her countrymen could at least approach the
castle. Needless to say that the Spaniards gathered beneath the walls of
the castle and chatted gallantly across the moat to the ladies upon the
terraces, and some indeed, including the jester, are asserted to have
found their way inside the castle, where they were regaled heartily, and
the fool played some of the usual tricks of his motley.[123] Chapuys, in
high dudgeon, returned by another road to London without attempting to
complete his pilgrimage to Walsingham, s