om, for she
reminded him that he could not expect her to speak to him as if he were a
nobleman. "No, no!" said Mark, "a look sufficeth for me, and so fare you
well."[149] Sir Thomas Percy seems to have heard this little speech, and
have conveyed it, with many hints of Mark's sudden prosperity, to
Cromwell. "It is hardly three months since Mark came to Court, and though
he has only a hundred pounds a year from the King, and has received no
more than a third, he has just bought three horses that have cost him 500
ducats, as well as very rich arms and fine liveries for his servants for
the May-day ridings, such as no gentleman at Court has been able to buy,
and many are wondering where he gets the money."[150] Mark Smeaton was a
safe quarry, for he had no influential friends, and it suited Cromwell's
turn to begin with him to build up his case against Anne.

There was to be a May-day jousting in the tilt-yard at Greenwich, at which
Anne's brother, Lord Rochford, was the challenger, and Sir Henry Norreys
was the principal defender. Early in the morning of the day, Cromwell, who
of course took no part in such shows, went to London, and asked Smeaton to
accompany him and dine,[151] returning in the afternoon to Greenwich in
time for the ridings. Mark accepted the invitation, and was taken
ostensibly for dinner to a house at Stepney, that probably being a
convenient half-way place between Greenwich and Westminster by water. No
sooner had the unsuspecting youth entered the chamber than he saw the trap
into which he had fallen. Six armed men closed around him, and Cromwell's
face grew grave, as the Secretary warned the terrified lad to confess
where he obtained so much money. Smeaton prevaricated, and "then two stout
young fellows were called, and the Secretary asked for a rope and a
cudgel. The rope, which was filled with knots, was put around Mark's head
and twisted with the cudgel until Mark cried, 'Sir Secretary, no more! I
will tell the truth. The Queen gave me the money.'"[152] Then, bit by bit,
by threats of torture, some sort of confession incriminating Anne was
wrung out of the poor wretch: though exactly what he confessed is not on
record. Later, when the affair was made public, the quidnuncs of London
could tell the most private details of his adultery with the Queen;[153]
for Cromwell took care that such gossip should be well circulated.

Whatever confession was extorted from Smeaton, it implicated not only
himself b