rock she finally struck. Percy, however, was proud of his engagement, for he had won the lady most admired at Court,

"The glass in which all youths did set themselves."

He forgot his own engagement, and poor Anne did not sufficiently appreciate her own peculiar situation.

The king admired her appearance; and, still more, was charmed with her manners and conversation. "Beauty and sprightliness," it is said, "sat on her lips, in readiness of repartee she was unsurpassed." King Henry, rough and burly as we depict to ourselves the tyrant monarch, was able to relish and appreciate such talents; the description given of him about the era of "the field of the cloth of gold," which was not very long before this time, shews him in a fairer light than that which English animosity usually views him in; when indulgence of his passions had changed even his appearance, he is des

cribed as being "as handsome as nature could form him, handsomer by far than the King of France: exceedingly fair and well-proportioned: an excellent musician and composer, an admirable horseman and wrestler: possessed of a good knowledge of the French, Latin, and Spanish languages, and very devout, hearing mass on days he goes to the chase three times, but on other days as often as five times, and having service in the Queen's chamber every day at Vespers and Complin; being very fond of the chase and always tiring eight or ten horses. Affable and benign,” says this foreigner, "he offends no one, and wishes every one to be content with their condition."

All the old English festivals were celebrated at the court of Henry, and much enjoyed by him.

On May-day, that day associated with all our ideas of "merrie England" in times gone past, the lively monarch rose with the dawn,

and with his gallant courtiers, attired in white and silver, rode forth to the woods, and carried back, to grace his palace, the hawthorn bough, which was the symbol of that pleasant, now neglected day.

Were we called upon to exhibit to youth the consequences of indulged passions, we might place in contrast Henry VIII. in his younger years, and Henry VIII. in his declining days." The path of the just," says the Scripture," is as a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day;" but, "there is a way that seemeth good unto men, yet is the end thereof the ways of death."

This monarch, who desired the great blessing of universal contentment, did not study to enjoy it himself. Married, with his own free will, to an amiable and excellent woman, whose scruples as to the religious propriety of the union had been religiously overcome, he sought for greater enjoyment in other so

ciety; and he imagined a younger and fairer face, and more agreeable manners, were the means of affording it. It was soon perceived that the King admired Anne Boleyn. Mischief-makers are always to be found in courts or in villages, to disturb the humble home or the regal abode. The engagement between Lord Percy and the favourite maid of honour was soon whispered to the jealous ear of the monarch, who had even then taken such pleasure in her society, and been so charmed with her talents and beauty, that he could not bear the idea of losing her by means of this marriage.

Percy was a protegé of the famous Cardinal Wolsey, of whom we shall soon have occasion to speak more. The King, therefore, sent for Wolsey, and having expressed the greatest anger at Percy's conduct, charged him to see this engagement dissolved. The Cardinal returned to his abode at Westminster, and sending for Lord Percy, rudely up

braided him in the presence of his servants with folly and incaution in "contracting himself with a foolish girl in court," as he termed Anne Boleyn. Percy humbly replied that he knew not the King's pleasure, and believed himself at liberty to choose a convenient wife as his fancy should please him; and concluded by saying, "Therefore, I most humbly beseech your Grace's favour therein, and also to entreat the King's Majesty on my behalf in this matter, which I cannot forsake."

To this the haughty Prelate, turning to the by-standers who were witnesses to this young lord's humiliation, replied, "So, sirs! ye may see what wisdom is in this wilful boy's head. I thought thou wouldst have relented, and put thyself and thy voluptuous act wholly to the King's will and pleasure."

"Sir," said Lord Percy, "so I would; but in this matter I have gone so far, I know not how to discharge myself and my conscience."