"You have not failed, I trust, to give orders to the groom of the chambers for the lodging of my fair cousin, Mistress Anne Boleyn, Captain Bouchier?" inquired the Earl of Surrey, with a significant smile.
"Assuredly not, my lord!" replied the other, smiling in his turn."She will be lodged as royally as if she were Queen of England.Indeed, the queen's own apartments are assigned her.""It is well," rejoined Surrey."And you have also provided for the reception of the Pope's legate, Cardinal Campeggio?"Bouchier bowed.
"And for Cardinal Wolsey?" pursued the other.
The captain bowed again.
"To save your lordship the necessity of asking any further questions,"he said, "I may state briefly that I have done all as if you had done it yourself.""Be a little more particular, captain, I pray you," said Surrey.
"Willingly, my lord," replied Bouchier."In your lord ship's name, then, as vice-chamberlain, in which character I presented myself, I summoned together the dean and canons of the College of St.George, the usher of the black rod, the governor of the alms-knights, and the whole of the officers of the household, and acquainted them, in a set speech-which, I flatter myself, was quite equal to any that your lordship, with all your poetical talents, could have delivered--that the king's highness, being at Hampton Court with the two cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio, debating the matter of divorce from his queen, Catherine of Arragon, proposes to hold the grand feast of the most noble order of the Garter at this his castle of Windsor, on Saint George's Day--that is to say, the day after to-morrow--and that it is therefore his majesty's sovereign pleasure that the Chapel of St.George, in the said castle, be set forth and adorned with its richest furniture; that the high altar be hung with arras representing the patron saint of the order on horseback, and garnished with the costliest images and ornaments in gold and silver;that the pulpit be covered with crimson damask, inwrought with flowers-de-luces of gold, portcullises, and roses; that the royal stall be canopied with a rich cloth of state, with a haut-pas beneath it of a foot high; that the stalls of the knights companions be decked with cloth of tissue, with their scutcheons set at the back; and that all be ready at the hour of tierce-hora tertia vespertina, as appointed by his majesty's own statute--at which time the eve of the feast shall be held to commence.""Take breath, captain," laughed the earl.
"I have no need," replied Bouchier."Furthermore, I delivered your lordship's warrant from the lord chamberlain to the usher of the black rod, to make ready and furnish Saint George's Hall, both for the supper to-morrow and the grand feast on the following day; and I enjoined the dean and canons of the college, the alms-knights, and all the other officers of the order) to be in readiness for the occasion.And now, having fulfilled my devoir, or rather your lordship's, I am content to resign my post as vice-chamberlain, to resume my ordinary one, that of your simple gentleman, and to attend you back to Hampton Court whenever it shall please you to set forth.""And that will not be for an hour, at the least," replied the earl; "for Iintend to take a solitary ramble in the Home Park.""What I to seek inspiration for a song--or to meditate upon the charms of the fair Geraldine, eh, my lord? "rejoined Bouchier."But I will not question you too shrewdly.Only let me caution you against going near Herne's Oak.It is said that the demon hunter walks at nightfall, and scares, if he does not injure, all those who cross his path.At curfew toll I must quit the castle, and will then, with your attendants proceed to the Garter, in Thames Street, where I will await your arrival.If we reach Hampton Court by midnight, it will be time enough, and as the moon will rise in an hour, we shall have a pleasant ride.""Commend me to Bryan Bowntance, the worthy host of the Garter," said the earl; "and bid him provide you with a bottle of his best sack in which to drink my health.""Fear me not," replied the other."And I pray your lordship not to neglect my caution respecting Herne the Hunter.In sober sooth, I have heard strange stories of his appearance of late, and should not care to go near the tree after dark."The earl laughed somewhat sceptically, and the captain reiterating his caution, they separated--Bouchier returning the way he came, and Surrey proceeding towards a small drawbridge crossing the ditch on the eastern side of the castle, and forming a means of communication with the Little Park.He was challenged by a sentinel at the drawbridge, but on giving the password he was allowed to cross it, and to pass through a gate on the farther side opening upon the park.
Brushing the soft and dewy turf with a footstep almost as light and bounding as that of a fawn, he speeded on for more than a quarter of a mile, when he reached a noble beech-tree standing at the end of a clump of timber.A number of rabbits were feeding beneath it, but at his approach they instantly plunged into their burrows.
Here he halted to look at the castle.The sun had sunk behind it, dilating its massive keep to almost its present height and tinging the summits of the whole line of ramparts and towers, since rebuilt and known as the Brunswick Tower, the Chester Tower, the Clarence Tower, and the Victoria Tower, with rosy lustre.
