ch's indiscreet speech was uttered an usher entered the kitchen
and announced the approach of the king.

V.

Of the Combat between Will Sommers and Patch--And how it
terminated.

Mabel's heart fluttered violently at the usher's announcement, and for
a moment the colour deserted her cheek, while the next instant she was
covered with blushes. As to poor Patch, feeling that his indiscretion
might place him in great jeopardy and seriously affect his master, to
whom he was devotedly attached, he cast a piteous and imploring look at
his antagonist, but was answered only by a derisive laugh, coupled
with an expressive gesture to intimate that a halter would be his fate.
Fearful that mischief might ensue, the good-natured Simon Quanden got
out of his chair and earnestly besought Will not to carry matters too
far; but the jester remained implacable.

It was not unusual with Henry to visit the different offices of the
castle and converse freely and familiarly with the members of his
household, but it was by no means safe to trust to the continuance of
his good humour, or in the slightest degree to presume upon it. It is
well known that his taste for variety of character often led him, like
the renowned Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, to mix with the lower classes of
his subjects in disguise, at which times many extraordinary adventures
are said to have befallen him. His present visit to the kitchen,
therefore, would have occasioned no surprise to its occupants if it
had not occurred so soon after the cardinal's arrival. But it was this
circumstance, in fact, that sent him thither. The intelligence brought
by Wolsey of the adjournment of the court for three days, under the plea
of giving the queen time for her allegations, was so unlooked for by
Henry that he quitted the cardinal in high displeasure, and was about to
repair to Anne Boleyn, when he encountered Bouchier, who told him
that Mabel Lyndwood had been brought to the castle, and her grandsire
arrested. The information changed Henry's intentions at once, and he
proceeded with Bouchier and some other attendants to the kitchen, where
he was given to understand he should find the damsel.

Many a furtive glance was thrown at the king, for no one dared openly
to regard him as he approached the forester's fair granddaughter. But
he tarried only a moment beside her, chucked her under the chin, and,
whispering a word or two in her ear that heightened her blushes, p