ook place between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop
of Rochester; but as the queen had absented herself, the court was
adjourned to the next day, when it again met, and as she did not then
appear, though summoned, she was pronounced contumacious. After repeated
adjournments, the last session was held, and judgment demanded on the
part of the king, when Campeggio, as had been arranged between him and
Wolsey, declined to pronounce it until he had referred the matter to the
Pope, and the court was dissolved.

About two months after this event, during which time the legate's
commission had been revoked, while Henry was revolving the expediency of
accomplishing the divorce through the medium of his own ecclesiastical
courts, and without reference to that of Rome, a despatch was received
from the Pope by the two cardinals, requiring them to cite the king
to appear before him by attorney on a certain day. At the time of the
arrival of this instrument, Campeggio chanced to be staying with Wolsey
at his palace at Esher, and as the king was then holding his court at
Windsor, they both set out for the castle on the following day, attended
by a retinue of nearly a hundred horsemen, splendidly equipped.

It was now the middle of September, and the woods, instead of presenting
one uniform mass of green, glowed with an infinite variety of lovely
tints. And yet, despite the beauty of the scene, there was something
melancholy in witnessing the decline of the year, as marked by those old
woods, and by the paths that led through them, so thickly strewn with
leaves. Wolsey was greatly affected. "These noble trees will ere long
bereft of all their glories," he thought, "and so, most likely, will it
be with me, and perhaps my winter may come sooner than theirs!"

The cardinal and his train had crossed Staines Bridge, and passing
through Egham, had entered the great park near Englefield Green. They
were proceeding along the high ridge overlooking the woody region
between it and the castle, when a joyous shout in the glades beneath
reached them, and looking down, they saw the king accompanied by Anne
Boleyn, and attended by his falconers and a large company of horsemen,
pursuing the sport of hawking. The royal party appeared so much
interested in their sport that they did not notice the cardinal and his
train, and were soon out of sight. But as Wolsey descended Snow Hill,
and entered the long avenue, he heard the trampling of horses