. Stand aside, sirrah, or I will have the rod
applied to thy back!"

"Take care the king does not apply the rod to your own, lord cardinal,"
retorted Will Sommers. "If he scourges you according to your deserts,
your skin will be redder than your robe." And his mocking laugh pursued
Wolsey like the hiss of a snake into the tower.

Some two hours after this, Henry and his attendants returned from the
chase. The king seemed in a blithe humour, and Wolsey saw him laugh
heartily as Will Sommers pointed with his bauble towards Henry the
Third's Tower. The cardinal received no invitation to the royal banquet;
and the answer to his solicitation for an interview was, that he and
Campeggio would be received in the presence-chamber on the following
morning, but not before.

That night a great revel was held in the castle. Masquing, dancing,
and feasting filled up the evening, and the joyous sounds and strains
reached Wolsey in his seclusion, and forced him to contrast it with his
recent position, when he would have been second only to the king in the
entertainment. He laid his head upon his pillow, but not to rest, and
while tossing feverishly about his couch, he saw the arras with which
the walls were covered, move, and a tall, dark figure step from behind
it. The cardinal would have awakened his jester, who slept in a small
truckle-bed at his feet, but the strange visitor motioned him to be
still.

"You may conjecture who I am, cardinal," he said, "but in case you
should doubt, I will tell you. I am Herne the Hunter! And now to my
errand. There is a damsel, whom you once saw in the forest near the
great lake, and whom you promised to befriend. You can assist her
now--to-morrow it may be out of your power."

"I have enough to do to aid myself, without meddling with what concerns
me not," said Wolsey.

"This damsel does concern you," cried Herne. "Read this, and you will
see in what way."

And he tossed a letter to Wolsey, who glanced at it by the light of the
lamp.

"Ha! is it so?" he exclaimed. "Is she--"

"Hush!" cried Herne, "or you will wake this sleeper. It is as you
suppose. Will you not aid her now? Will you not bestow some of your
treasure upon her before it is wholly wrested from you by the king? I
will do aught you wish, secretly and swiftly."

"Go, then, to my palace at Esher," cried the cardinal. "Take this key
to my treasurer--it is the key of my coffers. Bid him deliver to you the
six caskets in the ca