and series of entertainments given by
the King in the splendid new manor-house which he had built for Lady
Tailebois, who had just rejoiced him by giving birth to a son. We have no
record of Katharine's thoughts as she took part here in the tedious
foolery so minutely described by Hall. She plucked off the masks, we are
told, of eight disguised dancers in long dominos of blue satin and gold,
"who danced with the ladies sadly, and communed not with them after the
fashion of maskers." Of course the masqueraders were the Duke of Suffolk
(Brandon) and other great nobles, as the poor Queen must well have known;
but when she thought that all this mummery was to entertain Frenchmen, and
the house in which it passed was devoted to the use of Henry's mistress,
she must have covered her own heart with a more impenetrable mask than
those of Suffolk and his companions, if her face was attuned to the gay
sights and sounds around her.

[Illustration: _KATHARINE OF ARAGON_

_From a portrait by_ HOLBEIN _in the National Portrait Gallery_]

Katharine had now almost ceased to strive for the objects to which her
life had been sacrificed, namely, the binding together of England and
Spain to the detriment of France. Wolsey had believed that his own
interests would be better served by a close French alliance, and he
had had his way. Henry himself was but the vainglorious figure in the
international pageant; the motive power was the Cardinal. But a greater
than Wolsey, Charles of Austria and Spain, though he was as yet only a lad
of nineteen, had appeared upon the scene, and soon was to make his power
felt throughout the world. Wolsey's close union with France and the
marriage of the Princess Mary with the Dauphin had been meant as a blow to
Spain, to lead if possible to the election of Henry to the imperial crown,
in succession to Maximilian, instead of the latter's grandson Charles. If
the King of England were made Emperor, the way of the Cardinal of York to
the throne of St. Peter was clear. Henry was flattered at the idea, and
was ready to follow his minister anywhere to gain such a showy prize. But
quite early in the struggle it was seen that the unpopular French alliance
which had already cost England the surrender of the King's conquests in
the war was powerless to bring about the result desired. Francis I., as
vain and turbulent as Henry, and perhaps more able, was bidding high for
the Empire himself. His success in the election