the plague broke out in London. In June one of Anne's attendants
fell ill of the malady, and Henry in a panic sent his favourite to Hever,
whilst he hurried from place to place in Hertfordshire. The plague
followed him. Sir Francis Poyns, Sir William Compton, William Carey, and
other members of his Court died in the course of the epidemic, and the
dread news soon reached Henry that Anne and her father were both stricken
at Hever Castle. Henry had written daily to her whilst they had been
separated. "Since your last letter, mine own darling," he wrote a few days
after she left, "Walter Welsh, Master Brown, Thomas Care, Grion of
Brereton, and John Coke the apothecary have fallen of the sweat in this
house.... By the mercy of God the rest of us be yet well, and I trust
shall pass it, either not to have it, or at least as easily as the rest
have done." Later he wrote: "The uneasiness my doubts about your health
gave me, disturbed and alarmed me exceedingly; and I should not have had
any quiet without hearing certain tidings. But now, since you have felt as
yet nothing, I hope, and am assured, that it will spare you, as I hope it
is doing with us. For when we were at Waltham two ushers, two valets, and
your brother, master-treasurer, fell ill, but are now quite well; and
since we have returned to our house at Hunsdon we have been perfectly
well, and have not now one sick person, God be praised. I think if you
would retire from Surrey, as we did, you would escape all danger. There is
another thing may comfort you, which is, in truth, that in this distemper
few or no women have been taken ill, and no person of our Court has
died.[61] For which reason I beg you, my entirely beloved, not to frighten
yourself, nor be too uneasy at our absence, for wherever I am, I am yours:
and yet we must sometimes submit to our misfortunes; for whoever will
struggle against fate is generally but so much the further from gaining
his end. Wherefore, comfort yourself and take courage, and avoid the
pestilence as much as you can; for I hope shortly to make you sing _la
renvoye_. No more at present from lack of time, but that I wish you in my
arms that I might a little dispel your unreasonable thoughts. Written by
the hand of him who is, and always will be, yours."

When the news of Anne's illness reached him he despatched one of his
physicians post haste with the following letter to his favourite: "There
came to me suddenly in the night the most affl