one gentleman was even accidentally uncovered for
those who were with him also to doff their bonnets. But, as an attendant
ran and recovered Cromwell's flying headgear on that occasion, the haughty
minister looked grimly round and saw all his colleagues, once so humble,
holding their own caps upon their heads. "A high wind indeed must this
be," sneered Cromwell, "to blow my cap off, and for you to need hold yours
on." He must have known that ill foreboded; for during dinner no one spoke
to him. The meal finished, Cromwell went to the Council Chamber with the
rest, and, as was his custom, stood at a window apart to hear appeals and
applications to him, and when these were disposed of he turned to the
table to take his usual seat with the rest. On this occasion Norfolk
stopped him, and told him that it was not meet that traitors should sit
amongst loyal gentlemen. "I am no traitor!" shouted Cromwell, dashing his
cap upon the ground; but the captain of the guard was at the door, and
still protesting the wretched man was hurried to the Water Gate and rowed
swiftly to the Tower, surrounded by halberdiers, Norfolk as he left the
Council Chamber tearing off the fallen minister's badge of the Garter as a
last stroke of ignominy.

Cromwell knew he was doomed, for by the iniquitous Act that he himself had
forged for the ruin of others, he might be attainted and condemned legally
without his presence or defence. "Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!" he wrote to the
King in his agony; but for him there was as little mercy as he had shown
to others. His death was a foregone conclusion, for Henry's fears had been
aroused: but Cromwell had to be kept alive long enough for him to furnish
such information as would provide a plausible pretext for the repudiation
of Anne. He was ready to do all that was asked of him--to swear to
anything the King wished. He testified that he knew the marriage had never
been consummated, and never would be; that the King was dissatisfied from
the first, and had complained that the evidence of the nullification of
the prior contract with the heir of Lorraine was insufficient; that the
King had never given full consent to the marriage, but had gone through
the ceremony under compulsion of circumstances, and with mental
reservation. When all this was sworn to, Cromwell's hold upon the world
was done. Upon evidence now unknown he was condemned for treason and
heresy without being heard in his own defence, and on the 28th July