mself--only to these; he was past sixty, he was weary of the world, and
his health was breaking, and he would limit his hopes to the execution of a
work for which centuries imperfectly sufficed. It seemed as if he measured
his stature by the lengthening shadow, as his sun made haste to its
setting. Symptoms of misgiving may be observed in the many anxious letters
which he wrote while Campeggio was so long upon his road; and the Bishop of
Bayonne, whose less interested eyes could see more deeply into the game,
warned him throughout that the pope was playing him false.[151] Only in a
revulsion from violent despondency could such a man as Wolsey have allowed
himself, on the mere arrival of the legate, and after a few soft words from
him, to write in the following strain to Sir Gregory Cassalis:--

"You cannot believe the exultation with which at length I find myself
successful in the object for which these many years, with all my industry,
I have laboured. At length I have found means to bind my most excellent
sovereign and this glorious realm to the holy Roman see in faith and
obedience for ever. Henceforth will this people become the most sure pillar
of support to bear up the sacred fabric of the church. Henceforth, in
recompense for that enduring felicity which he has secured to it, our most
Holy Lord has all England at his devotion. In brief time will this noble
land make its grateful acknowledgments to his clemency at once for the
preservation of the most just, most wise, most excellent of princes, and
for the secure establishment of the realm and the protection of the royal
succession."[152]

This letter was dated on the fourth of October, and was written in the hope
that the pope had collected his courage, and that the legate had brought
powers to proceed to judgment. In a few days the prospect was again
clouded, and Wolsey was once more in despair.[153] Campeggio had brought
with him instructions if possible to arrange a compromise,--if a compromise
was impossible, to make the best use of his ingenuity, and do nothing and
allow nothing to be done. In one of two ways, however, it was hoped that he
might effect a peaceful solution. He urged the king to give way and to
proceed no further; and this failing, as he was prepared to find, he urged
the same thing upon the queen.[154] He invited Catherine, or he was
directed to invite her, in the pope's name,[155] for the sake of the
general interests of Christendom, to take