had been allowed to rejoin her. The mother
and daughter had made short expeditions together, and had been received
with so much enthusiasm that it was found necessary again to part them.
Stories were current of insulting messages which Catherine had received
from the Lady Anne, false probably, and meant only to create exasperation.
The popular feeling was warmly in her favour. She was personally liked as
much as Anne was hated; and the King himself was not spared. As a specimen
of the licence of language, "a Mrs. Amadas, witch and prophetess, was
indicted for having said that 'the Lady Anne should be burned, for she was
a harlot. Master Norris (Sir Henry Norris, Equerry to Henry) was bawd
between her and the King. The King had kept both the mother and the
daughter, and Lord Wiltshire was bawd to his wife and to his two
daughters.'"[238] In July the news arrived from Rome of the Brief _de
Attentatis_, and with it the unpleasant intelligence that Francis could
not be depended on, and that the hopes expected from the meeting at Nice
would not be realised. The disappointment was concealed from Anne, for
fear of endangering the expected child. Norfolk, who had waited in Paris
to proceed in the French King's train, was ordered to return to England.
Henry was not afraid, but he was discovering that he had nothing to rely
upon but himself and the nation. The terms on which France and the Empire
stood towards each other were so critical that he did not expect the
Emperor to quarrel with England if he could help it. Chapuys seemed
studiously to seek Cromwell. Of Cromwell's fidelity to himself Henry was
too well assured to feel uneasy about their intimacy, and therefore they
met often and as freely exchanged their thoughts. Chapuys found Cromwell
"a man of sense, well versed in affairs of State, and able to judge
soundly," with not too good an opinion of the Lady Anne, who returned his
dislike. Anne was French; Cromwell was Imperialist beyond all the rest of
the Council.

"I told him," wrote the Ambassador to Charles, after one of these
conversations, "I often regretted your Majesty had not known him in
Wolsey's time. He would have been a greater man than the Cardinal, and the
King's affairs would have gone much better. He seemed pleased, so I
continued. Now was the time for him to do his master better service than
ever man did before. Sentence had been given in Rome against the King, and
there was no further hope that your Majest