e of
opinion that the readiest way to bridle France and Germany is to begin in
England. It can be done with ease. The people only wait for your Majesty
to give the signal."[289]

The inaction of the Emperor was incomprehensible to Catherine's friends.
To herself it was distracting. She had fed upon the hope that when the
Pope had given judgment her trial would be at an end; that the voice of
Catholic Europe would compel the King to submit. The Roman lightning had
flashed, but the thunderbolt had not fallen. The English laity, long
waiting in suspense, had begun to think, as Chapuys feared they would,
that the Pope was the shadow, and Cranmer the substance. Cut off from the
world, she thought she was forsaken, or that the Emperor's care for her
would not carry him to the point of interference. If no voice was raised
in her favour in her own Spain, the Spanish Ambassador might at least show
that her countrymen had not forgotten her. She sent pressing messages to
Chapuys, begging him to visit her; and Chapuys, impatient himself of his
master's hesitating policy, resolved to go. He applied for permission to
the Council. It was refused. But the Council could not forbid his making a
summer pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham, and the road lay near
Kimbolton. He wrote to Cromwell that, leave or no leave, he was going into
Norfolk, and meant to call there. The porters might refuse him entrance if
they pleased. He gave him fair notice. It should not be said that he had
acted underhand.

It was the middle of July. Making as much display as possible, with a
retinue of sixty horse, and accompanied by a party of Spaniards resident
in London, the Ambassador rode ostentatiously through the City, and
started on the great North Road. Spending a night on the way, he arrived
on the second evening within a few miles of Catherine's residence. At this
point he was overtaken by two gentlemen of the household, with an
intimation that he would not be admitted. He demanded to see their orders,
and, the orders not being produced, he said that, being so near the end of
his journey, he did not mean to turn back. He would have persisted, but a
message came to him from the Queen herself, or from one of her people, to
say that she could not receive him; he could proceed to Walsingham if he
pleased, but he must not approach within bowshot of the Castle. Some
peremptory command must have reached her. A second secret message
followed, that, although sh