ing's Privy
Chamber, was privately sent to the Tower, and on the 30th was followed
thither by the musician Smeton. The next morning, the 1st of May, High
Festival was held at Greenwich. A tournament formed a part of the
ceremony, with the Court in attendance. Anne sate in a gallery as Queen of
the day, while her knights broke lances for her, caring nothing for flying
scandal, and unsuspecting the abyss which was opening under her feet. Sir
Henry Norris and Lord Rochford were in the lists as defender and
challenger, when, suddenly, the King rose; the pageant was broken up in
confusion; Henry mounted his horse and, followed by a small train, rode
off for London, taking Norris with him. Sir Henry Norris was one of
Henry's most intimate personal friends. He was his equerry, and often
slept in his room or in an adjoining closet. The inquiries of the
Commission had not yet implicated him as a principal, but it had appeared
that circumstances were known to him which he ought to have revealed. The
King promised to forgive him if he would tell the truth, but the truth was
more than he could dare to reveal. On the following day he, too, was sent
to the Tower, having been first examined before the Commissioners, to
whom--perhaps misled by some similar hope of pardon held out to him by Sir
William Fitzwilliam--he confessed more than it was possible to pardon, and
then withdrew what he had acknowledged.[398] So far, Smeton only had
confessed to "any actual thing," and it was thought the King's honour
would be touched if the guilt of the rest was not proved more clearly.

Anne had been left at Greenwich. On the next morning she was brought
before the Council there, her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, presiding. She
was informed that she was charged with adultery with various persons. Her
answers, such as they were, the Duke set aside as irrelevant. She
complained afterwards that she had been "cruelly handled" by the Council.
It was difficult not to be what she would consider cruel. She, too, was
conducted up the river to the Tower, where she found that to Smeton and
Brereton and Norris another gentleman of the household, Sir Francis
Weston, had now been added. A small incident is mentioned which preserves
a lost practice of the age. "On the evening of the day on which the
Concubine was sent to the Tower, the Duke of Richmond went to his father
to ask his blessing, according to the English custom. The King said, in
tears, that he, and his