Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/298

278 inevitable. The conference at Paris lay before him like a thunder-cloud. The divorce of Catherine and the execution of Anne Boleyn had already created sufficient scandal in Europe. At such a moment he durst not pass an affront upon the Germans, which might drive them also into a compromise with his other enemies. He gathered up his resolution. As the thing was to be done, it might be done at once; delay would not make the bitter dose less unpalatable; and the day remained fixed for the date of its first postponement—Tuesday, the 6th of January. As he was preparing for the sacrifice he called Cromwell to him in the chamber of presence: 'My lord,' he said openly, 'if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do that I must do this day for none earthly thing.'

The marriage was solemnized. A last chance remained to the privy seal and to the eager prelates who had trembled in the storm on Barham Down, that the affection which could not precede the ceremony might perhaps follow it. But the tide had turned against the Reformers; and their contrivances to stem the current were not of the sort which could be allowed to prosper. Dislike was confirmed into rooted aversion. The instinct with which the King recoiled from Anne settled into a defined resolution. He was personally kind to her. His provocations did not tempt him into discourtesy; but, although she shared his bed, necessity and inclination alike limited the companionship to a form; and Henry lamented to Cromwell, who had been the cause of the calamity, that 'surely he would never