Page:The Queens of England.djvu/330

 290 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. from his courtiers the same observances and etiquette for her that was paid to the queen. Anne held her levees, which were far more numerously attended than those of Katharine. She had her ladies-in-waiting, her trainbearer and her chaplains ; and dispensed patronage in church and state. The delays of the proceedings in the divorce, annoying as they were to Henry, were still more so to Anne, who, anxious to be extricated from the false position in which she found her- self, impatiently longed for its termination, and possessing an exti^me quickness of apprehension, rightly divined that Card- inal Wolsey, however he might outwardlv affect to desire its completion, was more disposed to lengthen than expedite the proceedings. This well-founded suspicion revived in her breast her old dislike to Wolsey, a dislike which only slumbered, but was not dead. She urged the king to send Gardiner to Rome a second time to plead for the divorce, and from that period may be dated her firm intention to destrov Wolsey's influence with the king. Other circumstances subsequently occurred to in- crease her dislike to the all-powerful minister. It chanced that a book, highly estimated by Anne, and said to be no other than Tindal's translation of the Holy Scriptures, but lately com- pleted, had been taken from her chamber by one of her ladies, who was engaged in its perusal, when a suitor of hers snatched it from her, and took it with him to the king's chapel. Its con- tents so wholly engrossed his attention that he was unmindful when the service concluded, and continued to read on, which so much excited the curiosity of the dean of the chapel that he requested the young gentleman to give him a sight of the book, when, finding it to be the forbidden translation of the Scrip- tures, he carried it to Cardinal Wolsey. Anne Boleyn having missed the volume, was told the truth, and instantly sent for the young gentleman, who having related the affair, she lost not a moment in seeking the king, and intreating him for the restoration of her valued treasure. He effected this, and, at her request, perused the volume, to which is attributed the great change in his opinions which followed. Anne, now determined to effect the ruin of him whom she be- lieved to be her secret enemy, was enabled to furnish such proofs of the cardinal's duplicity to the king as could not be refuted, which she accomplished by showing Henry certain letters from Wolsey to Rome, establishing the fact of his playing false to his master. Nevertheless, Henrv did not abandon his old favorite