Page:The Queens of England.djvu/333

 ANNE BOLEYN. 293 tress, for it had last belonged to the uncle of the king, and with it he granted her and her heirs precedence over all other ladies of similar rank in the kingdom, notwithstanding that there were then two marchionesses standing in near relationship with the royal family. From this period the king was accompanied by the newly- made marchioness wherever he went, and shortly after he caused to be made known to Francis the First, through the medium of the French ambassador then in England, his desire that Anne should be invited to go with him to the approaching congress to be held at Calais. The passage in the ambassador's letter to his master, Francis the First, which refers to this point, is curious. "If our sovereign," writes Bellai, "wishes to gratify the King of England, he can do nothing better than invite Madame Anne with him to Calais, and entertain her there with great respect." We are led to conclude that this intimation from his am- bassador was not neglected by Francis the First, for in the Oc- tober following, Anne, attended by the Marchioness of Derby and a retinue of other noble ladies, embarked for Calais with the king, whence, in a week after, they proceeded with great splen- dor to Boulogne, to meet the French king, where they were en- tertained in a princely style by that monarch during the few days they remained there. Francis accompanied Henry and Anne back to Calais, where Henry, determined not to be out- done in magnificence, and also to give eclat to his future bride, exhibited a splendor never before witnessed in Europe, if we may credit the accounts given by the historians who have de- scribed them. At a masque which followed the supper given by Henry to Francis and his court on the Sunday evening, 28th of October, the Marchioness of Pembroke, Anne Boleyn, with seven ladies, in masking apparel of strange fashion, made of cloth of gold, slashed with crimson tinsel satin, puffed with cloth of silver, and knit with laces of gold, entered the state chamber. Then the Lady Marchioness took the French king, the Countess of Derby the King of Navarre, and every lady took a lord. In dancing, King Henry removed the ladies' vizors, so that their beauties were shown. The French king then discovered that he had danced with an old acquaintance, the lovely English maid of honor of his first queen, for whose departure he had chidden the English ambassador ten years be- fore. He conversed with her some little time apart, and the next