laureate, and your friend Sir Thomas Wyat, too, ere long. But will it
please your lord-ship to quit for a moment the society of the celestial
Nine, and descend to earth, while I inform you that, acting as your
representative, I have given all needful directions for his majesty's
reception to-morrow?,'

"You have not failed, I trust, to give orders to the groom of the
chambers for the lodging of my fair cousin, Mistress Anne Boleyn,
Captain Bouchier?" inquired the Earl of Surrey, with a significant smile.

"Assuredly not, my lord!" replied the other, smiling in his turn. "She will
be lodged as royally as if she were Queen of England. Indeed, the
queen's own apartments are assigned her."

"It is well," rejoined Surrey. "And you have also provided for the
reception of the Pope's legate, Cardinal Campeggio?"

Bouchier bowed.

"And for Cardinal Wolsey?" pursued the other.

The captain bowed again.

"To save your lordship the necessity of asking any further questions,"
he said, "I may state briefly that I have done all as if you had done it
yourself."

"Be a little more particular, captain, I pray you," said Surrey.

"Willingly, my lord," replied Bouchier. "In your lord ship's name, then, as