I have lived like a beggar, but now--London is mine. The Temple, St.
James's, Whitehall, Westminster to begin with; then the rest."
The galley reached York Palace, and the King hastened in with his
body-guard, without giving the password or answering the
chamberlain's questions. He went straight to the Cardinal's room,
and laid some letters before him: "Read! you snake! your lying
letters behind my back."
The Cardinal's face seemed to shrink to half its size, and resembled
a death's-head. He did not, however, fall on his knees, but raised
his head for the last time: "I appeal to the Pope."
"There is no Pope in England! Nay, I am the Pope, and therefore you
are no longer Cardinal! Accordingly, I have granted myself a
dispensation, and married Anne Boleyn yesterday! In a few days I
shall have her crowned. And then we will dwell here! _Here!_ But you
will live in the Tower. Go, or I throw you out."
Thus England became free; a third part of London, which had belonged
to the monks, reverted to the Crown, and afterwards the whole
country followed.
The King had obtained his beloved Anne, but after three years she
was beheaded, for having dishonoured the King by adultery. After
that the King married four times. Cardinal Wolsey died before he
came to the scaffold; Sir Thomas More was beheaded; and Cromwell,
who at first defended Wolsey, but afterwards became a "_malleus
monachorum_," was also beheaded.
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