whom all subjects bear faithful obedience, nor yet to the wealth of thine own estate, but hast so unadvisedly assured thyself unto her, for whom thou hast purchased tho King's high displeasure, intolerable for any subject to sustain ; and but that his Grace doth consider the lightness of thy head, and wilful qualities of thy person, his displeasure and indignation were sufficient to cast me and all my posterity into utter ruin and destruction ; but he being my singular good and favourable Prince, and my Lord Cardinal my good lord, hath and doth clearly excuse me in thy lewd fact, and doth rather lament thy lightness than malign me for the same ; and hath devised an order to be taken for thee, to whom both thou and I be more bound than we be well able to consider. I pray to God that this may be unto thee a sufficient admonition to use thyself more wisely hereafter, for that, as I assure thee, if thou dost not amend thy prodigality, thou wilt be the last Earl of our house ; for, of thy natural inclination, thou art disposed to be wasteful, and prodigal, and to consume all that thy progenitors have with great travail gathered and kept together with honour; but loving the King's majesty, my singular good and gracious lord, I trust I assure thee so to order my succession that ye shall consume thereof but a little; for Ì do not intend, I tell thee true, to make thee my heir, for, thanks be to God, I have more boys that, I trust, will prove much better, and use themselves more like world-wise and honest men, of whom I will choose the most likely to succeed me. Now, good masters and gentlemen," quoth he to the pages and the others around, " it may be your chance hereafter, when I am dead, to see these things that I have spoken to my son prove so true as I speak them, yet, in the mean season, I desire you all to be his friends, and to tell him his fault when he doth amiss, wherein ye shall show yourself friendly unto him. And here," quoth he, " I take my leave of you. And, son, go your ways into my lord your master, and attend upon him according to thy duty." And so he departed, and went his way down the hall into his own barge. Shortly after receiving this harsh paternal rebuke, Percy was banished from the court, and compelled by his father to marry Mary Talbot. The date of the marriage is not known, but that it took place about tho close of 1523 is verified by a letter, still extant, from tho Earl of Surrey to Lord Darcy, scribbled the twelfth of September, 1523, in which he states L t that the marriage of my Lorde Percy shal be wt. my Lorde Steward's doghter, wherof I am right glade, and so I am sure ye be. Now the Cheff Baron is with my Lorde of Northumberland to conclude the marriage." Meanwhile, Henry, perhaps to cloak his real designs, or to punish Anne for accepting the suit of young Percy, sent for Sir Thomas Boleyn, who, to please the King, after rating his daughter for her disobedience, withdrew her from court to the retirement of his favourite residence at Hever Castle. Unlike Percy, the ingenuous, high-spirited Anne could neither suppress nor conceal her resentment at being thus harshly dealt by. She was, however, so far from penetrating the real cause of her disappointment, that she attributed it exclusively to the Cardinal's malicious interference ; and, on leaving the palace, protested, with an impetuosity which, fatally for herself, she never learnt to control, that she would not let slip the first opportunity to requite the injury. That Anne, at this period, should not divine the true source of her disappointment, is not surprising, as even her father's sagacity appears not to have penetrated the mystery, he having, it is said, attributed the royal interposition solely to the spirit of domination which he had long remarked in his jealous Sovereign's character, of whom Sir Thomas More, whilst chancellor, too justly predicted, that he would even strike off a favourite's head if it obstructed his views of advantage. Sir Thomas Boleyn, however, became convinced of the real designs of hie Sovereign, when the King, on a frivolous pretext, which ill disguised his real errand, paid a secret and unexpected