onel; and he accordingly declared, as he again dropped upon one knee, that he should deem it his highest honour to be allowed to serve his grace in whatever station might be appointed to him.

"Lookee, my Lord of Arundel," said the King"this is a Dudley, and of gentle blood; it was he who struck down the beastly madman yesterday;it likes me to have such about me as have quick eyes and quicker hands; that wait not for a word, but can catch a look; and whose limbs are as nimble as their thoughts, when they see aught that jeopards their master; so let him be sworn my liegeman of life and limb, and possess him of his duty as a gentleman-usher. Away!"

He motioned with his hand a signal of impatience, which it was never safe to disregard, and they accordingly withdrew, the Lord Chamberlain only signifying his acquiescence in the royal commands, by a low bow.

Scarcely had they quitted the traverse, when the King hastily issued from it with the drawings in his hand, and stamping his foot, exclaimed: "What, ho! gentlemen, are ye deaf? is there nobody in attendance? Where be these laggard yeomen? Call back the German painter-is he gone? What! are the yeomen of the barge in readiness? then quick, sirs, quick; the time presses. For Greenwich, ho! for Greenwich!" So saying, he passed forth from the apartment, followed by his numerous attendants. Holbein, who had been hastily recalled, joined him in the ante-room, and accompanied him into his barge, where he had hardly seated himself, when the King again began to study the drawings in his hand. So little could his impetuous temperament brook delay, whatever might be the caprice of the moment, that instead of proceeding to Greenwich, he ordered the bargemen to row him to Whitehall, that he might immediately settle the locality of the

new gate, and give orders for its erection. Here he remained so long in discussion with Holbein, that the time and tide, which would not stay even for King Henry the Eighth, rendered his proceeding to Greenwich impossible; and he accordingly dispatched a messenger thither on horseback, to inform the guests that he had changed his mind, and to command their attendance for the following day.

199

CHAPTER XI.

A court-corrupted slave thou art!
What is her name upon thy heart
So slightly graven,

That, trembling at a tyrant's frown,
Thou canst renounce her for thine own?
O faithless craven!

DUDLEY in the meanwhile receiving instructions from the Lord Chamberlain as to his duty as a gentleman-usher, was informed that it was incumbent on him to be every night in his pallet, unless he had special licence to the contrary; that he was to attend in rotation at dinner and supper to see that the squires of the body served the King's pottage, and every night at eight o'clock, after supper, to make the King's cupboard; to take orders in the morning where his grace would hear mass, and provide a stool, carpet, and cushions for the same; to command a knight to go with him to the ewery-board when the King took his meals, to receive the towel and water, and see that assays be taken thereof; to call the yeomen to take the King's board and tressels away; to learn his highness's mind whether it shall please him to have any heralds, minstrels, or such other, to come into his presence; to forbid that no manner of man do set any dish upon the King's bed, for fear of hurting the rich counterpoints, and that no man wipe or rub his hands upon the King's arras, whereby it might be hurted; and that no man, whatsoever be his degree, be so hardy as to nigh the King's chair, nor stand under the cloth of estate, nor lean upon the King's bed, nor approach the cupboard where the King's cushion is laid, nor stand upon the carpet, but that all stand down at the lower end of the chamber as nigh as they can, and so with

draw them when the King speaks with any lord or gentleman; to record all manner of bread, ale, wine, and stocks of trenchers spent in the King's chamber, and to certify it into the King's counting-house;-if there come any honourable persons to the King to take them to the cellar, pantry, or buttery, and there to command such bread, meat, and drink as he shall think fit; and this in no wise to be withsaid: it is the King's honour: and at eight o'clock to call for a torch for all night, and to go to the buttery for the King's ale, there to receive three cups of ash and ale, giving assay thereof; so to the cellar to receive the cup, a cupboard-cloth, and two pots of wine for the King, giving assay thereof;-then to the groom-porters, there to receive a mortar of wax, seventeen sizes, and a pricket for the King. And this done, all to come into the King's great chamber, commanding a yeoman of the watch to keep the chamber-door, removing all others except the knights, squires of the body, and the watch; and so then to draw the traverse.

Such was an outline of the duty which the gentlemen-ushers were expected to discharge in rotation, and with respect to the making of the King's bed, which he would be occasionally called upon to superintend, it was considered an office of such consequence, that he was furnished with printed directions for his guidance. From this paper, which was of considerable length, we shall make a few extracts, for the benefit of such chamberlains and chambermaids of the present day as may wish to know how their functions were performed in the palace of Henry the Eighth.

"First, a groom or a page to take a torch, and go to the wardrobe of the King's beds, and bring them of the wardrobe, with the King's stuff, into the chamber for making of the bed; whereas ought to be a gentleman-usher, four yeomen of the chamber for the making of the said bed, the groom to stand at

the bed's feet with his torch, the gentleman-usher apart, commanding them what they shall do; a yeoman with a dagger to search the straw of the King's bed, that there be none untruth therein; and then these yeomen to cast the bed of down upon that, and one of them to tumble over it for the search thereof. Then they to beat and toss the said bed, and to lay on then the bolster, without touching of the bed whereas it ought to lye. Then they of the wardrobe to deliver them a fustian, taking assay thereof." (Here follow minute directions for the laying of each sheet and fustian, as well as of the pillows, bolster, and head sheet.) "And then the said wardrober to deliver unto the yeomen two little small pillows, wherewithal the gentleman-usher shall give the assay to the wardrober, and to the yeomen which have laid hands upon the said beds. And then the said two yeomen to lay up the said bed towards the bolster, as it was before, they making a cross, and kissing where their hands were. And so then every of them to stick up the angels about the bed, and to let down the curtains. Item, a squire for the body, or a gentleman-usher, ought to set the King's sword at his bed's head."*

Apologizing to such of our readers as feel no interest in these cubiculary details, we proceed to state that Dudley soon qualified himself for his new office, and discharged its duties with an alacrity, which combined with his personal comeliness, and the rich elegance of his dress, two recommendations that always found favour in Henry's sight, procured him on several occasions the approving notice of the monarch. Although this condescension never extended beyond an exclamation of"Ha! it is well. Marry, thou art a fellow of mark and likelihood. What!" Yet coming from a sove

* The whole may be found, as well as the duties of a gentleman-usher, in the Antiquarian Repertory, vol. ii. pp. 188 to 206.