Then the knights came into the hall, dressed in blue satin and cloth of gold. They carried labels on their feathered and jeweled caps such as Loyalty, Pleasure, Youth; and they were led by one more magnificently attired than any of them, who was recognizable at once by his size if by nothing else. The King was Ardent Desire. I failed to see that that was necessarily a virtue.
He led the attack on the castle. The fair ladies welcomed the knights—presumably they were intended to be prisoners of the wicked brunettes who tried to hold off the knights. Cannons outside the palace were fired to add to the effect. A brilliant idea, said everyone. Trust Wolsey to do something different. The dark ladies pelted the knights with rose petals and sugar plums; the knights’ weapons were dates and oranges.
Evidently the oranges and dates were the more effective weapons, and soon the castle was in the hands of the valiant knights, the Vices defeated and the Virtues rescued.
Then the galliard began.
The King, of course, was the center of the dancing. I wondered what Charles and his ambassadors thought of this. They looked rather pleased, so perhaps they thought that one who took such delight in this kind of entertainment would be easy to outwit in the diplomatic field. Perhaps so. But they could be forgetting the Cardinal.
As one of the ladies of the Queen's household, I joined in the dance. I was close to the King and again was aware of his attention. Of one thing I was certain now—he had not forgotten that scene in the garden and still held it against me.
I shall always remember that night because during it I first became aware of Henry Percy.
He was in the household of Cardinal Wolsey. We danced together and afterward sat engaged in conversation. It was obvious to me that he admired me, and there was a quality in him which appealed to me. He was modest and rather gentle. He told me that I was quite different from the other ladies at the Court, and he left me in no doubt that he found the difference pleasing.
“You have not been long at Court,” he said. “I have seen you now and then… but only recently.”
“Are you often at Court?”
“I am in the Cardinal's household and have to attend on him every day. That often brings me to the Palace.”
“I am with the Queen's household.”
“Yes, I know. You are Mistress Anne Boleyn.”
“How did you know?”
He flushed a little. “I…I asked your name. I know that you have come recently from France. Do you think the Court here different from that of France?”
“In many respects, yes.”
“Do you regret leaving France?”
“Only now and then.”
“Are you regretting it now?”
“No,” I said honestly, “I am not,” and we laughed together.
“I have been here so long,” he said. “My father was insistent that I should be brought up in the Cardinal's household.”
“It is a good training for Court life, doubtless.”
“That will be my lot. When possible, I go back to the North.”
“So you come from there? You know my name. What is yours?”
“Henry Algernon Percy.”
“You come from the North. Your name is Percy. Then you must be related to the Northumberlands.”
“The Earl is my father.”
“And do you long to go back home?”
“It is so long since I lived at Alnwick that it no longer seems to be my home. I have been back of course… then when I leave it I feel home-sick. The air is different there…free and fresh.”
“How is the Cardinal?”
“Well, I think.”
“I mean as a master?”
“He does not concern himself with his pages.”
I laughed. “You are of a noble house and he is the son of a butcher, yet you must consider it an honor to be received into his house. Does that not strike you as strange?”
“Put like that, perhaps. But he is a brilliant statesman and I the not very clever son of the house. My father does not think much of me. I believe he wishes one of my brothers were the elder.”
“Parents are rarely satisfied with their children. But then, are children always satisfied with their parents? What a pity we cannot choose each other! That would be more satisfactory.”
“But difficult to arrange.”
“Tell me about yourself.”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Of course I do. What of these brothers who are so much more worthy than you?”
“Thomas and Ingelram? We get along well together when we meet, which is not often, my being down here in the service of the Cardinal and they… lucky creatures… being up there in the North.”
“How you love that place! I should like to see it.”
“One day I must show you Alnwick.”
“The family home…”
“Home of the Percy clan for generations. It is very ancient. Of course it has been added to and altered since it was first cut out of the deep ravine on the south bank of the River Alne. It was there before the Norman Conquest and was the home of Saxon lords. It was the year 1309 before it came into the possession of the Percys. Now it is very much ours. We have put our stamp on it.”
“Very different from Hever, my home. That, I believe, was acquired by my great-grandfather, who was a merchant and Lord Mayor of London. A little better than a butcher perhaps—but trade nonetheless.”
He looked at me admiringly. “I can only applaud him for being the great-grandfather of the most charming lady at Court.”
“You know how to pay compliments.”
“I don't usually. But now I have only to speak the truth.”
“They are beginning to dance,” I said. “Shall we join them?”
“I am a poor dancer.”
“I am a good one, and all you have to do is follow me.”
It was true that he was no dancer, but I liked him the better for that. There was a delightful honesty about him.
He said: “I liked better talking to you, which one cannot do seriously in the dance. I like to look at you because I have never seen anyone like you. I cannot believe you really exist…unless I keep my eyes on you.”
“I assure you I am no phantom.”
I bantered a little with him, but he was very serious. I enjoyed his admiration, and I felt drawn to him as I never had to any other person.
“I shall look for you,” he said. “I come to the palace every day with the Cardinal to wait on the King, so I shall be near you. The Cardinal is often closeted with him for a very long time.”
“And his attendants must wait for him?”
“They can wander round the gardens…providing they do not stray too far.”
“I see.”
“And the Queen's maids of honor?”
“They, too, often wander in the gardens.”
“I shall look for you,” he said.
I smiled and thought, though I did not say it: And I shall look for you.
That was the beginning. Our friendship grew. Friendship? It was more than that. I awoke each morning in a state of such happiness as I had never known before, asking myself whether I should see him that day. I realized that this was falling in love.
He was different from the other young men. He was earnest and sincere. It was not surprising that, in a Court of shams, I should prize these qualities.
It had never occurred to me that I could fall in love so easily. I had seen too much of the relationships between the sexes to trust them. There were the flowery phrases, the billets doux, the compliments, the flattery… and then it was all over. I had never thought that something doomed to be so ephemeral was worth the trouble until now.