enough, at the court of Rome, to obtain the grant of those things, with the hopes of which he had flattered king Henry, he became odious to that prince; who, tired out with the continual complaints made against him, and the repeated solicitations of Anna Bullen, seized all his furniture, papers and money.

The inventory of his goods being taken, they were found to exceed even the most extravagant surmises. Of fine Holland alone there were found a thousand pieces. The walls of his palace were covered with cloth of gold and silver. He had a cup-board of plate of massy gold. All the rest of his riches and furniture were in proportion; and probably their greatness invited the hand of power.

The cardinal, after his disgrace, was ordered to retire to Esher, a country seat which he possessed near Hampton, there to wait the king's further pleasure, with all the fluctuations of hope and apprehension. Still, however, he was in possession of the archbishopric of York, and bishopric of Winchester; and the king gave him distant gleams of hope, by sending him a ring, accompanied by a gracious message. Wolsey, who, like every bad character, was proud to his equals, and mean to those above him, happening to meet the king's messenger on horseback, immediately alighted, and throwing himself on his knees in the mire, received in that abject manner, those marks of his majesty's condescension.

But his hopes were soon overturned; for after he had remained some time at Esher, he was or

dered to remove. to his see of York, where he took up his residence at Cawood, and rendered himself very popular in the neighborhood by his affability. He was not allowed to remain long unmolested in this retreat. He was arrested by the earl of Northumberland, and the king's command, for high treason, and preparations were made for conducting him to London, in order to his trial.

On his journey he was seized with a disorder, which turned into a dysentery; and it was with much difficulty that he was able to reach Leicester abbey. "I am come to lay my bones among you," said Wolsey to the abbot and monks, who came out to receive him; and he immediately took his bed, whence he never rose more. "Had I but served my God," cried he, a little before he expired," as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs."

His treason, indeed, seems rather to have been against the people than the prince, or even the state. For although the violence and obstinacy of Henry's character, ought perhaps to apologize for many of the cardinal's public measures, his continual extortions upon the subject, by the most iniquitous methods, in what he called the Legantine Court, admit of no allevia tion.

CHAP. LIII.

Of the French Monarch, Francis the First.

IN the reign of Francis I. contemporary with Henry VIII. of England, the French began to extend their influence over Europe. This prince, though he was brave to excess in his own person, and had defeated the Swiss, who till then were deemed invincible, was an unfortunate warrior. He was a candidate for the empire of Germany, but lost the imperial crown; Charles V. of the house of Austria and king of Spain, being chosen. Francis made some dazzling expeditions against Spain, but suffered his mother, of whom he was very fond, to abuse his power; by which he disobliged the constable of Bourbon, the greatest of his subjects, who joined in a confederacy against him with the emperor and Henry VIII. of England. He died in the fifty. third year of his age, and the thirty-third of his reign.

During twenty-eight years of that time, an avowed rivalship subsisted between him and the emperor, which involved not only their own dominions, but the greater part of Europe in wars, prosecuted with more violent animosity, and drawn out to a greater length, than had been known in any former period.

Many circumstances contributed to both.Their animosity was founded in opposition of interest, heightened by personal emulation, and exasperated not only by mutual injuries, but by

reciprocal insults. At the same time, whatever advantage one seemed to possess towards gaining the ascendant was wonderfully balanced by some favorable circumstance, peculiar to the other.

The emperor's dominions were of great extent; the French king's lay more compact. Francis governed his kingdom with absolute power; that of Charles was limited, but he supplied the want of authority by address. The troops of the former were more impetuous and enterprizing; those of the latter, better disciplined, and more patient of fatigue.

The talents and abilities of the two monarchs, were as different as the advantages which they possessed, and contributed no less to prolong the contest between them. Francis took his resolutions suddenly, prosecuted them at first with warmth, and pushed them into execution with a most advantageous courage. But being destitute of the perseverance necessary to surmount difficulties, he often abandoned his designs, or relaxed the vigor of pursuit from impatience, and sometimes from levity.

Charles deliberated long, and determined with coolness; but having once fixed his plan, he adhered to it with the utmost obstinacy, and neither danger nor discouragement could turn him aside from the execution of it..

The success of their enterprizes was as different as their characters, and was uniformly influenced by them. Francis, by his impetuous. activity, often disconcerted the emperor's bestlaid schemes; Charles, by a more calm, but

steady prosecution of his designs, checked the rapidity of his rival's career, and baffled or repulsed his most vigorous efforts. The former, at the opening of a war, or of a campaign, broke in upon his enemy, with the violence of a torrent, and carried all before him; the latter, waiting until he saw the force of his rival begin to abate, recovered in the end, not only what he had lost, but made new acquisitions. Few of the French monarch's attempts towards conquests, whatever promising aspect they might wear at first, were conducted to an happy issue; many of the emperor's enterprizes, even after they appeared desperate and impracticable, terminated in the most prosperous manner. Francis was dazzled with the splendor of an undertaking; Charles was allured by the prospect of its turning to his ad

vantage.

The degree, however, of their comparative merit and reputation, has not been fixed either by a strict scrutiny into their abilities for government, or by an impartial consideration of the greatness and success of their undertakings; and Francis is one of those monarchs who occupies a higher rank in the temple of fame, than either his talents or performances entitle him to hold.

Captivated with his personal qualities, his subjects forgot his defects as a monarch, and admiring him as the most accomplished and amiable gentleman in his dominions, they never murmured at acts of mal-administration, which, in a prince of less engaging dispositions, would have been deemed unpardonable.