586
REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH
[ch. 6.
of these complaints, however, and Cromwell remained with the Cardinal till his fall.[1]
It was then that the truly noble nature which was in him showed itself. He accompanied his master through his dreary confinement at Esher,[2] doing all that man could do to soften the outward wretchedness of it; and at the meeting of Parliament, in which he obtained a seat, he rendered him a still more gallant service. The Lords had passed a bill of impeachment against Wolsey, violent, vindictive, and malevolent.
- ↑ Are we to believe Foxe's story that Cromwell was with the Duke of Bourbon at the storming of Rome in May, 1527? See Foxe, vol. v. p. 365. He was with Wolsey in January, 1527. See Ellis, third series, vol. ii. p. 117. And he was again with him early in 1528. Is it likely that he was in Italy on such an occasion in the interval? Foxe speaks of it as one of the random exploits of Cromwell's youth, which is obviously untrue; and the natural impression which we gather is, that he was confusing the expedition of the Duke of Bourbon with some earlier campaign. On the other hand, Foxe's authority was Cranmer, who was likely to know the truth; and it is not impossible that, in the critical state of Italian politics, the English Government might have desired to have some confidential agent in the Duke of Bourbon's camp. Cromwell, with his knowledge of Italy and Italian, and his adventurous ability, was a likely man to have been sent on such an employment; and the story gains additional probability from another legend about him, that he oncesaved the life of Sir John Russell, in some secret affair at Bologna. See Foxe, vol. v. p. 67. Now, although Sir John Russell had been in Italy several times before (he was at the battle of Pavia, and had been employed in various diplomatic missions), and Cromwell might thushave rendered him the service in question on an earlier occasion, yet he certainly was in the Papal States, on a most secret and dangerous mission, in the months preceding the capture of Rome.—State Papers, vol. vi. p. 560, &c. The probabilities may pass for what they are worth till further discovery.
- ↑ A damp, unfurnished house belonging to Wolsey, where he wasordered to remain till the Government had determined upon their course towards him. See Cavendish.
