John; John Lord
Russell; Edward Earl of Hertford; John Viscount Lisle; Cuthbert Bishop
of Durham-
Tom was not listening- an earlier clause of the document was
puzzling him. At this point he turned and whispered to Lord Hertford:
'What day did he say the burial hath been appointed for?'
'The 16th of the coming month, my liege.'
''Tis a strange folly. Will he keep?'
Poor chap, he was still new to the customs of royalty; he was used
to seeing the forlorn dead of Offal Court hustled out of the way
with a very different sort of expedition. However, the Lord Hertford
set his mind at rest with a word or two.
A secretary of state presented an order of the council
appointing the morrow at eleven for the reception of the foreign
ambassadors, and desired the king's assent.
Tom turned an inquiring look toward Hertford, who whispered:
'Your majesty will signify consent. They come to testify their
royal masters' sense of the heavy calamity which hath visited your
grace and the realm of England.'
Tom did as he was bidden. Another secretary began to read a
preamble concerning the expenses of the late king's household, which
had amounted to L28,000 during the preceding six months- a sum so vast
that it made Tom Canty gasp; he gasped again when the fact appeared
that L20,000 of this money were still owing and unpaid;*(10) and
once more when it appeared that the king's coffers were about empty,
and his twelve hundred servants much embarrassed for lack of the wages
due them.
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