"Pity that should be cut," he was heard to mutter with a touch of the old sad irony, "that has never committed treason." [Sidenote: Cromwell and the Nobles] Cromwell had at last reached his aim.

England lay panic-stricken at the feet of the "low-born knave," as the nobles called him, who represented the omnipotence of the crown.

Like Wolsey he concentrated in his hands the whole administration of the state; he was at once foreign minister and home minister, and vicar-general of the Church, the creator of a new fleet, the organizer of armies, the president of the terrible Star Chamber.

His Italian indifference to the mere show of power stood out in strong contrast with the pomp of the Cardinal.

Cromwell's personal habits were simple and unostentatious; if he clutched at money, it was to feed the army of spies whom he maintained at his own expense, and whose work he surveyed with a ceaseless vigilance.