CHAPTER VI
SOME CONTRASTS
In the Lambeth household the autumn passed by uneventfully. The rigour of
the Archbishop's confinement had been mitigated, and he had been allowed
now and again to visit his palace at Croydon; but his inactivity still
continued as the sequestration was not removed; Elizabeth had refused to
listen to the petition of Convocation in '80 for his reinstatement.
Anthony went down to the old palace once or twice with him; and was
brought closer to him in many ways; and his affection and tenderness
towards his master continually increased. Grindal was a pathetic figure
at this time, with few friends, in poor health, out of favour with the
Queen, who had disregarded his existence; and now his afflictions were
rendered more heavy than ever by the blindness that was creeping over
him. The Archbishop, too, in his loneliness and sorrow, was drawn closer
to his young officer than ever before; and gradually got to rely upon him
in many little ways. He would often walk with Anthony in the gardens at
Lambeth, leaning upon his arm, talking to him of his beloved flowers and
herbs which he was now almost too blind to see; telling him queer facts
about the properties of plants; and even attempting to teach him a little
irrelevant botany now and then.
They were walking up and down together, soon after Campion's arrest, one
August morning before prayers in a little walled garden on the river that
Grindal had laid out with great care in earlier years.
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