The Autobiography of Henry VIII_ With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers - Margaret George [134]
“Nay, I never excelled at astronomy,” agreed Margaret. “It baffled me.” She looked at us all. “I must to bed. Father is right.”
Lady Alice likewise excused herself. Thomas More and I were left entirely alone. As I had wished, had dreamt of.
“Show me your secret,” he said. “I am anxious to see what you have brought.”
Carefully I opened the velvet-lined fitted wooden box. Inside was a set of lenses, and a board where they could be affixed into a series of holes.
“If these are paired and aligned in a certain way, they bring things closer, I know not how. My eyeglass maker showed me this trick. I can play with them and see objects on the far side of the room as if they were within arm’s length. I must confess I have not tried them on the stars. But perhaps tonight?”
“Yes! Yes!” He sounded genuinely interested, and extracted one and studied it intently.
“I had my eyeglass maker grind them,” I said. “I have had to resort to wearing reading glasses these days, aso made “fifty-year-glasses,” “sixty-year-glasses,” and so on.
“We have awhile yet before the eclipse begins. Let us adjust them when it is less chilly, and avoid the condensation on the lens.” He rose, gathering his drab grey wool about him.
He ushered me outside, through the rear door of the Great Hall—silent and dark now—and out onto the little meadow behind his manor house. The sharp, sweet smell of promised spring was in every breath.
The land rose slowly to a little knoll. More took a torch and led me toward it. Only as I came closer did my torch show something else to be there. As my eyes took in the structure, so my nose smelled new, oiled wood.
More indicated it. “A moon-watching platform,” he said. “The Chinese, I am told, call all balconies such, and so they should.”
He had built it for me. For my visit. In his reduced circumstances, still he had seen fit to honour me, and my wishes....
I mounted the steps of the small deck, encircled with a railing.
“I built it on my highest land,” he said.
“You built this . . . for my visit? The wood, the workmen’s fees—”
“I built it myself,” he said. “That is why it tilts so.” He laughed. “I hope our calculation table can stand steady.”
My men were busy setting it up. They could manage.
“It is steady, Your Majesty,” they said. They had made all the necessary adjustments to the legs and the angle of the top.
“You may keep pastime in the winter parlor,” More told them. “Request more wood if you like.”
Now we were alone. No ceremonies, no mitigating forces, and there was still an hour before the eclipse. It was most inconvenient of the Almighty to schedule it so late.
More walked around the new-smelling platform, rubbing his hands in the cold. There were two chairs on the deck, obviously fetched up from the house, as they were indoor chairs.
“We could look at Venus first,” he suggested.
“But there is little to see,” I replied. “It is always of a uniform appearance, and so bright. I prefer Mars.”
“The God of War,” said More. “Spoken like a true prince. Of late it has seemed brighter, at least to my naked eye. May I?” He indicated the larger lens, the one to be held at arm’s length.
“If you insert the handle into the hole at the far edge of the board, then tilt it”—I showed him how—“that can serve well for stars near the horizon. It will free one hand.”
He was delighted with the innovation.
“I wonder what the red is?” he mused. “Does Mars have red seas, do you think?”
“Yes,” I said. “Most likely. Or perhaps it burns with a red flame? Or perhaps it is covered with blood?”
He sighed. “To think there are other’s theory that all the planets circle the sun—he has not published, of course—”
“It is not for us to ‘comprehend’ with our finite minds, but to seek to obey Him in whatever world He has placed us,” I said. “It is not, of course, always so plain.... God confounds us, tests us.”
I hesitated. But the moment was here, the moment when I must speak. “Thomas, I came to see you tonight not only to view the eclipse, but also to warn you. I do not know what you hear from London of worldly