'I had rather borrow Pelham's kerchief.'
The Lady Mary dropped the parchment on to the floor at her side.
'I rede you do as this knight wills,' she said; 'for, amidst the little
sticklers of spies that are here, this knight, this emperor of spies,
moves as a pillow of shadow. He stalks amongst them as, in the night,
the dread and awful lion of Numidia. He shall be to you more a corslet
of proof than all the virtue that your life may borrow from the precepts
of Diana. We, that are royal and sit in high places, have our feet in
such mire.'
'Now before God on His throne,' Katharine Howard said, 'if you be of
royal blood, I will teach you a lesson. For hear me----'
'No, I will hear thee no more,' the Lady Mary answered; 'I will teach
thee. For thou art not the only one in this land to be proud. I will
show thee such a pride as shall make thee blush.'
She stood up and came slowly down the steps of the dais. She squared
back her shoulders and folded her hands before her; she erected her
head, and her eyes were dark. When she was come to where the Queen sat,
she kneeled down.
'I acknowledge thee to be my mother,' she said, 'that have married the
King, my father. I pray you that you do take me by the hand and set me
in that seat that you did raise for me. I pray you that you do style me
a princess, royal again in this land. And I pray you to lesson me and
teach me that which you would have me do as well as that which it befits
me to do. Take me by the hand.'
'Nay, it is my lord that should do this,' the Queen whispered. Before
that she had started to her feet; her face had a flush of joy; her eyes
shone with her transparent faith. She brushed back a strand of hair from
her brow; she folded her hands on her breasts and raised her glance
upwards to seek the dwelling-place of Almighty God and the saints in
their glorious array.
'It is my lord should do this!' she said again.
'Speak no more words,' the Lady Mary said. 'I have heard enow of thy
pleadings. You have heard me say that.'
She continued upon her knees.
'It is thou or none!' she said. 'It is thou or none shall witness this
my humiliation and my pride. Take me by the hand. My patience will not
last for ever.'
The Queen set her hand between the girl's. She raised her to her feet.
When the Lady Mary stood high and shadowy, in black, with her white face
beneath that dais, she looked down upon the Queen.
'Now, hear me!' she said. 'In this I have been humble to you; but I have
been most proud. For I have in my veins a greater blood than thine or
the King's, my father's. For, inasmuch as Tudor blood is above Howard's,
so my mother's, that was royal of Spain, is above Tudor's. And this it
is to be royal----
'I have had you, a Queen, kneel before me. It is royal to receive
petitions--more royal still it is to grant them. And in this, further, I
am more proud. For, hearing you say that you had prayed the King for
Cromwell's life, I thought, this is a virtue-mad Queen. She shall most
likely fall!--Prudence biddeth me not to be of her party. But shall I,
who am royal, be prudent? Shall I, who am of the house of Aragon, be
more afraid than thou, a Howard?
'I tell you--No! If you will be undone for the sake of virtue, blindly,
and like a fool, unknowing the consequences, I, Mary of Aragon and
England, will make alliance with thee, knowing that the alliance is
dangerous. And, since it is more valiant to go to a doom knowingly than
blindfold, so I do show myself more valiant than thou. For well I
know--since I saw my mother die--that virtue is a thing profitless, and
impracticable in this world. But you--you think it shall set up temporal
monarchies and rule peoples. Therefore, what you do you do for profit. I
do it for none.'
'Now, by the Mother of God,' Katharine Howard said, 'this is the
gladdest day of my life.'
'Pray you,' Mary said, 'get you gone from my sight and hearing, for I
endure ill the appearance and sound of joy. And, Queen, again I bid you
beware of calling any day fortunate till its close. For, before midnight
you may be ruined utterly. I have known more Queens than thou. Thou art
the fifth I have known.'