'The witnesses be here to prove it, if your Highness will.'
'Why,' the King said, 'it is late enough,' and he leered at Cranmer,
for whom he had an affection. He looked again upon the Queen to see how
fair she was and how bravely she bore herself, upright and without
emotion. 'This wife of mine,' he said, 'is ever of the pardoning side.
If ye had so injured me I had been among ye with fines and amercements.
But she, I perceive, will not have it so, and I am too glad to be smiled
upon now to cross her will. So, get you gone and sleep well. But, before
you go, I will have you listen to some words....'
He cleared his throat, and in his left hand took the Queen's.
'Know ye,' he said, 'that I am as proud of this my Queen as was ever
mother of her first-born child. For lo, even as the Latin poet saith,
that, upon bearing a child, many evil women are led to repentance and
right paths, so have I, your King, been led towards righteousness by
wedding of this lady. For I tell you that, but for certain small
hindrances--and mostly this treacherous disloyalty of the King o' Scots
that thus with his craven marrow hath featorously dallied to look upon
my face--but for that and other small things there had gone forth this
night through the dark to the Bishop of Rome certain tidings that,
please God, had made you and me and all this land the gladdest that be
in Christendom. And this I tell you, too, that though by this
misadventure and fear of the King o' Scots, these tidings have been
delayed, yet is it only for a little space and, full surely, that day
cometh. And for this you shall give thanks first to God and then to this
royal lady here. For she, before all things, having the love of God in
her heart, hath brought about this desired consummation. And this I say,
to her greater praise, here in the midmost of you all, that it be noised
unto the utmost corners of the world how good a Queen the King hath
taken to wife.'
The Queen had stood very motionless in the bright illuminations and
dancings of the torches. But at the news of delay, through the King of
Scots, a spasm of pain and concern came into her face. So that, if her
features did not again move they had in them a savour of anguish, her
eyebrows drooping, and the corners of her mouth.
'And now, good-night!' the King pursued with raised tones. 'If ever ye
slept well since these troublous times began, now ye may sleep well in
the drowsy night. For now, in this my reign, are come the shortening
years like autumn days. Now I will have such peace in land as cometh to
the husbandman. He hath ingarnered his grain; he hath barned his fodder
and straw; his sheep are in the byres and in the stalls his oxen. So,
sitteth he by his fireside with wife and child, and hath no fear of
winter. Such a man am I, your King, who in the years to come shall rest
in peace.'
The lords and gentlemen made their reverences, bows and knees; they
swept round in their coloured assembly, and the Queen stood very tall
and straight, watching their departure with saddened eyes.
The King was very gay and caught her by the waist.
'God help me, it is very late,' he said. 'Hearken!'
From above the corridor there came the drowsy sound of the clock.
'Thy daughter hath made her submission,' the Queen said. 'I had thought
this was the gladdest day in my life.'
'Why, so it is,' he said, 'as now day passeth to day.' The clock ceased.
'Every day shall be glad,' he said, 'and gladder than the rest.'
At her chamber door he made a bustle. He would have the Queen's women
come to untire her, a leech to see to Culpepper's recovery. He was
willing to drink mulled wine before he slept. He was afraid to talk with
his wife of delaying his letter to Rome. That was why he had told the
news before her to his lords.
He fell upon the Lady Rochford that stood, not daring to go, within the
Queen's room. He bade her sit all night by the bedside of T. Culpepper;
he reviled her for a craven coward that had discountenanced the Queen.
She should pay for it by watching all night, and woe betide her if any
had speech with T. Culpepper before the King rose.