'Well! well!'
'Myself I did hear the Duke of Norfolk say, when I was drawn to give
evidence, that he begged the King to let him tear my secrets from my
heart. For so did he abhor the abominable deeds done by his two nieces,
Anne Boleyn and Katharine Howard, that he could no longer desire to
live. And he said neither could he live longer without some comfortable
assurance of His Highness's royal favour. And so he fell upon me----'
The woman fell to silence. Without, the rain had ceased, and, like heavy
curtains trailing near the ground, the clouds began to part and sweep
away. A horn sounded, and there went a party of men with pikes across
the terrace.
'Well, and what said you?' the Lady Mary said.
'Ask me not,' Mary Lascelles said woefully. She averted her eyes to the
floor at her side.
'By God, but I will know,' the Lady Mary snarled. 'You shall tell me.'
She had that of royal bearing from her sire that the woman was amazed at
her words, and, awakening like one in a dream, she rehearsed the
evidence that had been threated from her.
She had told of the lascivious revels and partings, in the maid's garret
at the old Duchess's, when Katharine had been a child there. She had
told how Marnock the musicker had called her his mistress, and how
Dearham, Katharine's cousin, had beaten him. And how Dearham had given
Katharine a half of a silver coin.
'Well, that is all true,' the Lady Mary said. 'How did you perjure
yourself?'
'In the matter of the Queen's age,' the woman faltered.
'How that?' the Lady Mary asked.
'The Duke would have me say that she was more than a young child.'
The Lady Mary said, 'Ah! ah! there is the yellow dog!' She thought for a
moment.
'And you said?' she asked at last.
'The Duke threated me and threated me. And say I, "Your Grace must know
how young she was." And says he, "I would swear that at that date she
was no child, but that I do not know how many of these nauseous Howard
brats there be. Nor yet the order in which they came. But this I will
swear that I think there has been some change of the Queen with a whelp
that died in the litter, that she might seem more young. And of a surety
she was always learned beyond her assumed years, so that it was not to
be believed."'
Mary Lascelles closed her eyes and appeared about to faint.
'Speak on, dog,' Mary said.