'Body of God,' he said good-humouredly. 'It is fitting that at this
time that you do pray. You have escaped a great peril. But I am wont
to drive away earthly passions ere I come before the Throne of grace.'
'Sir,' she pleaded more urgently, 'the night draws near. Before
morning I would be upon my road to Calais.'
He looked at her interestedly, and questioned in a peremptory voice:
'Upon what errand? I have heard of no journeying of yours.'
'I am not made for courts,' she repeated.
He said: 'Anan?' with a sudden, half-comprehending anger, and she
quailed.
'I will get me gone to Calais,' she uttered. 'And then to a nunnery. I
am not for this world.'
He uttered a tremendous: 'Body of God,' and repeated it four times.
He sprang to his feet and she shrank against the wall. His eyes rolled
in his great head, and suddenly he shouted:
'Ungrateful child. Ungrateful!' Then he lost words; his swollen brow
moved up and down. She was afraid to speak again.
Then, suddenly, with a light and brushing step, the Lord Privy Seal
was coming towards them. His sagacious eyes looked from one to the
other, his lips moved with their sideways motion.
'Fiend,' the King uttered. 'Give me the letter and get thee out of
earshot.' And whilst Cromwell was bending before his person, he
continued: 'I have pardoned this lady. I would have you both clasp
hands.'
Cromwell's mouth fell open for a minute.
'Your Highness knoweth the contents?' he asked. And by then he
appeared as calm as when he asked a question about the price of chalk
at Calais.
'My Highness knoweth!' Henry said friendlily. He crumpled the letter
in his hand, and then, remembering its use, moved to put it in his own
pouch. 'This lady has done very well to speak to me who am the
fountainhead of power.'
'Get thee out of earshot,' he repeated. 'I have things as to which I
would admonish this lady.'
'Your Highness knoweth....' Privy Seal began again, then his eye fell
upon Winchester, who still stayed by the chapel door at the far end of
the corridor. He threw up his hands.
'Sir,' he said. 'Traitors have come to you!'
Gardiner, indeed, was gliding towards them, drawn, in spite of all
prudence, by his invincible hatred.
The King watched the pair of them with his crafty eyes, deep seated in
his head.
'It is certain that no traitors have come to me,' he uttered gently;
and to Cromwell: 'You have a nose for them.'
He appeared placable and was very quiet.
Winchester, his black eyes glaring with desire, was almost upon them
in the shadows.
'Here is enough of wrangling,' Henry said. He appeared to meditate,
and then uttered: 'As well here as elsewhere.'
'Sir,' Gardiner said, 'if Privy Seal misleads me, I have somewhat to
say of Privy Seal.'
'Cousin of Winchester,' Henry answered. 'Stretch out your hand, I
would have you end your tulzies in this place.'
Winchester, bringing out his words with a snake's coldness, seemed to
whisper:
'Your Highness did promise that Privy Seal should make me amends.'
'Why, Privy Seal shall make amends,' the King answered. 'It was his
man that did miscall thee. Therefore, Privy Seal shall come to dine
with thee, and shall, in the presence of all men, hold out to thee his
hand.'
'Let him come, then, with great state,' the bishop stuck to his note.
'Aye, with a great state,' the King answered. 'I will have an end to
these quarrels.'
He set his hand cordially upon Privy Seal's shoulder.
'For thee,' he said, 'I would have thee think between now and the
assembling of the Parliaments of what title thou wilt have to an
earldom.'
Cromwell fell upon one knee, and, in Latin, made three words of a
speech of thanks.
'Why, good man,' the King said, 'art a man very valuable to me.' His
eyes rested upon Katharine for a moment. 'I am well watched for by one
and the other of you,' he went on. 'Each of you by now has brought me
a letter of this lady's.'
Katharine cried out at Gardiner:
'You too!'
His eyes sought the ground, and then looked defiantly into hers.
'You did threaten me!' he said doggedly. 'I was minded to be betimes.'
'Why, end it all, now and here,' the King said. 'Here is a folly with
a silly wench in it.'
'Here was a treason that I would show your Highness,' the Bishop said
doggedly.
'Sirs,' the King said. He touched his bonnet: 'God in His great mercy
has seen fit much to trouble me. But here are troubles that I may end.
Now I have ended them all. If this lady would not have her cousin to
murder a cardinal, God, she would not. There are a plenty others to do
that work.'
He pressed one hand on Cromwell's chest and pushed him backwards
gently.
'Get thee gone, now,' he said, 'out of earshot. I shall speak with
thee soon.--And you!' he added to Winchester.
'Body of God, Body of God,' he muttered beneath his breath, as they
went, 'very soon now I can rid me of these knaves,' and then,
suddenly, he blared upon Katharine:
'Thou seest how I am plagued and would'st leave me. Before the Most
High God, I swear thou shalt not.'
She fell upon her knees.
'With each that speaks, I find a new traitor to me,' she said. 'Let me
begone.'
He threatened her with one hand.
'Wench,' he said, 'I have had better converse with thee than with man
or child this several years. Thinkest thou I will let thee go?'
She began to sob:
'What rest may I have? What rest?'
He mocked her:
'What rest may I have? What rest? My nights are full of evil dreams!
God help me. Have I offered thee foul usage? Have I pursued thee with
amorous suits?'
She said pitifully:
'You had better have done that than set me amongst these plotters.'
'I have never seen a woman so goodly to look upon as thou art,' he
answered.
She covered her face with her hands, but he pulled them apart and
gazed at it.
'Child,' he said, 'I will cherish thee as I would a young lamb. Shalt
have Cromwell's head; shalt have Winchester in what gaol thou wilt
when I have used them.'
She put her fingers in her ears.
'For pity,' she whispered. 'Let me begone.'
'Why,' he reasoned with her, 'I cannot let thee have Cromwell down
before he has called this Parliament. There is no man like him for
calling of truckling Parliaments. And, rest assured,' he uttered
solemnly, 'that that man dies that comes between thee and me from this
day on.'
'Let me begone,' she said wearily. 'Let me begone. I am afraid to look
upon these happenings.'
'Look then upon nothing,' he answered. 'Stay you by my daughter's
side. Even yet you shall win for me her obedience. If you shall earn
the love of the dear saints, I will much honour you and set you on
high before all the land.'
She said:
'For pity, for pity. Here is a too great danger for my soul.'
'Never, never,' he answered. 'You shall live closed in. No man shall
speak with you but only I. You shall be as you were in a cloister. An
you will, you shall have great wealth. Your house shall be advanced;
your father close his eyes in honour and estate. None shall walk
before you in the land.'