rds:

'Ye reason most justly.' And again he cursed himself, for he had
forced Cromwell to this reasoning and action. Yet he dared not say
that his news of the Cleves embassy was false, that Cleves indeed was
minded to turn traitor, and that it most would serve Privy Seal's turn
to stay Katharine Howard up. He dared not say the words, yet he saw
his safety crumbling, and he saw Privy Seal set to ruin both himself
and Katharine Howard. For in his heart he could not believe that the
woman was virtuous, since he believed that no woman was virtuous who
had been given the opportunity for joyment. As a spy, he had gone
nosing about in Lincolnshire where Katharine's home had been near her
cousin's. He had heard many tales against her such as rustics will
tell against the daughters of poor lords like Katharine's father. And
these tales, before ever he had come to love her, he had set down in
Privy Seal's private registers. Now they were like to undo him and
her. And in truth, according to his premonitions, Cromwell spoke:

'We shall bring very quickly Thomas Culpepper, her cousin, back from
France. We shall inflame his mind with jealousy of the King. We shall
find a place where he shall burst upon the King and her together. We
shall bring witnesses enow from Lincolnshire to swear against her.'

He crossed his hands behind his back.

'This work of fetching her cousin from Paris I will put into the hands
of Viridus,' he said. 'I believe her to be virtuous, therefore do you
bring many witnesses, and some that shall swear to have seen her in
the act. That shall be your employment. For I tell you she hath so
great a power of pleading that, being innocent, she will with
difficulty be proved unchaste.'

Throckmorton's head hung upon his shoulders.

'Remember,' Privy Seal said again, 'you and Viridus shall send to find
her cousin in France. Fill him with tales that his cousin plays the
leman with the King. He shall burst here like a bolt from heaven. You
will find him betwixt Calais and Paris town, dallying in evil places
without a doubt. We sent him thither to frighten Cardinal Pole.'

'Aye,' Throckmorton said, his mind filled with other and bitter
thoughts. 'He hath frightened the Cardinal from Paris by the mere
renown of his violence.'

'Then let him do some frighting in our goodly town of London,'
Cromwell said.

PART TWO

THE DISTANT CLOUD

I

The young Poins, once an ensign of the King's guard, habited now