h red. 'Speak, wench!' He pulled at the stuff round his
throat. 'I will have peace,' he said. 'I will at last have peace.'

'God send you have it,' she said, and trembled a little, half in fear,
half in sheer pity at the thought of thwarting him.

'Speak thy fool whimsy,' he muttered huskily. 'Speak!'

'My lord,' she said, 'where is the Queen that is?'

He flared suddenly at her as if she had reproved him.

'At Windsor. 'Tis a better palace than this of mine here.' He shook
his finger heavily and uttered with a boastful defiance: 'Shalt not
say I shower no gifts on her. Shalt not say she has no state. I ha'
sent her seven jennets this day. I shall go bring her golden apples on
the morrow. Scents she has had o' me; French gowns, Southern fruits.
No man nor wench shall say I be not princely----' His boasting bluster
died away before her silence. To please a mute desire in her, he had
showered more gifts on Anne of Cleves than on any other woman he had
ever seen; and thinking that she used him ill not to praise him for
this, he could not hold his tongue: 'What is't to thee what she hath?
What she hath thou losest. 'Tis a folly.'

'My lord,' she said, 'I will myself to see the Queen that is.'

'And whysomever?' he voiced his astonishment.

'My lord,' she said, 'I have a tickly conscience in divorces. I will
ask her mine own self.'

He roared out suddenly indistinguishable words, stamped his feet,
waved his hands at the skies, and lost his voice altogether.

'Aye,' she said, catching at some of his speech, 'I ha' read your
Highness' depositions. I ha' read depositions of the Archbishop's. But
I will be satisfied of her own mouth that she be not your wife.'

And when he swore that Anne would lie:

'Nay,' she answered; 'if she will lie to keep her queenship, keep it
she shall. I am upon the point of honour.'

'Before God!'--and his voice had a sneering haughtiness--'ye will not
be long of this world if ye steer by the point of honour.'

'Sir,' she cried out and stretched forth her hands; 'for the love of
Mary who guides the starry counsels and of the saints who sit in
conclave, speak not in that wise.'

He shrugged his shoulders and said, with a touch of angry shame:

'God send the world were another world; I would it were other. But I
am a prince in this one.'

'My lord,' she said; 'if the world so is, kings and princes are here
to be above the world. In your greatness ye shall change it; with your
justice