m came with a divorce of a queen. I do hate the word as I hate
Judas, and will have no truck with the deed.'

'Ye speak me hard,' he said; 'but no man shall say I could not bear
with the truth at odd moments.'

A great and hasty eagerness came into her voice.

'Ye say that it is truth?' she cried. 'God hath softened thy heart.'

'God or thee,' he said, and muttered, 'I do not make this avowal to
the world.' Suddenly he smote his thigh. 'Body o' God!' he called out;
'the day shall soon come. Cleves falls away, France and Spain are
sundering. I will sue for peace with the Pope, and set up a chapel to
Kat's memory.' He breathed as if a weight had fallen from his chest,
and suddenly laughed: 'But ye must wed me to keep me in the right
way.'

He changed his tone again.

'Why, go to Anne,' he said; 'she is such a fool she will not lie to
thee; and, before God, she is no wife of mine.'

'God send ye speak the truth,' she answered; 'but I think few men be
found that will speak truth in these matters.'

IV

But it was with Throckmorton that the real pull of the rope came.
Henry was by then so full of love for her that, save when she crossed
his purpose, he would have given her her way to the bitter end of
things. But Throckmorton bewailed her lack of loyalty. He came to her
on the morning of the next day, having heard that, if the rain held
off, a cavalcade of seventeen lords, twelve ladies and their
bodyguards were commanded to ride with her in one train to Windsor,
where the Queen was.

'I am main sure 'tis for Madam Howard that this cavalcade is ordered,'
he said; 'for there is none other person in Court to whom his Highness
would work this honour. And I am main sure that if Madam Howard goeth,
she goeth with some mad maggot of a purpose.'

His foxy, laughing eyes surveyed her, and he stroked his great beard
deliberately.

'I ha' not been near ye this two month,' he said, 'but God knows that
I ha' worked for ye.'

Save to take her to Privy Seal the day before, when Privy Seal had
sent him, he had in truth not spoken with her for many weeks. He had
deemed it wise to keep from her.

'Nevertheless,' he said earnestly, 'I know well that thy cause is my
cause, and that thou wilt spread upon me the mantle of thy favour and
protection.'

They were in her old room with the green hangings, the high fireplace,
and before the door the red curtain worked with gold that the King had
sent her, and Cromwell had give