of government. By so
doing ye might, at a hazard, save my life, but for certain ye would
imperil that for which I have given my life.'

Again he paused and paced, and again came back in his traces to where
Wriothesley knelt.

'Some danger there is for me,' he said, 'but I think it a very little
one. The King knoweth too well how good a servant and how profitable I
have been to him. I do think he will not cast me away to please a
woman. Yet this is a very notable woman--ye wot of whom I speak; but I
hope very soon to have one to my hand that shall utterly cast down and
soil her in the eyes of the King's Highness.'

'Ye do think her unchaste?' Wriothesley asked. 'I have heard you
say----'

'Knight,' Cromwell answered; 'what I think will not be revealed to-day
nor to-morrow, but only at the Day of Judgment. Nevertheless, so do I
love my master's cause that--if it peril mine own upon that awful
occasion--I so will strive to tear this woman down.'

Wriothesley rose, stiff and angular.

'God keep the issue!' he said.

'Why, get you gone,' Cromwell said. 'But this I pray you gently: that
ye restrain your fellows' tongues from speaking treason and heresy.
Three of your friends, as you know, I must burn this day for such
speakings; you, too--you yourself, too--I must burn if it come to that
pass, or you shall die by the block. For I will have this land
purged.' His cold eyes flamed dangerously for a minute. 'Fool!' he
thundered, 'I will have this land purged of treasons and schisms. Get
you gone before I advise further with myself of your haughty and
stiff-necked speeches. For learn this: that before all creeds, and
before all desires, and before all women, and before all men, standeth
the good of this commonwealth, and state, and King, whose servant I
be. Get you gone and report my words ere I come terribly among ye.'

Making his desultory pacings from end to end of the gallery, Cromwell
considered that in that speech he had done a good morning's work, for
assuredly these men put him in peril. More than one of these dangerous
proclaimings of loyalty to him rather than to the King had come to his
ears. They must be put an end to.

But this issue faded from his mind. Left to himself, he let his hands
twitch as feverishly as they would. Cleves and its Duke had played him
false! His sheet anchor was gone! There remained only, then, the
device of proving to the King that Katharine Howard was a monster of
unchastity. For