The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Fifth Queen Crowned, by Ford Madox Ford

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Title: The Fifth Queen Crowned

Author: Ford Madox Ford

Release Date: December 7, 2008 [eBook #27432]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIFTH QUEEN CROWNED***

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| Transcriber's note: |
| |
| This edition of _The Fifth Queen Crowned_ was extracted |
| from an omnibus edition of the trilogy. The two previous |
| books of the trilogy are _The Fifth Queen_ and _Privy |
| Seal: His Last Venture_. |
| |
| Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has |
| been preserved. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

THE FIFTH QUEEN CROWNED

A Romance

_"Da habt Ihr schon das End vom Lied"_

To
Arthur Marwood

CONTENTS

PART ONE
The Major Cord

PART TWO
The Threatened Rift

PART THREE
The Dwindling Melody

PART FOUR
The End of the Song

PART ONE

THE MAJOR CHORD

I

'The Bishop of Rome----'

Thomas Cranmer began a hesitating speech. In the pause after the words
the King himself hesitated, as if he poised between a heavy rage and a
sardonic humour. He deemed, however, that the humour could the more
terrify the Archbishop--and, indeed, he was so much upon the joyous side
in those summer days that he had forgotten how to browbeat.

'Our holy father,' he corrected the Archbishop. 'Or I will say my holy
father, since thou art a heretic----'

Cranmer's eyes had always the expression of a man's who looked at
approaching calamity, but at the King's words his whole face, his closed
lips, his brows, the lines from his round nose, all droo