out.

'The Papist lords in this castle met on Saturday night,' Lascelles said;
'their meeting was very secret, and Norfolk was their head. But I have
heard it said that not one of them was for the Queen.'

The Archbishop shrank within himself.

'I am not minded to hear this,' he said.

'Not one of them was for the Queen altogether; for she will render all
lands and goods back to the Church, and there is no one of them but is
rich with the lands and goods of the Church. That they that followed
Cromwell are not for the Queen well your Grace knoweth,' his gentleman
continued.

'I will not hear this; this is treason,' the Archbishop muttered.

'So that who standeth for the Queen?' Lascelles whispered. 'Only a few
of the baser sort that have no lands to lose.'

'The King,' the Archbishop cried out in a terrible voice; 'the King
standeth for her!'

He sprang up in his chair and then sank down again, covering his mouth
with his hands, as if he would have intercepted the uttered words. For
who knew who listened at what doors in these days. He whispered
horribly--

'What a folly is this. Who shall move the King? Will reports of his
ambassadors that Cleves, or Charles, or Francis miscall the Queen? You
know they will not, for the King is aware of how these princes batten on
carrion. Will broad sheets of the Lutheran? You know they will not, for
the King is aware of how those coggers come by their tales. Will the
King go abroad among the people any more to hear what they say? You know
he will not. For he is grown too old, and his fireside is made too
sweet----'

He wavered, and he could not work himself up with a longer show of
anger.

'Prithee,' Lascelles said, 'let me bear this letter myself to the
Queen.' His voice was patient and calm.

The Archbishop lay back, impotent, in his chair. His arms were along the
arms of it: he had dropped his book upon the table. His long gown was
draped all over him down to his feet; his head remained motionless; his
eyes did not wink, and gazed at despair; his hands drooped, open and
impotent.

Suddenly he moved one of them a very little.

VII

It was the Queen's habit to go every night, when the business of the day
was done, to pray, along with the Lady Mary, in the small chapel that
was in the roof of the castle. To vespers she went with all the Court to
the big chapel in the courtyard that the King had builded especially for
her. But to this little chapel, that was of