cometh to
the husbandman. He hath ingarnered his grain; he hath barned his fodder
and straw; his sheep are in the byres and in the stalls his oxen. So,
sitteth he by his fireside with wife and child, and hath no fear of
winter. Such a man am I, your King, who in the years to come shall rest
in peace.'

The lords and gentlemen made their reverences, bows and knees; they
swept round in their coloured assembly, and the Queen stood very tall
and straight, watching their departure with saddened eyes.

The King was very gay and caught her by the waist.

'God help me, it is very late,' he said. 'Hearken!'

From above the corridor there came the drowsy sound of the clock.

'Thy daughter hath made her submission,' the Queen said. 'I had thought
this was the gladdest day in my life.'

'Why, so it is,' he said, 'as now day passeth to day.' The clock ceased.
'Every day shall be glad,' he said, 'and gladder than the rest.'

At her chamber door he made a bustle. He would have the Queen's women
come to untire her, a leech to see to Culpepper's recovery. He was
willing to drink mulled wine before he slept. He was afraid to talk with
his wife of delaying his letter to Rome. That was why he had told the
news before her to his lords.

He fell upon the Lady Rochford that stood, not daring to go, within the
Queen's room. He bade her sit all night by the bedside of T. Culpepper;
he reviled her for a craven coward that had discountenanced the Queen.
She should pay for it by watching all night, and woe betide her if any
had speech with T. Culpepper before the King rose.

III

Down in the lower castle, the Archbishop was accustomed, when he
undressed, to have with him neither priest nor page, but only, when he
desired to converse of public matters--as now he did--his gentleman,
Lascelles. He knelt above his kneeling-stool of black wood; he was
telling his beads before a great crucifix with an ivory Son of God upon
it. His chamber had bare white walls, his bed no curtains, and all the
other furnishing of the room was a great black lectern whereto there was
chained a huge Book of the Holy Writ that had his Preface. The tears
were in his eyes as he muttered his prayers; he glanced upwards at the
face of his Saviour, who looked down with a pallid, uncoloured face of
ivory, the features shewing a great agony so that the mouth was opened.
It was said that this image, that came from Italy, had had a face
serene, before the Queen Katharin