the Duke of Norfolk. And his men had
stripped the lead from the roofs, the glass from the windows, the very
tiles from the floor. And this little abbey was only one of many, large
and small, that had fallen to the Duke, so that it was true enough that,
through him, the Howards had become a very rich family.

Norfolk burst into a sudden speech--

'I hold these things only as a trust,' he said. 'I am ready to restore.'

'Why, that is very well,' Katharine said; 'and I have hopes that soon
you will be called to make that restoration to your God.'

Norfolk looked at the square toes of his shoes for a long time.

'Will you have _all_ things to be given back?' he said at last after he
had thought much.

'The King will have all things be as they were before the Queen
Katharine, my namesake of Aragon, was undone,' Katharine answered. 'And
me he will have to take her place so that all things shall be as before
they were.'

The Duke, leaning on his silver and gold staves, shrugged his shoulders
very slowly.

'This will make a very great confusion,' he said.

'Ay,' Katharine answered, 'there will a very many be confounded, and a
great number of hundreds be much annoyed.'

She broke in again upon his slow meditations--

'Sir,' she said, 'this is a very pitiful thing! Privy Seal that is dead
and done with worked with a very great cunning. Well he knew that for
most men the heart resideth in the pocket. Therefore, though ye said all
that he rode this land with a bridle of iron, he was very careful to
stop all your mouths alike with pieces of gold. It was not only to his
friends that he gave what had been taken from God, but he was very
careful that much also should fall into the greedy mouths of those that
cried out. If he had not done this, do you think that he would have
remained so long above the earth that he made weary? No. But since he
made all rich alike with this plunder, so there was no man, either
Catholic or Lutheran, very anxious to have him away. And, now that he is
dead he worketh still. For who among you lords that do call yourselves
sons of the Church, but holdeth of the Church's goods? Oh, bethink you!
bethink you! The moment is at hand when ye may work restoration. See
that ye do it willingly and with good hearts, smoothing and making plain
the way by which the bruised feet of our Saviour shall come across this,
His land.'

Norfolk kept his eyes upon the ground.

'Why, for me,' he said, 'I am very wi