d Brandon long ago--barring a blunder of some sort.

So I did not go to Windsor until a week after Brandon's release, when
the king asked me to go down with him, Wolsey and de Longueville, the
French ambassador-special, for the purpose of officially offering to
Mary the hand of Louis XII, and the honor of becoming queen of France.

The princess had known of the projected arrangement for many weeks,
but had no thought of the present forward condition of affairs, or she
would have brought her energies to bear upon Henry long before. She
could not bring herself to believe that her brother would really force
her into such wretchedness, and possibly he would never have done so,
much as he desired it from the standpoint of personal ambition, had it
not been for the petty excuse of that fatal trip to Grouche's.

All the circumstances of the case were such as to make Mary's marriage
a veritable virgin sacrifice. Louis was an old man, and an old
Frenchman at that; full of French notions of morality and immorality;
and besides, there were objections that cannot be written, but of
which Henry and Mary had been fully informed. She might as well marry
a leper. Do you wonder she was full of dread and fear, and resisted
with the desperation of death?

So Mary, the person most interested, was about the last to learn that
the treaty had been signed.

Windsor was nearly eight leagues from London, and at that time was
occupied only by the girls and a few old ladies and servants, so that
news did not travel fast in that direction from the city. It is also
probable that, even if the report of the treaty and Brandon's release
had reached Windsor, the persons hearing it would have hesitated to
repeat it to Mary. However that may be, she had no knowledge of either
until she was informed of the fact that the king and the French
ambassador would be at Windsor on a certain day to make the formal
request for her hand and to offer the gifts of King Louis.

I had no doubt Mary was in trouble, and felt sure she had been making
affairs lively about her. I knew her suffering was keen, but was glad
of it in view of her treatment of Brandon.

A day or two after Brandon's liberation I had begun to speak to him of
the girls, but he interrupted me with a frightful oath: "Caskoden, you
are my friend, but if you ever mention their names again in my hearing
you are my friend no longer. I will curse you."

I was frightened, so much stronger did his natu