queen was
present and aided and abetted with a word now and then, until Henry,
with her help, at last succeeded in working himself into a towering
passion, and wound up by calling Mary a vile wanton in plainer terms
than I like to write. This aroused all the antagonism in the girl, and
there was plenty of it. She feared Henry no more than she feared me.
Her eyes flashed a fire that made even the king draw back as she
exclaimed: "You give me that name and expect me to remember you are my
brother? There are words that make a mother hate her first-born, and
that is one. Tell me what I have done to deserve it? I expected to
hear of ingratitude and disobedience and all that, but supposed you
had at least some traces of brotherly feeling--for ties of blood are
hard to break--even if you have of late lost all semblance to man or
king."

This was hitting Henry hard, for it was beginning to be the talk in
every mouth that he was leaving all the affairs of state to Wolsey and
spending his time in puerile amusement. "The toward hope which at all
poyntes appeared in the younge Kynge" was beginning to look, after
all, like nothing more than the old-time royal cold fire, made to
consume but not to warm the nation.

Henry looked at Mary with the stare of a baited bull.

"If running off in male attire, and stopping at inns and boarding
ships with a common Captain of the guard doesn't justify my
accusation and stamp you what you are, I do not know what would."

[Illustration]

Even Henry saw her innocence in her genuine surprise. She was silent
for a little time, and I, standing close to her, could plainly see
that this phase of the question had never before presented itself.

She hung her head for a moment and then spoke: "It may be true, as you
say, that what I have done will lose me my fair name--I had never
thought of it in that light--but it is also true that I am innocent
and have done no wrong. You may not believe me, but you can ask Master
Brandon"--here the king gave a great laugh, and of course the
courtiers joined in.

"It is all very well for you to laugh, but Master Brandon would not
tell you a lie for your crown--" Gods! I could have fallen on my knees
to a faith like that--"What I tell you is true. I trusted him so
completely that the fear of dishonor at his hands never suggested
itself to me. I knew he would care for and respect me. I trusted him,
and my trust was not misplaced. Of how many of these creatures w