avy, firm jaw that was never the
magister's, on white hands and in threatening, steadfast eyes.

'I am the unworthy Bishop Gardiner, of Winchester,' a harsh voice
said. 'I seek one Katharine Howard. Peace be with you in these evil
days.'

Katharine fell upon her knees before this holy man. He gave her his
blessing perfunctorily, and muttered some words of the exorcism
against demons.

'I am even cured,' Katharine said.

He sent Margot Poins from the room, and stood in the firelight that
threw his great shadow to shake upon the hangings, towering above
Katharine Howard upon her knees. He was silent, as if he would
threaten her, and his brooding eyes glowed and devoured her face. Here
then, she thought, was the man from the other camp descending
secretly upon her. He had no need to threaten, for she was of his
side.

He said that a Magister Udal had reported that she stood in need of
Christian aid, and, speaking Latin with a heavy voice, he interrogated
her as to her faith. The times were evil: many and various heresies
stalked about the land: let her beware of trafficking with them.

Kneeling still in the firelight, she answered that, so far as was
lawful, she was a daughter of the Church.

He muttered: 'Lawful!' and looked at her for a long time with brooding
and fanatical eyes. 'I hear you have read many heathen books under a
strange master.'

She answered: 'Most Reverend, I am for the Old Faith in the old way.'

'A prudent tongue is also a Christian possession,' he muttered.

'Nay there is no one to hear in this room,' she said.

He bent over her to raise her to her feet and holding before her eyes
his missal, he indicated to her certain prayers that she should recite
in order to prevent the fiend's coming to her again. Suddenly he
commanded her to tell him how often she had conversed with the King's
Highness.

Gardiner was the bitterest of all whom Cromwell had to hate him. He
had been of the King's Council, and a secretary before Cromwell had
reached the Court, and, but for Cromwell, he might well have been the
King's best minister. But Cromwell had even taken his secretaryship;
and he was set upon having Privy Seal down all through those ten
years. He had been bishop before any of these changes had been thought
of, and by such Papists as Katharine Howard he was esteemed the most
holy man in the land.

She told him that she had seen the King but once for a little time.

'They told me it was many t