e because I would speak to you where no ear
dare come to listen: this is a sanctuary of night robbers.' His voice
took on fantastically and grotesquely the nasal tones of Doctors of
Logic when they discuss abstract theses: 'I am a bold man to dare come
here; but some of these are in my pay. Nevertheless I am a bold man,
though indeed the step from life into death is so short and so easily
passed that a man is a fool to fear it. Nevertheless some do fear it;
therefore, as men go, I am bold; tho', since I set much store in the
intervention of the saints on my behalf, may be I am not so bold. Yet
I am a good man, or the saints would not protect me. On the other
hand, I am fain to do their work for them: so may be, they would
protect me whether I were virtuous or no. Maybe they would not,
however: for it is a point still disputed as to whether a saint might
use an evil tool to do good work. But, in short, I am here to tell you
what Privy Seal would have of you.'

'God help the pair of you,' Katharine said. 'Have ye descended to
cellar work now?'

'Madam Howard,' the voice came, 'for what manner of man do you take
me? I am a very proper man that do love virtue. There are few such
philosophers as I since I came out of Italy.'

It was certain to her now that Privy Seal, having seen her thick with
the Bishop of Winchester, had delivered her into the hands of this
vulture. 'If you have a knife,' she said, 'put it into me soon. God
will look kindly on you and I would pardon you half the crime.' She
closed her eyes and began to pray.

'Madam Howard,' he answered, in a lofty tone of aggrievement, 'the
door is on the latch: the latch is at your hand to be found for a
little fumbling: get you gone if you will not trust me.'

'Aye: you have cut-throats without,' Katharine said. She prayed in
silence to Mary and the saints to take her into the kingdom of heaven
with a short agony here below. Nevertheless, she could not believe
that she was to die: for being still young, though death was always
round her, she believed herself born to be immortal.

The sweat was cold upon her face; but Throckmorton was upbraiding her
in a lofty nasal voice.

'I am an honourable knight,' he cried, in his affected and shocked
tones. 'If I have undone men, it was for love of the republic. I have
nipped many treasons in the bud. The land is safe for a true man,
because of my work.'

'You are a werewolf,' she shuddered; 'you eat your brother.'

'W