so many
letters to write. Thus she heard much women's tattle, but knew nothing
of what passed. Only it seemed certain that Gardiner of Winchester was
seeing fit--God knows why--to be hot in favour of the Old Faith. It
was certain, from six several accounts, that at Paul's Cross he had
preached a sermon full of a very violent and acceptable doctrine. She
wondered what move in the game this was: it was assuredly not for the
love of God. No doubt it was part of Throckmorton's plan. The
Lutherans were to be stirred to outrages in order to prove to the King
how insolent were they upon whom Privy Seal relied.

It gratified her to see how acute her prescience had been when Dr
Barnes made his furious reply to the bishop. For Dr Barnes was one of
Privy Seal's most noted men: an insolent fool whom he had taken out of
the gutter to send ambassador to the Schmalkaldners. And it was on the
day when Gardiner made his complaint to the King about Dr Barnes, that
her uncle Norfolk sent to her to come to him at Hampton.

He awaited her, grim and jaundiced, in the centre of a great, empty
room, where, shivering with cold, he did not let his voice exceed a
croaking whisper though there was panelling and no arras on the dim
walls. But, to his queries, she answered clearly:

'Nay, I serve the Lady Mary with her Latin. I hear no tales and I bear
none to any man.' And again:

'Three times I have spoken with the King's Highness, the Lady Mary
being by. And once it was of the Islands of the Blest, and once of the
Latin books I read, and once of indifferent matters--such as of how
apple trees may be planted against a wall in Lincolnshire.'

Her uncle gazed at her: his dark eyes were motionless and malignant by
habit; he opened his lips to speak; closed them again without a word
spoken. He looked at a rose, carved in a far corner of the ceiling,
looked at her again, and muttered:

'The French are making great works at Ardres.'

'Oh, aye,' she answered, 'my cousin Tom wrote me as much. He is
commanded to stay at Calais.'

'Tell me,' he said, 'will they go against Calais town in good
earnest?'

'If I knew that,' she answered, 'I should have had it in private words
from my lady whom I serve. And, if I had it in private words I would
tell it neither to you nor to any man.'

He scowled patiently and muttered:

'Then tell in private words back again this: That if the French King
or the Emperor do war upon us now Privy Seal will sit upon t