t caught Katharine Howard tightly by the arm.

'Thou shalt write what thy uncle asked of thee!' he commanded in a low
voice, 'an thou do it not, thy cousin shall to gaol! I have a letter
thou didst write me.'

A black despair settled for a moment upon Katharine, but the King was
standing before her. He had walked with inaudible swiftness up from
the other end of the room.

'Didst not hear me argue!' he said, with the vexation of a great
child. 'That poxy knave out-marched me!'

'Why,' the Lady Mary sniggered at him, 'thy brewer's son is too many
for your Highness.'

Henry snarled round at her; but she folded her hands before her and
uttered:

'The brewer's son made your Highness Supreme Head of the Church.
Therefore, the brewer's son hath tied your Highness' tongue. For who
may argue with your Highness?'

He looked at her for a moment with a bemused face.

'Very well,' he said.

'The brewer's son should have made your Highness the lowest suppliant
at the Church doors. Then, if, for the astounding of certain
beholders, your Highness were minded to argue, your Highness should
find adversaries.'

The bitter irony of her words made Katharine Howard angry. This poor,
heavy man had other matters for misgiving than to be badgered by a
woman. But the irony was lost upon the King. He said very simply:

'Why, that is true. If I be the Head, the Tail shall fear to bandy
words with me.' He addressed himself again to Katharine: 'I am sorry
that you did not hear me argue. I am main good at these arguments.'
He looked reflectively at Gardiner and said: 'Friend Winchester, one
day I will cast a main at arguments with thee, and Kat Howard shall
hear. But I doubt thou art little skilled with thy tongue.'

'Why, I will make a better shift with my tongue than Privy Seal's men
dare,' the bishop said. He glanced under his brows at Henry, as if he
were measuring the ground for a leap.

'The Lady Mary is in the right,' he ventured.

The King, who was thinking out a speech to Katharine, said, 'Anan?'
and Gardiner ventured further:

'I hold it for true that this man held his peace, because Cromwell so
commanded it. He is Cromwell's creature, and Cromwell is minded to
escape from the business with a whole skin.'

The King bent him an attentive ear.

'It is to me, in the end, that Privy Seal owes amends,' Gardiner said
rancorously. 'Since it was at me that this man, by Cromwell's orders,
did hurl his foul words at Paul's Cro