ed his leader to go to the King, and he had a frantic moment of
imagining himself running to a great distance, hiding his head in
darkness.

Cromwell's lips went up in scorn. 'Do you imagine the yellow duke
speaking his mind to the King? He is too craven.'

A heavy silence fell between them. The fire rustled, the candles again
needed snuffing.

'Best get to bed,' Cromwell said at last.

'Could I sleep?' Cranmer had the irritation of extreme fear. His
master seemed to him to have no bowels. But the waiting told at last
upon Cromwell himself.

'I could sleep an you would let me,' he said sharply. 'I tell you the
King shall be another man in the morning.'

'Ay, but now. But now....' He imagined the pens in that distant room
creaking over the paper with their committals, and he wished to
upbraid Cromwell. It was his policy of combining with Lutherans that
had brought them to this.

Heavy thundering came on the outer door.

'The King comes,' Cromwell cried victoriously. He went swiftly from
the room. The Archbishop closed his eyes and suddenly remembered the
time when he had been a child.

Privy Seal had an angry and contemptuous frown at his return. 'They
have kept him from me.' He threw a little scroll on to the table. Its
white silence made Cranmer shudder; it seemed to have something of the
heavy threatening of the King's self.

'We may go to bed,' Cromwell said. 'They have devised their shift.'

'You say?'

'They have temporised, they have delayed. I know them.' He quoted
contemptuously from the letter: 'We would have you send presently to
ask of the Almain Lords with the Lady Anne the papers concerning her
pre-contract to the Duke of Lorraine.'

Cranmer was upon the point of going away in the joy of this respite.
But his desire to talk delayed him, and he began to talk about the
canon law and pre-contracts of marriage. It was a very valid cause of
nullity all the doctors held.

'Think you I have not made very certain the pre-contract was
nullified? This is no shift,' and Cromwell spoke wearily and angrily.
'Goodman Archbishop, dry your tears. To-night the King is hot with
disgust, but I tell you he will not cast away his kingdom upon whether
her teeth be white or yellow. This is no woman's man.'

Cranmer came nearer the fire and stretched out his lean hands.

'He hath dandled of late with the Lady Cassilis.'

'Well, he hath been pleasant with her.'

Cranmer urged: 'A full-blown man towards his f