ith a message which was to be
delivered verbally. She desired that they would read their written
despatch. It was addressed to the Princess Dowager, and she at once
excepted to the name. She was not Princess Dowager, she said, but queen,
and the king's true wife. She came to the king a clear maid for any bodily
knowledge of Prince Arthur; she had borne him lawful issue and no bastard,
and therefore queen she was, and queen she would be while she lived.

The commissioners were prepared for the objection, and continued, without
replying, to read. The paper contained a statement of worn-out unrealities;
the old story of the judgment of the universities and the learned men, the
sentence of convocation, and of the houses of parliament; and, finally, the
fact of substantial importance, that the king, acting as he believed
according to the laws of God, had married the Lady Anne Boleyn, who was now
his lawful wife, and anointed Queen of England.

Oh yes, she answered when they had done, we know that, and "we know the
authority by which it has been done--more by power than justice." The
king's learned men were learned heretics; the honest learning was for her.
As for the seals of the universities there were strange stories about the
way in which they had been obtained. The universities and the parliament
had done what the king bade them; and they had gone against their
consciences in doing it; but it was of no importance to her--she was in the
hands of the pope, who was God's vicar, and she acknowledged no other
judge.

The commissioners informed her of the decision of the council that she was
no longer to bear the title of queen. It stood, they said, neither with the
laws of God nor man, nor with the king's honour, to have two queens named
within the realm; and in fact, there was but one queen, the king's lawful
wife, to whom he was now married.

She replied shortly that she was the king's lawful queen, and none other.

There was little hope in her manner that anything which could be said would
move her; but her visitors were ordered to try her to the uttermost.

The king, they continued, was surprised that she could be so disobedient;
and not only that she was disobedient herself, but that she allowed and
encouraged her servants in the same conduct.

She was ready to obey the king; she answered, when she could do so without
disobeying God; but she could not damn her soul even for him. Her servants,
she said, must do the