d her conscience forbade
her to call herself otherwise; the princess was his true begotten child;
and as God hath given her to them, so for her part she would render her
again; neither for daughter, family, nor possessions, would she yield in
her cause; and she made a solemn protestation, calling on every one present
to bear witness to what she said, that the king's wife she was, and such
she would take herself to be, and that she would never surrender the name
of queen till the pope had decided that she must bear it no longer.

So ended the first interview. Catherine, before the commissioners left her,
desired to have a copy of the proposals which they had brought, that she
might translate and send them to Rome. They returned with them the next
day, when she requested to see the report which they intended to send to
the council of the preceding conversation. It was placed in her hands; and
as she read it and found there the name of Princess Dowager, she took a pen
and dashed out the words, the mark of which indignant ink-stroke may now be
seen in the letter from which this account is taken.[444] With the accuracy
of the rest she appeared to be satisfied--only when she found again their
poor suggestion that she was influenced by vanity, she broke out with a
burst of passionate indignation.

"I would rather be a poor beggar's wife," she said, "and be sure of heaven,
than queen of all the world, and stand in doubt thereof by reason of my own
consent. I stick not so for vain glory, but because I know myself the
king's true wife--and while you call me the king's subject, I was his
subject while he took me for his wife. But if he take me not for his wife,
I came not into this Realm as merchandise, nor to be married to any
merchant; nor do I continue in the same but as his lawful wife, and not as
a subject to live under his dominion otherwise. I have always demeaned
myself well and truly towards the king--and if it can be proved that either
in writing to the pope or any other, I have either stirred or procured
anything against his Grace, or have been the means to any person to make
any motion which might be prejudicial to his Grace or to his Realm, I am
content to suffer for it. I have done England little good, and I should be
sorry to do it any harm. But if I should agree to your motions and
persuasions, I should slander myself, and confess to have been the king's
harlot for twenty-four years. The cause, I cannot tell by what