Cranmer, somewhat embarrassed, turned away, and seemed to evade
Gardiner's piercing look. "We are not speaking of myself," said he at
length, "but of the young queen, and I entreat for her your good wishes.
I have seen her to-day almost for the first time, and have never spoken
with her, but her countenance has touchingly impressed me, and it
appeared to me, her looks besought us to remain at her side, ready to
help her on this difficult pathway, which five wives have already trod
before her, and in which they found only misery and tears, disgrace, and
blood."

"Let Catharine beware then that she does not forsake the right way,
as her five predecessors have done!" exclaimed Gardiner. "May she be
prudent and cautious, and may she be enlightened by God, that she may
hold the true faith, and have true wisdom, and not allow herself to be
seduced into the crooked path of the godless and heretical, but remain
faithful and steadfast with those of the true faith!"

"Who can say who are of the true faith?" murmured Cranmer, sadly. "There
are so many paths leading to heaven, who knows which is the right one?"

"That which we tread!" cried Gardiner, with all the overweening pride
of a minister of the church. "Woe to the queen should she take any other
road! Woe to her if she lends her ear to the false doctrines which
come ringing over here from Germany and Switzerland, and in the worldly
prudence of her heart imagines that she can rest secure! I will be her
most faithful and zealous servant, if she is with me; I will be her most
implacable enemy if she is against me."

"And will you call it being against you, if the queen does not choose
you for her confessor?"

"Will you ask me to call it, being for me?"

"Now God grant that she may choose you!" exclaimed Cranmer, fervently,
as he clasped his hands and raised his eyes to heaven. "Poor,
unfortunate queen! The first proof of thy husband's love may be thy
first misfortune! Why gave he thee the liberty of choosing thine own
spiritual director? Why did he not choose for thee?"

And Cranmer dropped his head upon his breast, and sighed deeply.

At this instant the door of the royal chamber opened, and Lady Jane,
daughter of Earl Douglas, and first maid of honor to the queen, made
her appearance on the threshold. Both bishops regarded her in breathless
silence. It was a serious, a solemn moment, the deep importance of which
was very well comprehended by all three.

"Her maj