at I have heard a
married man speak otherwise! You are in that too, as in all things else,
an exception, King Henry; and your people have never loved you more
warmly and purely than when you say, 'I thank God that my consort is
alive!' Believe me, you are perhaps the only man at your court who
speaks after this manner, however ready they may be to be your parrots,
and re-echo what the lord high-priest says."

"The only man that loves his wife?" said Lady Richmond. "Behold now
the rude babbler! Do you not believe, then, that we women deserve to be
loved?"

"I am convinced that you do not."

"And for what do you take us, then?"

"For cats, which God, since He had no more cat-skin, stuck into a smooth
hide!"

"Take care, John, that we do not show you our claws!" cried the duchess,
laughing.

"Do it anyhow, my lady! I will then make a cross, and ye will disappear.
For devils, you well know, cannot endure the sight of the holy cross,
and ye are devils."

John Heywood, who was a remarkably fine singer, seized the mandolin,
which lay near him, and began to sing.

It was a song, possible only in those days, and at Henry's voluptuous
and at the same time canting court--a song full of the most wanton
allusions, of the most cutting jests against both monks and women; a
song which made Henry laugh, and the ladies blush; and in which
John Heywood had poured forth in glowing dithyrambics all his secret
indignation against Gardiner, the sneaking hypocrite of a priest, and
against Lady Jane, the queen's false and treacherous friend.

But the ladies laughed not. They darted flashing glances at John
Heywood; and Lady Richmond earnestly and resolutely demanded the
punishment of the perfidious wretch who dared to defame women. The king
laughed still harder. The rage of the ladies was so exceedingly amusing.

"Sire," said the beautiful Richmond, "he has insulted not us, but
the whole sex; and in the name of our sex, I demand revenge for the
affront."

"Yes, revenge!" cried Lady Jane, hotly.

"Revenge!" repeated the rest of the ladies.

"See, now, what pious and gentle-hearted doves ye are!" cried John
Heywood.

The king said, laughingly: "Well, now, you shall have your will--you
shall chastise him."

"Yes, yes, scourge me with rods, as they once scourged the Messiah,
because He told the Pharisees the truth. See here! I am already putting
on the crown of thorns."

He took the king's velvet cap with solemn air, and put