and had made for them. The people received with shouts the
Duke of Norfolk, the father of that adulterous queen whom Henry loved
so much that her infidelity had struck him like the stab of a poisoned
dagger.

These were the thoughts that occupied the king on his bed of pain, and
upon which he dwelt with all the wilfulness and moodiness of a sick man.

"We shall have to sacrifice these Howards to him!" said Earl Douglas to
Gardiner, as they had just again listened to a burst of rage from their
royal master. "If we would at last succeed in ruining the queen, we must
first destroy the Howards."

The pious bishop looked at him inquiringly, and in astonishment.

Earl Douglas smiled. "Your highness is too exalted and noble to be
always able to comprehend the things of this world. Your look, which
seeks only God and heaven, does not always see the petty and pitiful
things that happen here on the earth below."

"Oh, but," said Gardiner, with a cruel smile, "I see them, and it charms
my eye when I see how God's vengeance punishes the enemies of the Church
here on earth. Set up then, by all means, a stake or a scaffold for
these Howards, if their death can be to us a means to our pious and
godly end. You are certain of my blessing and my assistance. Only I do
not quite comprehend how the Howards can stand in the way of our plots
which are formed against the queen, inasmuch as they are numbered among
the queen's enemies, and profess themselves of the Church in which alone
is salvation."

"The Earl of Surrey is an apostate, who has opened his ear and heart to
the doctrines of Calvin!"

"Then let his head fall, for he is a criminal before God, and no one
ought to have compassion on him! And what is there that we lay to the
charge of the father?"

"The Duke of Norfolk is well-nigh yet more dangerous than his son; for
although a Catholic, he has not nevertheless the right faith; and his
soul is full of unholy sympathy and injurious mildness. He bewails those
whose blood is shed because they were devoted to the false doctrine of
the priests of Baal; and-he calls us both the king's blood-hounds."

"Well, then," cried Gardiner with an uneasy, dismal smile, "we will
show him that he has called us by the right name; we will rend him in
pieces!"

"Besides, as we have said, the Howards stand in the way of our schemes
in relation to the queen," said Earl Douglas, earnestly. "The king's
mind is so completely filled with this one ha