r. Consider it, Henry; it is so weighty a
responsibility that God has placed in your hand, and it is presumptuous
not to meet it in holy earnestness and undisturbed tranquillity of
mind."

"Now, by the holy mother!" cried the king, striking vehemently upon the
table, "I believe, forsooth, you dare excuse traitors and blasphemers of
their king! You have not heard then of what they are accused?"

"I have heard it," said Catharine, more and more warmly; "I have heard,
and I say, nevertheless, sign not those death-warrants, my husband. It
is true these poor creatures have grievously erred, but they erred as
human beings. Then let your punishment also be human. It is not wise, O
king, to want to avenge so bitterly a trifling injury to your majesty.
A king must be exalted above reviling and calumny. Like the sun, he must
shine upon the just and the unjust, no one of whom is so mighty that
he can cloud his splendor and dim his glory. Punish evil-doers and
criminals, but be noble and magnanimous toward those who have injured
your person."

"The king is no person that can be injured!" said Gardiner. "The king is
a sublime idea, a mighty, world-embracing thought. Whoever injures the
king, has not injured a person, but a divinely instituted royalty--the
universal thought that holds together the whole world!"

"Whoever injures the king has injured God!" yelled the king; "and
whoever seizes our crown and reviles us, shall have his hand struck off,
and his tongue torn out, as is done to atheists and patricides!"

"Well, strike off their hand then, mutilate them; but do not kill them!"
cried Catharine, passionately. "Ascertain at least whether their crime
is so grievous as they want to make you believe, my husband. Oh, it is
so easy now to be accused as a traitor and atheist! All that is needed
for it is an inconsiderate word, a doubt, not as to God, but to his
priests and this Church which you, my king, have established; and of
which the lofty and peculiar structure is to many so new and unusual
that they ask themselves in doubt whether that is a Church of God or a
palace of the king, and that they lose themselves in its labyrinthine
passages, and wander about without being able to find the exit."

"Had they faith," said Gardiner, solemnly, "they would not lose their
way; and were God with them, the entrance would not be closed to them."

"Oh, I well know that YOU are always inexorable!" cried Catharine,
angrily. "But it is no