all doe well" (sayde the kyng) "if the effecte
procede accordinge to the promise: and the more acceptable shall
the same bee vnto mee, for that I desyre it shoulde so come to
passe." The king liked wel these words although that Acharisto
had conceiued within the plat of his entended mind, som other
treason. For albeit that he affirmed before the kyng's owne
face, that hee would not loue his daughter, yet knowing the
assured wil of the louyng gentlewoman, hee practised the
mariage, and like an vnkind and wretched man, deuised conuenient
tyme to kil him: and fully bent to execute that cruel
enterpryse, he attempted to corrupt the chiefest men about him,
promising promocions vnto some, to some he assured restitucion
of reuenewes, which by father's fault they had lost beefore, and
to other golden hilles, so that hee mighte attayne by slaughter
of the king, to wynne a kingly state and kingdome: which the
sooner he peruaded himself to acquire, if in secrete silence,
they coulde put vp that which by generall voice they had agreed.
And although they thought themselues in good assurance, that
theyr enterpryse could take no ill successe, by reason of their
sounde and good discourse debated amonges themselues for the
accomplishement thereof, yet it fortuned that one of the
conspiracy (as commonlye in sutch lyke trayterous attemptes it
chaunceth) beeynge wyth hys beloued Ladye, and shee makyng mone
that little Commodytye succeeded of hir Loue for hir
Aduauncement, brake out into these wordes: "Hold thy peace"
(sayde hee:) "for the tyme wyll not bee longe before thou shalt
bee one of the chiefest Ladies of this land." "Howe can that
bee?" (sayde hys Woman.) "No more adoe?" (quod the Gentleman:)
"Cease from further questions, and bee merrye: for wee shall
enioye together, a verye Honourable and a quyete Lyfe." When hir
Louer was departed, the gentlewoman went to an other of hir
gossips very iocunde, and tolde hir what hir Louer had sayd: and
shee then not able to keepe Counsell, wente and tolde an other:
in such wyse as in the ende it came to the eares of the King's
steward's wyfe, and she imparted the same vnto hir husband, who
marking those words, like a man of great wisedome and
experience, did verily beleue that the same touched the daunger
of the king's person: and as a faythfull seruant to his lorde
and maister, diligently harkned to the mutteringe talke murmured
in the Court, by him which had tolde the same to his beloued
L