woman an account of the
King's demeanour that she showed a sign of hearing.

'His Highness,' the woman said, 'sate always mute.'

'His Highness would,' the Lady Mary said. 'He is in that at least
royal--that he letteth jackals do his hunting.'

It was only when the Archbishop of Canterbury, reading from the
indictment of Culpepper, had uttered the words: 'did by the obtaining of
the Lady Rochford meet with the Queen's Highness by night in a secret
and vile place,' that the King had called out--

'Body of God! mine own bedchamber!' as if he were hatefully mocking the
Archbishop.

The Queen leant suddenly forward--

'Said he no more than that?' she cried eagerly.

'No more, oh your dear Grace,' the maid said. And the Queen shuddered
and whispered--

'No more!--And I have spoken to this woman to obtain no more than "no
more."'

Again she closed her eyes, and she did not again speak, but hung her
head forward as if she were thinking.

'Heaven help me!' the maid said.

'Why, think no more of Heaven,' the Lady Mary said, 'there is but the
fire of hell for such beasts as you.'

'Had you such a brother as mine----' Mary Hall began. But the Lady Mary
cried out--

'Cease, dog! I have a worse father, but you have not found him force me
to work vileness.'

'All the other Papists have done worse than I,' Mary Hall said, 'for
they it was that forced us by threats to speak.'

'Not one was of the Queen's side?' the Lady Mary said.

'Not one,' Mary Hall answered. 'Gardiner was more fierce against her
than he of Canterbury, the Duke of Norfolk than either.'

The Lady Mary said--

'Well! well!'

'Myself I did hear the Duke of Norfolk say, when I was drawn to give
evidence, that he begged the King to let him tear my secrets from my
heart. For so did he abhor the abominable deeds done by his two nieces,
Anne Boleyn and Katharine Howard, that he could no longer desire to
live. And he said neither could he live longer without some comfortable
assurance of His Highness's royal favour. And so he fell upon me----'

The woman fell to silence. Without, the rain had ceased, and, like heavy
curtains trailing near the ground, the clouds began to part and sweep
away. A horn sounded, and there went a party of men with pikes across
the terrace.

'Well, and what said you?' the Lady Mary said.

'Ask me not,' Mary Lascelles said woefully. She averted her eyes to the
floor at her side.

'By God, but I will know,' the Lady Mar