nd that we live together abominably and
detestably in open adultery." He swore, almost blasphemously, that for
the relief of his conscience he only sought authoritatively to know the
truth as to the validity of his marriage, and that Campeggio had come as
an impartial judge to decide it. If Katharine was adjudged to be his wife
nothing would be more pleasant or acceptable to him, and he praised her to
the skies, as a noble lady against whom no words could be spoken.[71] The
measure of his sincerity is seen when we compare this hypocritical
harangue with the letters now before us to and from his envoys in Rome, by
which it is evident that the last thing he desired was an impartial
judgment, or indeed any judgment, but one that would set him free to marry
again. One of the most extraordinary means employed to influence Katharine
soon after this appears to have been another visit to her of Wolsey and
Campeggio. They were to say that the King had intelligence of a conspiracy
against him and Wolsey by her friends and the Emperor's English partisans;
and they warned her that if anything of the sort occurred she would be to
blame. They were then to complain of her bearing towards the King, "who
was now persuaded by her behaviour that she did not love him." "She
encouraged ladies and gentlemen to dance and make merry," for instance,
whereas "she had better tell them to pray for a good end of the matter at
issue." "She shows no pensiveness of countenance, nor in her apparel nor
behaviour. She shows herself too much to the people, rejoicing greatly in
their exclamations and ill obloquy; and, by beckoning with her head and
smiling, which she has not been accustomed to do in times past, rather
encouraged them in doing so." For all this and many other things the King
does not consider it fitting to be in her company, or to let the Princess
be with her. The acme of hypocrisy was reached in the assurance the
Legates were then to give the Queen, that if she would behave well and go
into a convent, the King neither could, nor would, marry another wife in
her lifetime; and she could come out to the world again if the sentence
were in her favour. Let her go, they said, and submit to the King on her
knees, and he would be good to her, but otherwise he would be more angry
than ever.[72] Scornful silence was the Queen's reply.

After this Katharine lived lonely and depressed at Greenwich, frequently
closeted with Bishop Fisher and others of he