your Highness to geve me one of
your small pictures yf ye hav one left, who with his silence shall give me
occasion to think on the friendly cheere I shall have when my sawght
(suit?) shall be at an end. 12 o'clock in the night this Tewsday the 17th
May 1547. From him whom ye have bound to honour, love, and in all lawful
thynges obbey.--T. SEYMOUR."

The Queen had evidently pledged her troth to her lover at the previous
meeting; and it would appear that when Katharine had promised to write to
him but once a fortnight her impatience, as much as his, could ill suffer
so long a silence. Either in answer to the above letter, or another
similar one, Katharine wrote: "My Lord, I send you my most humble and
hearty commendations, being desirous to know how ye have done since I saw
you. I pray ye be not offended with me in that I send sooner to you than I
said I would, for my promise was but once a fortnight. Howbeit, the time
is well abbreviated, by what means I know not, except weeks be shorter at
Chelsey than in other places. My Lord, your brother hath deferred
answering such requests as I made to him till his coming hither, which he
sayeth shall be immediately after the term. This is not the first promise
I have received of his coming, and yet unperformed. I think my lady
(_i.e._ the Duchess of Somerset) hath taught him that lesson, for it is
her custom to promise many comings to her friends and to perform none. I
trust in greater matters she is more circumspect."[266] Then follows a
curious loving postscript, which shows that Katharine's fancy for Seymour
was no new passion. "I would not have you think that this, mine honest
good will toward you, proceeds from any sudden motion of passion; for, as
truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at
liberty to marry you before any man I know. Howbeit, God withstood my will
therein most vehemently for a time, and through His grace and goodness
made that possible which seemed to me most impossible: that was, made me
renounce utterly mine own will, and follow His most willingly. It were
long to write all the process of this matter. If I live I shall declare it
to you myself. I can say nothing; but as my lady of Suffolk saith: 'God is
a marvellous man.'--KATHERYN THE QUENE."[267]

The course of true love did not run smoothly. Somerset, and especially his
wife, did not like the idea of his younger brother's elevation to higher
influence by his marrying the Queen-D