Princess innocently showed it to Puebla at Durham House before sending it
to Henry VII. The ambassador was aghast, and soundly rated Katharine for
going against the interests of her father. He would take the letter to the
King, he said. But this Katharine would not allow, and Dona Elvira was
appealed to. She promised to retain the letter for the present, but just
as Puebla was sitting down to dinner an hour afterwards, he learnt that
she had broken her word and sent Philip's letter to Henry VII. Starting
up, he rushed to Katharine's apartments, and with tears streaming down his
face at his failure, told the Princess, under pledge of secrecy, that the
proposed interview was a plot of the Manuels to injure both her father and
sister. She must at once write a letter to Henry which he, Puebla, would
dictate; and, whilst still feigning a desire for the meeting, she must try
to prevent it with all her might, and beware of Dona Elvira in future.
Poor Katharine, alarmed at his vehemence, did as she was told; and the
letter was sent flying to Henry, apologising for the proposal of the
interview. Henry must have smiled when he saw how eager they all were to
court him. Nothing would please him better than the close alliance with
Philip, which was already being secretly negotiated, though he was
effusively assuring Ferdinand at the same time of the inviolability of
their friendship; promising that the marriage--which he had secretly
denounced--between his son and Katharine, should be celebrated on the very
day provided by the treaty, and approving of some secret plot of Ferdinand
against Philip which had been communicated to him.

Amidst such falsity as this it is most difficult to pick one's way, though
it is evident through it all that Henry had now gained the upper hand, and
was fully a match for Ferdinand in his altered circumstances. But as
things improved for Henry they became worse for Katharine. In December
1505 she wrote bitterly to her father from Richmond, complaining of her
fate, the unhappiness of which, she said, was all Puebla's fault. "Every
day," she wrote, "my troubles increase. Since my arrival in England I have
not received a farthing except for food, and I and my household have not
even garments to wear." She had asked Puebla to pray the King to appoint
an English duena for her whilst Dona Elvira was in Flanders, but instead
of doing so he had arranged with Henry that her household should be
dismissed altogether,