best they could; they were standing round her as she
was speaking; and she turned to them with an apology, and a hope that they
would pardon her. She would hinder her cause, she said; and put her soul in
danger, if on their account she were to relinquish her name, and she could
not do it.

The deputation next attempted her on her worldly side. If she would obey,
they informed her that she would be allowed not only her jointure as
Princess Dowager and her own private fortune, but all the settlements which
had been made upon her on her marriage with the king.

She "passed not upon possessions, in regard of this matter," she replied.
It touched her conscience, and no worldly considerations were of the
slightest moment.

In disobeying the king, they said; seeing that she was none other than his
subject, she might give cause for dissension and disturbance; and she might
lose the favour of the people.

She "trusted not," she replied--she "never minded it, nor would she"--she
"desired only to save her right; and if she should lose the favour of the
people in defending that right, yet she trusted to go to heaven cum fama et
infamia."

Promises and persuasions being unavailing, they tried threats. She was told
that if she persisted in so obstinate a course, the king would be obliged
to make known to the world the offers which he had made to her, and the ill
reception which they had met with--and then he would perhaps withdraw those
offers, and conceive some evil opinions of high displeasure towards her.

She answered that there was no manner of offers neither of lands nor goods
that she had respect unto in comparison of her cause--and as to the loss of
the king's affection, she trusted to God, to whom she would daily pray for
him.

The learned council might as well have reasoned with the winds; or
threatened the waves of the sea. But they were not yet weary, and their
next effort was as foolish as it was ungenerous. They suggested, "that if
she did reserve the name of queen, it was thought that she would do it of a
vain desire and appetite of glory; and further, she might be an occasion
that the king would withdraw his love from her most dear daughter the Lady
Princess, which should chiefly move her, if none other cause did."

They must have known little of Catherine, if they thought she could be
influenced by childish vanity. It was for no vain glory that she cared, she
answered proudly; she was the king's true wife, an