which Catherine's friends had gathered hopes, and
much must have passed behind the scenes of which no record survives. A
lady of the bed-chamber had heard Henry say he would "rather beg from
door to door than forsake her;"[244] on the other hand, Anne acknowledged
afterwards that his love had not been returned, and she could hardly have
failed to let him see it. Could she be the mother of a prince she was
safe, but on this she might well think her security depended. All Henry's
male children, except the Duke of Richmond, had died at the birth or in
infancy; and words which she let fall to her sister-in-law, Lady Rochford,
implied a suspicion that the fault was in the King.[245] It is not without
significance that in the subsequent indictment of Sir Henry Norris it was
alleged that on the 6th of October, 1533, less than a month after Anne's
confinement, she solicited Norris to have criminal intercourse with her,
and that on the 12th the act was committed. But to this subject I shall
return hereafter.

Anyway, the King made the best of his misfortune. If the first adventure
had failed, a second might be more successful. The unwelcome daughter was
christened amidst general indifference, without either bonfires or
rejoicings. She was proclaimed Princess, and the title was taken away from
her sister Mary. Chapuys, after what Cromwell had said to him, trusted
naturally that the King's mind would be affected by his disappointment.
They met again. Chapuys urged that it would be easier to set things
straight than at an earlier stage. The King, being of a proud temper,
would have felt humiliated if he had been baffled. He might now listen to
reason. It was said of Englishmen that when they had made a mistake they
were more ready to confess it than other people; and, so far from losing
in public esteem, he would only gain, if he now admitted that he had been
wrong. The Emperor would send an embassy requesting him affectionately to
take Catherine back; his compliance would thus lose all appearance of
compulsion. The expectation was reasonable. Cromwell, however, had to tell
him in earnest language that it could not be; and the Catholic party in
England, who had hoped as Chapuys hoped, and found themselves only further
embittered by the exclusion of Mary from the succession, became desperate
in turn. From this period their incipient treason developed into definite
conspiracy, the leader among the disaffected and the most influential