ries of "To the stake! to the stake!" The Nun
showed no alarm, but admitted quietly that what the Chancellor said was
true. She had acknowledged much, but more lay behind, and Chapuys
confessed himself alarmed at what she might still reveal. Cromwell
observed to him that "God must have directed the sense and wit of the
Queen to keep clear of the woman." But Catherine's confessor had been
among the most intimate of her confederates; and to be aware of treason
and not reveal it was an act of treason in itself. Sir Thomas More cleared
himself. Fisher, the guiltiest of all, was sent to the Tower for
misprision.

The Pope's final sentence was now a certainty. Francis had cleared his
conscience by advocating the compromise. Nothing more could be done, he
said, unless Cranmer's judgment was revoked. He chose to forget that the
compromise had been rejected by Catherine herself. He complained that as
fast as he studied to gain the Pope the English studied to lose him. He
had devised a plan, and the English spoilt it. He regretted that he had
ever meddled in the matter. The Pope could not help himself; but must now
excommunicate the King and call on Christendom to support him.[259]

Henry could no longer doubt that he was in serious danger. To the risk of
invasion from abroad, disaffection at home had to be added. How far it
extended he did not yet know. All along, however, he had been preparing
for what the future might bring. The fleet was in high order; the
fortifications at Dover and Calais had been repaired; if the worst came he
meant to be ready for it; the stoppage of trade might be serious; it was
to this that Catherine looked as her most effective weapon; but English
commerce was as important to Spain and Flanders as the Flemish woollens to
the London citizens, and the leading merchants on both sides came to an
understanding that an Interdict would be disregarded. The Lutherans had
the courage of their opinions and could be depended on to fight. The laws
against heretics were allowed to sleep. Their numbers increased, and the
French Ambassador observed to Chapuys that they would not easily be
eradicated. Many who were orthodox in the faith were bitter against Rome
and Romanism. The Duke of Norfolk was the loudest of them all. Flanders
could not live, he said, to a deputation of alarmed citizens, without the
English trade; and as to the Pope, the Pope was a wretch and a bastard, a
liar and a bad man; he would stake wife a