e
one in pursuit to prevent him from seeing or speaking with her. The King
submitted to his imperious mistress, saw Anne's child, but did not see
Mary. She had heard of his arrival, and as he was mounting his horse to
ride back she showed herself on the leads, kneeling as if to ask his
blessing. The King saw her, bowed, lifted his bonnet, and silently went
his way.[261]

The French Ambassador met him afterwards in London. The King said he had
not spoken to his daughter on account of her Spanish obstinacy. The
Ambassador saying something in her favour, "tears rushed into the King's
eyes, and he praised her many virtues and accomplishments." "The Lady,"
said Chapuys, "is aware of the King's affection for his daughter, and
therefore never ceases to plot against her." The Earl of Northumberland,
once Anne's lover, told him that she meant to poison the Princess. Chapuys
had thought it might be better if she avoided irritating her father; he
advised her to protect herself by a secret protest, and to let her title
drop on condition that she might live with her mother. Lady Anne, however,
it was thought, would only be more malicious, and a show of yielding would
discourage her friends. Another plan was to carry her off abroad; but war
would then be inevitable, and Chapuys could not venture to recommend such
an attempt without the Emperor's express consent.[262]

Catherine also was, or professed to be, in fear of foul play. Kimbolton
was a small but not inconvenient residence. It was represented as a
prison. The King was supposed to be eager for her death; and in the
animosity of the time he, or at least his mistress, was thought capable of
any atrocity. The Queen was out of health in reality, having shown signs
of dropsy, and the physicians thought her life uncertain. She would eat
nothing which her new servants provided; the little food she took was
prepared by her chamberwoman, and her own room was used as a kitchen.[263]
Charles had intimated that, if she was ill-used, he might be driven to
interfere; and every evil rumour that was current was treasured up to
exasperate him into action. No words, Chapuys said in a letter to the
Emperor, could describe the grief which the King's conduct to the Queen
and Princess was creating in the English people. They complained bitterly
of the Emperor's inaction. They waited only for the arrival of a single
ship of war to rise _en masse_; and, if they had but a leader to take
command, they