inte_, but the signs had passed
off. It was rumoured that Henry's feelings were cooling towards her. He
had answered, so Court scandal said, to some imperious message of hers
that she ought to be satisfied with what he had done for her; were things
to begin again he would not do as much. Report said also that there were
_nouvelles amours_; but, as the alleged object of the King's attention was
a lady devoted to Queen Catherine, the _amour_ was probably innocent. The
Ambassador built little upon this; Anne's will to injure the Princess he
knew to be boundless, and he believed her power over Henry still to be
great. Mary herself had sent him word that she had discovered practices
for her destruction.

Any peril to which she might be exposed would approach her, as Chapuys was
obliged to confess, from one side only. He ascertained that "when certain
members of the Council had advised harsh measures to please the Lady
Anne," the King had told them that he would never consent, and no one at
the Court--neither the Lady nor any other person--dared speak against the
Princess. "The King loved her," so Cromwell said, "a hundred times more
than his latest born." The notion that the statute was to be enforced
against her life was a chimera of malice. In her illness he showed the
deepest anxiety; he sent his own physician to attend on her, and he sent
for her mother's physician from Kimbolton. Chapuys admitted that he was
naturally kind--"d'aymable et cordiale nature"--that his daughter's death
would be a serious blow to himself, however welcome to Anne and to
politicians, and that, beyond his natural feeling, he was conscious that,
occurring under the present circumstances, it would be a stain on his
reputation.

More than once Henry had interfered for Mary's protection. He had perhaps
heard of what Anne had threatened to do to her on his proposed journey to
Calais. She had been the occasion, at any rate, of sharp differences
between them. He had resented, when he discovered it, the manner in which
she had been dragged to the More, and had allowed her, when staying there,
to be publicly visited by the ladies and gentlemen of the court, to the
Lady's great annoyance. Nay, Mary had been permitted to refuse to leave
her room when Anne had sent for her, and the strictest orders had been
given through Cromwell that anyone who treated her disrespectfully should
be severely punished.[295]

True as all this might be, however, Chapuys's fe