hment was moderate, but the castle was
in good condition and well-furnished; everything was provided which was
required for personal comfort; the Queen had her own servants, her
confessor, her physician, and two or three ladies-in-waiting; if she had
not more state about her it was by her own choice, for, as has been seen,
she had made her recognition as queen the condition of her accepting a
more adequate establishment. Bodily hardships she had none to suffer, but
she had a chronic disorder of long standing, which had been aggravated by
the high-strung expectations of the last half-dozen years. Sir John
Wallop, the English ambassador at Paris, had been always "her good
servant;" Lady Wallop was her _creatura_ and was passionately attached to
her. From the Wallops the Nuncio at the French Court heard in the middle
of December that she could not live more than six months. They had learnt
the "secret" of her illness from her own physician, and their evident
grief convinced him that they were speaking the truth. Francis also was
aware of her condition; the end was known to be near, and it was thought
in Court circles that when she was gone "the King would leave his present
queen and return to the obedience of the Church."[368]

The disorder from which Catherine was suffering had been mentioned by
Cromwell to Chapuys. The Ambassador asked to be allowed to visit her.
Cromwell said that he might send a servant at once to Kimbolton, to
ascertain her condition, and that he would ask the King's permission for
himself to follow. The alarming symptoms passed off for the moment; she
rallied from the attack, and on the 13th of December she was able to write
to Ortiz, to tell him of the comfort and encouragement which she had
received from his letters, and from the near prospect of the Pope's
action. In that alone lay the remedy for the sufferings of herself and her
daughter and "all the good." The Devil, she said, was but half-tied, and
slackness would let him loose. She could not and dared not speak more
clearly; Ortiz was a wise man, and would understand.[369]

On the same day she wrote her last letter to the Emperor. The handwriting,
once bold and powerful, had grown feeble and tremulous, and the
imperfectly legible lines convey only that she expected something to be
done at the approaching parliament which would be a world's scandal and
her own and her daughter's destruction.[370]

Finding herself a little better, she desired C