verybody, he said, rejoiced at the execution of the _putaine_; but there
were some who spoke variously of the King. He had heard, from good
authority, that in a conversation which passed between Mistress Seymour
and the King before the arrest of the Concubine, the lady urged him to
restore the Princess to the court. The King told her she was a fool; she
ought to be thinking more of the children which they might expect of their
own, than of the elevation of the other. The lady replied that in
soliciting for the Princess, she was consulting for the good of the King,
of herself, of her children should she have any, and of all the realm,
as, without it, the English nation would never be satisfied. Such a
conversation is not in itself likely to have been carried on _before_
Anne's arrest, and certainly not where it could be overheard by others;
especially as Chapuys admitted that the King said publicly he would not
marry anyone unless the Parliament invited him. One would like to know
what the trustworthy authority might have been. Unfortunately for the
veracity of his informant, he went on with an account of the King's
personal behaviour, the accuracy of which can be tested.

"People," he said, "had found it strange that the King, after having
received such ignominy, should have gone about at such a time banqueting
with ladies, sometimes remaining after midnight, and returning by the
river, accompanied by music and the singers of his chamber. He supped
lately," the Ambassador continued, "with several ladies at the house of
the Bishop of Carlisle, and showed extravagant joy." The Bishop came the
next morning to tell Chapuys of the visit, and added a story of the King
having said that he had written a tragedy on Anne's conduct which he
offered the Bishop to read.[437] Of John Kite, the Bishop of Carlisle,
little is known, save that Sir William Kingston said he used to play
"penny gleek" with him. But it happens that a letter exists, written on
the same day as Chapuys's, which describes Henry's conduct at precisely
the same period.

John Husee, the friend and agent of Lord Lisle, was in London on some
errand from his employer. His business required him to speak to the King,
and he said that he had been unable to obtain admittance, the King having
remained in strict seclusion from the day of Anne's arrest to her
execution. "His Grace," Husee wrote, "came not abroad this fortnight,
except it was in the garden or in his boat, whe