And as he turned a deaf ear to all her entreaties, the queen was compelled to retire, and was led out of the chamber, in a half-fainting state, by Lady Herbert.
No sooner was she gone, than Gardiner and Wriothesley, who had exchanged looks of satisfaction during Henry’s explosion of rage, drew near his Majesty. Doctor Butts likewise approached the king, and said:
“Beseech your Majesty to be calm. These bursts of anger do you infinite hurt, and may even endanger your life.”
“God’s death! man, how can I be calm under such provocation?” roared Henry. “Things are come to a pretty pass when I am to be schooled by my wife. I must be ill indeed if freedoms like these, which no one ever ventured upon before, can be taken with me.”
“Her Majesty, I am well assured, has unintentionally angered you, my gracious liege,” said Butts. “She will not so offend again.”
“There you are in the right, doctor,” rejoined Henry, sternly. “Her Majesty will not offend again.”
“Do nothing hastily, sire, I implore you,” cried the physician.
“Withdraw, sir,” returned the King. “I have no further need of you for the present.”
“I cannot blame your Majesty’s anger,” observed Gardiner. “It is enough to move any man to wrath to find that he has been duped, and the queen has now revealed her real opinions to you. She has openly braved your displeasure, and you owe it to yourself that her punishment be proportionate to her audacity.”
“Your Majesty cannot oppose your own decrees,” said Wriothesley, “and the queen’s infraction of them can be proven. On the night before Anne Askew was taken to the stake, she received a consolatory message from the queen, and she thereupon sent a prohibited book to her majesty, which the queen hath in her possession.”
“We will extirpate these heresies ere we die,” said Henry; “and if but few hours are allowed us, by Heaven’s grace they shall be employed in purging the land from the pest that afflicts it. It is not for nothing we have been appointed Heaven’s vicar and high minister, as these heretics shall find. We will strike terror into them. We will begin with the queen. She shall have a warrant for her arrest. Go both of you to Sir Anthony Denny to obtain it, and bid him get the instrument impressed by the keeper of our secret stamp.”
“It shall be done as your Highness enjoins,” said Wriothesley. “Is it your pleasure that the arrest be made at once?”
“Tarry till to-morrow, I entreat your Majesty,” interposed Doctor Butts, who had yet lingered, in spite of the king’s order to withdraw. “Take a few hours of reflection ere you act thus severely.”
“What! art thou still here, knave?” cried the king. “Methought I ordered thee hence.”
“For the first time I have presumed to disobey you,” replied the physician; “but I beseech you listen to me.”
“If I might counsel your Majesty, I would urge you to carry out your just resolves without delay,” observed Gardiner. “Good work cannot too soon be begun.”
“Thou art right,” said the king. “Her Majesty shall sleep this night—if she sleep at all—in the Tower. Get the warrant, as I have bidden you, and go afterwards with a guard to make the arrest. And harkye, forget not to advise Sir John Gage, the Constable of the Tower, of the illustrious prisoner he may expect, and enjoin him to prepare accordingly.”
“Your behests shall be obeyed,” said Wriothesley, scarcely able to conceal his satisfaction.
“Sir John Gage is now in the palace, if it shall please your Majesty to speak with him,” said Butts.
“That is lucky,” replied the king; “bring him to us without delay.”
With a covert smile of defiance at the queen’s enemies, Butts departed upon his errand.
As Gardiner and Wriothesley quitted the royal presence, the latter observed, in a low tone, to his companion:
The queen is as good as brought to the block.”
“Ay, marry is she,” replied Gardiner, in the same tone, “if what we have done be not undone by Gage. He is like enough to try and thwart our plans. The King trusts him; and affirms that it was for his incorruptible honesty that he made him comptroller of the household and Constable of the Tower. Gage incorruptible, forsooth! as if any man living—ourselves excepted—were incorruptible.”