"Say, John, is it really an epigram?" asked Thomas Seymour again.
"An epigram on the hypocritical, lustful, and sanctimonious priestly
rabble, that with blasphemous hypocrisy fawn about the king, and are
ever watchful how they can set a trap for one of us honorable and
brave men? Is that what Heaven is now revealing to you?"
"No, my lord, I am only looking at a hawk which hovers about there
in the clouds. I saw him mount, earl, and only think of the wonder--
he had in each talon a dove! Two doves for one hawk. Is not that too
much--wholly contrary to law and nature?"
The earl cast on him a penetrating and distrustful look. But John
Heywood, remaining perfectly calm and unembarrassed, continued
looking at the clouds.
"How stupid such a brute is, and how much to his disadvantage will
his very greediness be! For since he holds a dove in each claw, he
will not be able to enjoy either of them; because he has no claw at
liberty with which to tear them. Soon as he wishes to enjoy the one,
the other will escape; when he grabs after that, the other flies
away; and so at last he will have nothing at all, because he was too
rapacious and wanted more than he could use."
"And you are looking after this hawk in the skies? But you are
perhaps mistaken, and he whom you seek is not above there at all,
but here below, and perchance quite close to you?" asked Thomas
Seymour significantly.
But John Heywood would not understand him.
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