My lady, you have made a brilliant
vindication of yourself; and I, the king, first of all bow before
you, and beg that you may forgive me and impose some penance."
"Leave it to me, queen, to impose a penance on this repentant
sinner!" cried John Hey wood, gayly. "Your majesty is much too
magnanimous, much too timid, to treat him as roughly as my brother
King Henry deserves. Leave it to me, then, to punish him; for only
the fool is wise enough to punish the king after his deserts."
Catharine nodded to him with a grateful smile. She comprehended
perfectly John Heywood's delicacy and nice tact; she apprehended
that he wanted by a joke to relieve her from her painful situation,
and put an end to the king's public acknowledgment, which at the
same time must turn to her bitter reproach--bitter, though it were
only self-reproach.
"Well," said she, smiling, "what punishment, then, will you impose
upon the king?"
"The punishment of recognizing the fool as his equal!"
"God is my witness that I do so!" cried the king, almost solemnly.
"Fools we are, one and all, and we fall short of the renown which we
have before men."
"But my sentence is not yet complete, brother!" continued John
Heywood. "I furthermore give sentence, that you also forthwith allow
me to recite my poem to you, and that you open your ears in order to
hear what John Heywood, the wise, has indited!"
"You have, then, fulfilled my command, and composed a new
interlude?" cried the king, vivaciously.
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