Since he knew that this love
needed a confidant, he assumed this role, that Catharine, in the
vehemence of her passion and in the simplicity of her innocent
heart, might not make others sharers of her dangerous secret.
John Heywood therefore watched over Catharine's safety and
happiness, as she watched over Thomas Seymour and her friends. He
protected and guarded her with the king, as she guarded Cranmer, and
protected him from the constantly renewed assaults of his enemies.
This it was that they could never forgive the queen--that she had
delivered Cranmer, the noble and liberal-minded Archbishop of
Canterbury, from their snares. More than once Catharine had
succeeded in destroying their intriguing schemes, and in rending the
nets that Gardiner and Earl Douglas, with so sly and skilful a hand,
had spread for Cranmer.
If, therefore, they would overthrow Cranmer, they must first
overthrow the queen. For this there was a real means--a means of
destroying at once the queen and the hated Seymours, who stood in
the way of the papists.
If they could prove to the king that Catharine entertained criminal
intercourse with Thomas Seymour, then were they both lost; then were
the power and glory of the papists secured.
But whence to fetch the proofs of this dangerous secret, which the
crafty Douglas had read only in Catharine's eyes, and for which he
had no other support than his bare conviction? How should they begin
to influence the queen to some inconsiderate step, to a speaking
witness of her love?
Time hung so heavily on the king's hands! It would have been so easy
to persuade him to some cruel deed--to a hasty sentence of death!
But it was not the blood of the Seymours for which the king
thirsted.
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