And the people did not once thank the king for this sacrifice that
Jane Seymour's husband had made for them. The people received with
shouts the Duke of Norfolk, the father of that adulterous queen whom
Henry loved so much that her infidelity had struck him like the stab
of a poisoned dagger.
These were the thoughts that occupied the king on his bed of pain,
and upon which he dwelt with all the wilfulness and moodiness of a
sick man.
"We shall have to sacrifice these Howards to him!" said Earl Douglas
to Gardiner, as they had just again listened to a burst of rage from
their royal master. "If we would at last succeed in ruining the
queen, we must first destroy the Howards."
The pious bishop looked at him inquiringly, and in astonishment.
Earl Douglas smiled. "Your highness is too exalted and noble to be
always able to comprehend the things of this world. Your look, which
seeks only God and heaven, does not always see the petty and pitiful
things that happen here on the earth below."
"Oh, but," said Gardiner, with a cruel smile, "I see them, and it
charms my eye when I see how God's vengeance punishes the enemies of
the Church here on earth. Set up then, by all means, a stake or a
scaffold for these Howards, if their death can be to us a means to
our pious and godly end. You are certain of my blessing and my
assistance. Only I do not quite comprehend how the Howards can stand
in the way of our plots which are formed against the queen, inasmuch
as they are numbered among the queen's enemies, and profess
themselves of the Church in which alone is salvation.
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