"
"What does she? and what says she?" cried the king. "Do not hesitate
to tell me, your highness. It behooves me well to know what my wife
does and says."
"Sire, she is not merely the secret patroness of heretics and
reformers, but she is also a professor of their faith. She listens
to their false doctrine with eager mind, and receives the cursed
priests of this sect into her apartments, in order to hear their
fanatical discourse and hellish inspiration. She speaks of these
heretics as true believers and Christians; and denominates Luther
the light that God has sent into the world to illuminate the gloom
and falsehood of the Church with the splendor of truth and love--
that Luther, sire, who dared write you such shameful and insulting
letters, and ridiculed in such a brutal manner your royalty and your
wisdom."
"She is a heretic; and when you say that, you say everything!"
screamed the king. The volcano was ripe for an eruption, and the
seething lava must at last have an outlet. "Yes, she is a heretic!"
repeated the king; "and yet we have sworn to exterminate these
atheists from our land."
"She very well knows that she is secure from your wrath," said
Gardiner, with a shrug of his shoulders. "She relies on the fact
that she is the queen, and that in the heart of her exalted husband
love is mightier than the faith."
"Nobody shall suppose that he is secure from my wrath, and no one
shall rely on the security afforded him by my love.
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