Early the next day the American girl was awakened by horrid growls and roars that seemed to come not only from outside the palace but from the interior as well.
The she gorillas penned in the quarters with her were restless. They growled as they crowded to the windows and looked down into the courtyard and the streets beyond.
Rhonda came and stood behind them and looked over their shoulders. She saw shaggy beasts struggling and fighting at the gate leading through the outer wall, surging through the courtyard below, and battling before the entrance to the palace. They fought with clubs and battle axes, talons and fangs.
"They have freed Wolsey from the tower," she heard Jane Seymour say, "and he is leading God's party against the king."
Catherine of Aragon squatted in the dry grass and commenced to peel a banana. "Henry and God are always quarrelling," she said wearily—"and nothing ever comes of it. Every time Henry wants a new wife they quarrel."
"But I notice he always gets his wife," said Catherine Howard.
"He has had Wolsey on his side before—this time it may be different. I have heard that God wants this hairless she for himself. If he gets her that will be the last that any one will ever see of her—which will suit me." Catherine of Aragon bared her fangs at the American girl, and then returned her attention to the banana.
The sound of fighting surged upward from the floor below until they heard it plainly in the corridor outside the closed door of their quarters. Suddenly the door was thrown open, and several bulls burst into the room.
"Where is the hairless one?" demanded the leading bull. "Ah, there she is!"
He crossed the room and seized Rhonda roughly by the wrist.