Note 7. Katherine is not really a translation of Catalina, but they were considered interchangeable at this time.
Note 8. Denia was at one time anxious to get rid of De Avila, because he was too gentle and lenient!
Chapter Seven.
How Hope Died with Edward.
“Alma real, dignissima d’impero,
Se non fossi fra noi scesa si tardo.”
Petrarch.
Thus, to soft music, with sufficient minor chords to form a pleasant contrast to the glad notes of the grand chorus, glided in upon the stage of England the five awful years of the Marian persecution.
Never had there been five such years in England. The sanguinary struggles of the Roses, the grinding oppression of Henry the Seventh, the spasmodic cruelties of Henry the Eighth, were not to be compared with this time. Of all persecutors, none is, because none other can be, so coldly, mercilessly, hopelessly unrelenting, as he who believes himself to be doing God service.
And now the floods of the great waters came nigh the struggling Church. The storm fell upon her, as it never fell in this island before or since. The enemy had gathered his forces for one grand effort to crush the life out of her.