"It is against the law of God and the Church," said Miles.
"But such a thing could be granted by the Pope."
"But could the Pope be quite sure it is agreeable to the law of God? When the King's last baby died, I heard a whisper among those who were at Greenwich, saying that God would not bless such a marriage with children."
"Ah! you heard that, did you?" said the Cardinal, looking up sharply. "But there is the lady Mary," he added the next minute.
"Yes, but the King bath had several other children, but none to live."
For a minute the Cardinal sat looking with unseeing eyes at the hem of his richly embroidered robe, but he spoke no word; and, after that pause, he bade Miles take his pen, and copy such directions as he should give him; they, however, being on a totally different matter; and Miles thought that what he had said was forgotten by his master, as the subject was never referred to again.
But the seed had been sown. Wolsey was a man who never forgot. He could wait. 'He was a man who knew how to wait; and the Queen's nephew, Charles the Fifth, had outwitted him and baulked his ambition.
After promising to give him all his influence to obtain the honour and glory of being Pope, he had set his own tutor in the chair of St. Peter, and crowned him with the triple crown, and somebody would have to pay for that affront, and pay dearly too; and he would strike at the Emperor Charles through Queen Catherine.