'You are certain,' he repeated. 'Nevertheless, here is a man whose fury is like an agony to him. He looks favourably upon you. But, if a man be formed to fight he must fight, and call the wrong side good.'
'God help you,' Katharine said. 'What can be good that is set in array against the elect of God?'
'These be brave words,' he answered, 'but the days of the Crusades be over. Here is a King that fights with a world that is part good, part evil. In part he fights for the dear saints; in part they that fight against him fight for the elect of God. Then he must call all things well upon his side, if he is not to fail where he is right as well as where he is wrong.'
'I do not take you well,' Katharine said. 'When the Lacedæmonians strove with the Great King....'
'Why, dear heart,' he said, 'those were the days of a black and white world; now we are all grey or piebald.'
'Then tell me what the King will do with me,' she answered.
He made a grimace.
'All your learning will not make of you but a very woman. It is: What will he do? It is: A truce to words. It is: Get to the point. But the point is this....'
'In the name of heaven,' she said, 'shall I go to gaol or no?'
'Then in the name of heaven,' he said, 'you shall—this next month, or next year, or in ten years' time. That is very certain, since you goad a King to fury.'