"Supposing him to be dead," said the lady; "I cannot deny it, and therefore will not."
"What know you of any wife or wives he may have had?"
"I know nothing of them."
"What!" interrupted Dudley: "hath he not confessed unto thee that he married a wife on his travels, from whom he was divorced, and that she is long since dead?"
"Ye do strive to put words into my mouth, and to entangle me in my talk," said the lady. "Call you this justice?"
"We are the interrogators, madam," said Dudley. Looking at Winthrop, he saw that the Governor had fallen back in his seat, with his eyes cast upon the floor, and was silent, as if tired of his part of the examination, and willing to relinquish it to others. Observing this, the Deputy proceeded.
"May it please you, madam, to answer the question?"
"Heaven help me," she said. "My poor brain is so bewildered that I hardly know what it is."
"Thou hast a treacherous memory," answered Dudley; "but I will repeat it. It was concerning certain confessions about this Gardiner's wife."
"What confessions?" said the lady.