One person had seen it. This little ruse of the queen had not escaped John Heywood, who had immediately, by some cutting witticism, set the king to laughing, and tried to draw the attention of the courtiers from the queen and her lover.
He was now standing crowded into the embrasure of a window, and entirely concealed behind the silk curtain; and so, without being seen, he let his falcon eyes roam over the whole room.
He saw everything; he heard everything; and, noticed by none, he observed all.
He saw how Earl Douglas now made a sign to Bishop Gardiner, and how he quickly answered it.
As if by accident, both now left the groups with whom they had just been chatting, and drew near each other, looking about for some place where, unobserved and separated from the rest, they might converse together. In all the windows were standing groups, chatting and laughing; only that window behind the curtain of which John Heywood was concealed, was unoccupied.
So Earl Douglas and the bishop turned thither.
“Shall we attain our end to-day?” asked Gardiner, in a low voice.
“With God’s gracious assistance, we shall annihilate all our enemies to-day. The sword already hangs over their heads, and soon it will fall and deliver us from them,” said Earl Douglas, solemnly.
“Are you, then, certain of it?” asked Gardiner, and an expression of cruel delight flitted across his malicious, ashy face. “But tell me, how comes it that Archbishop Cranmer is not here?”
“He is sick, and so had to remain at Lambeth.”