Edward, the little boy of tender age—he alone was the divinely consecrated, legitimate heir to the king’s crown. It had cost his father so great a sacrifice to give his people this son and successor! In order to do it, he had sacrificed Jane Seymour, his own beloved wife; he had let the mother be put to death, in order to preserve the son, the heir of his crown.
And the people did not once thank the king for this sacrifice that Jane Seymour’s husband had made for them. The people received with shouts the Duke of Norfolk, the father of that adulterous queen whom Henry loved so much that her infidelity had struck him like the stab of a poisoned dagger.
These were the thoughts that occupied the king on his bed of pain, and upon which he dwelt with all the wilfulness and moodiness of a sick man.
“We shall have to sacrifice these Howards to him!” said Earl Douglas to Gardiner, as they had just again listened to a burst of rage from their royal master. “If we would at last succeed in ruining the queen, we must first destroy the Howards.”
The pious bishop looked at him inquiringly, and in astonishment.
Earl Douglas smiled. “Your highness is too exalted and noble to be always able to comprehend the things of this world. Your look, which seeks only God and heaven, does not always see the petty and pitiful things that happen here on the earth below.”
“Oh, but,” said Gardiner, with a cruel smile, “I see them, and it charms my eye when I see how God’s vengeance punishes the enemies of the Church here on earth. Set up then, by all means, a stake or a scaffold for these Howards, if their death can be to us a means to our pious and godly end. You are certain of my blessing and my assistance. Only I do not quite comprehend how the Howards can stand in the way of our plots which are formed against the queen, inasmuch as they are numbered among the queen’s enemies, and profess themselves of the Church in which alone is salvation.”
“The Earl of Surrey is an apostate, who has opened his ear and heart to the doctrines of Calvin!”
“Then let his head fall, for he is a criminal before God, and no one ought to have compassion on him! And what is there that we lay to the charge of the father?”
“The Duke of Norfolk is well-nigh yet more dangerous than his son; for although a Catholic, he has not nevertheless the right faith; and his soul is full of unholy sympathy and injurious mildness. He bewails those whose blood is shed because they were devoted to the false doctrine of the priests of Baal; and-he calls us both the king’s blood-hounds.”