“Magnanimity is an exalted, but a very dangerous virtue,” said he, gravely; “and kings above all things dare not exercise it; for magnanimity pardons crimes committed, and kings are not here to pardon, but to punish.”
“Oh, no, indeed,” said Catharine; “to be able to be magnanimous is the noblest prerogative of kings; and since they are God’s representatives on earth, they too must exercise pity and mercy, like God himself.”
The king’s brow again grew dark, and his sullen looks stared at the chess-board.
Gardiner shrugged his shoulders, and made no reply. He drew a roll of papers out of his gown and handed it to the king.
“Sire,” said he, “I hope you do not share the queen’s views; else it would be bad for the quiet and peace of the country. Mankind cannot be governed by mercy, but only through fear. Your majesty holds the sword in his hands. If you hesitate to let it fall on evil-doers, they will soon wrest it from your hands, and you will be powerless!”
“Those are very cruel words, your highness!” exclaimed Catharine, who allowed herself to be carried away by her magnanimous heart, and suspected that Gardiner had come to move the king to some harsh and bloody decision.
She wanted to anticipate his design; she wanted to move the king to mildness. But the moment was unpropitious for her.
The king, whom she had just before irritated by her victory over him, felt his vexation heightened by the opposition which she offered to the bishop; for this opposition was at the same time directed against himself. The king was not at all inclined to exercise mercy; it was, therefore, a very wicked notion of the queen’s to praise mercy as the highest privilege of princes.
With a silent nod of the head, he took the papers from Gardiner’s hands, and opened them.
“Ah,” said he, running over the pages, “your highness is right; men do not deserve to be treated with mercy, for they are always ready to abuse it. Because we have for a few weeks lighted no fagot-piles and erected no scaffolds, they imagine that we are asleep; and they begin their treasonable and mischievous doings with redoubled violence, and raise their sinful fists against us, in order to mock us. I see here an accusation against one who has presumed to say that there is no king by the grace of God; and that the king is a miserable and sinful mortal, just as well as the lowest beggar. Well, we will concede this man his point—we will not be to him a king by the grace of God, but a king by the wrath of God! We will show him that we are not yet quite like the lowest beggar, for we still possess at least wood enough to build a pile of fagots for him.”