“I see you have a sharp tongue to match the edge of the axe which brought you to your knees. You had a reason for what you did on earth, but you lost your reason along with your head when you left the upper world. By the shade of Anne Boleyn,” went on the king, becoming more and more enraged as he proceeded, “were we on earth, your insolence should cause you to swing from Tyburn’s tree.”
“You can’t string me up,” sneered Raleigh. “No man ever made a monkey of me.”
“No, but a woman did. You can’t cloak what you did for Elizabeth. Now Anne—”
“You forget yourself,” angrily interrupted Anne Boleyn, who had just come upon the scene.
“But you won’t allow me to forget you!” ruefully retorted the king.
“It’s time you came home, Henry. You’ve been keeping altogether too late hours at the club recently and I’ve come to take you home.”
“But I had promised to take tea with Catharine Parr,” rebelled Henry. “You know she is rightfully my wife.”
“Really? You forget that decrees of divorce are not binding in Hades, whether they have been executed by the hangsman or by the justice.”
“I appeal to Judge Blackstone.”
“This is altogether without precedent, but I must support the lady,” responded the jurist, gallantly.