“If it be not worth the pains, it is not worth the drinking,” replied Sir William; “’tis like a fine child, it may not come into the world without some travail and a good leech. See you, friend Raleigh, there is a secret in stirring it aright and putting in the parts in due season. If the cream and almonds be not wisely boiled with the amber and musk, and if you heat not the sack before you put in the eggs, then is there confusion, worse than these late troubles have brought upon this realm, and caused much in the same way, too, by a domestic disagreement.”
Master Raleigh shook his head gravely at this, his mind slipping away from the posset as his next words betrayed.
“It will be happy for the realm if it prove but a domestic quarrel,” he said thoughtfully, “since the Act of the Succession there can be no doubt that there is much foreign meddling, and, I fear me, plots against the king’s majesty, made over seas, are foster-mothered here at Bugden; albeit, I do not greatly blame that noble lady that she will not yield. To her it must seem a sore and bewildering visitation of evil.”
“God help her!” cried Lady Carew; “she was a good wife to the king, and deserveth better at his hands.”
“Hush, madam!” retorted her lord, sternly; “a woman’s heart is more full of pity than of wisdom. It is not for us to dispute the matter; there is talk enough, and no little harm from it. The marriage hath been set aside, and let us hear no more of it while there is another queen and an infant princess.”
“Ay, it is an easy matter for a man to forget his wife for a pretty face,” replied the good dame, hotly; “this is a policy that men like, since it favoreth their own slips upon the road; but no good will come of it, I warrant.”
Raleigh laughed, looking from the husband to the wife; and even Sir William smiled, though a little grimly.
“The women are all alike,” he said; “there is a great cackling amongst them over this, and if the petticoats could set the kingdom in order, I doubt not one fair lady would hang as high as Haman.”
“I blame them not for their pity for one we know,” Raleigh answered quietly; “it seems, forsooth, a great wrong, yet would I not see the Lady Mary come to the throne to bring back the Bishop of Rome and the Spaniards. These last I loved not ever; albeit there is cause for mourning that we lose with them the Flanders trade. Yet my heart has not been in all these acts; the fall of Sir Thomas More was, in itself, grief enough to me, for I had much friendship for that virtuous gentleman.”
“Could it not have been averted?” asked Lady Carew, sadly; “he and Fisher both consented to swear to the Act of the Succession, with an exception, as I heard; could not this suffice?”