“I shrived her, your Grace, before she died.”
“Why! they did not tell me that.”
Anthony was silent.
They walked on a few steps, and the Queen stood silent too, looking down upon the Tilt-yard. Then she turned abruptly, and Anthony turned with her, and they began to go up and down again.
“It was gallant of you both,” she said shortly. “I love that my people should be of that sort.” Then she paused. “Tell me,” she went on, “did Mary love me?”
Anthony was silent for a moment.
“The truth, Mr. Norris,” she said.
“Mistress Corbet was loyalty itself,” he answered.
“Nay, nay, nay, not loyalty but love I asked you of. How did she speak of me?”
“Well, your Grace, Mistress Corbet had a shrewd wit, and she used it freely on friend and foe, but her very sharpness on your Grace, sometimes, showed her love; for she hated to think you otherwise than what she deemed the best.”