"Well challenged, bold butcher!" cried one of Surrey's attendants. "You
shall be made a duke yourself."

"Or a cardinal," cried Mark. "I should not be the first of my brethren
who has met with such preferment."

"He derides the Church in the person of Cardinal Wolsey!" cried the
duke. "He is a blasphemer as well as traitor."

"Drink the king's health in a full cup, Mark," interposed the host,
anxious to set matters aright, "and keep your mischievous tongue
between your teeth."

"Beshrew me if I drink the king's health, or that of his minion, Anne
Boleyn!" cried Mark boldly. "But I will tell you what I will drink. I will
drink the health of King Henry's lawful consort, Catherine of Arragon;
and I will add to it a wish that the Pope may forge her marriage chains
to her royal husband faster than ever."

"A foolish wish," cried Bryan. "Why, Mark, you are clean crazed!"

"It is the king who is crazed, not me! " cried Mark. "He would sacrifice
his rightful consort to his unlawful passion; and you, base hirelings,
support the tyrant in his wrongful conduct I"

"Saints protect us! " exclaimed Bryan. " Why, this is flat treason. Mark,
I can no longer uphold you."

"Not if you do not desire to share his prison, mine host," cried the Duke