goodness of his heart, he said pleasantly: "Let us not strive here
about dogmas, nor attempt to determine whether Luther or the pope is
most in the wrong. We stand here in the chamber of the young queen.
Let us, therefore, occupy ourselves a little with the destiny of
this young woman whom God has chosen for so brilliant a lot."

"Brilliant?" said Gardiner, shrugging his shoulders. "Let us first
wait for the termination of her career, and then decide whether it
has been brilliant. Many a queen before this has fancied that she
was resting on a couch of myrtles and roses, and has suddenly become
conscious that she was lying on a red-hot gridiron, which consumed
her."

"It is true," murmured Cranmer, with a slight shudder, "it is a
dangerous lot to be the king's consort. But just on that account let
us not make the perils of her position still greater, by adding to
them our own enmity and hate. Just on that account I beg you (and on
my part I pledge you my word for it) that, let the choice of the
queen be as it may, there may be no feeling of anger, and no desire
for revenge in consequence. My God, the poor women are such odd
beings, so unaccountable in their wishes and in their inclinations!"

"Ah! it seems you know the women very intimately," cried Gardiner,
with a malicious laugh. "Verily, were you not Archbishop of
Canterbury, and had not the king prohibited the marriage of
ecclesiastics as a very grave crime, one might suppose that you had
a wife yourself, and had gained from her a thorough knowledge of
female character."

Cranmer, somewhat embarrassed, turned away, and seemed to evade