Part 20 (1/2)
”How are we to avoid it? Have no fear of that, my lord; I will show you.”
”Oh! but my dear princess; permit me; you do not seem to know your brother; you cannot in any way avoid this marriage. I believe he will imprison you and put you on bread and water to force your consent. I am sure you had better do willingly that which you will eventually be compelled to do anyway; and besides, there is another thought that has come to me; shall I speak plainly before Lady Jane Bolingbroke?”
”I have no secrets from her.”
”Very well; it is this: Louis is old and very feeble; he cannot live long, and it may be that you can, by a ready consent now, exact a promise from your brother to allow you your own choice in the event of a second marriage. You might in that way purchase what you could not bring about in any other way.”
”How do you know that I want to purchase aught in any way, Master Wolsey? I most certainly do not intend to do so by marrying France.”
”I do not know that you wish to purchase anything, but a woman's heart is not always under her full control, and it sometimes goes out to one very far beneath her in station, but the equal of any man on earth in grandeur of soul and n.o.bleness of nature. It might be that there is such a man whom any woman would be amply justified in purchasing at any sacrifice--doubly so if it were buying happiness for two.”
His meaning was too plain even to pretend to misunderstand, and Mary's eyes flashed at him, as her face broke into a dimpling smile in spite of her.
Wolsey thought he had won, and to clinch the victory said, in his forceful manner: ”Louis XII will not live a year; let me carry to the king your consent, and I guarantee you his promise as to a second marriage.”
In an instant Mary's eyes shot fire, and her face was like the blackest storm cloud.
”Carry this to the king: that I will see him and the whole kingdom sunk in h.e.l.l before I will marry Louis of France. That is my answer once and for all. Good even', Master Wolsey.” And she swept out of the room with head up and dilating nostrils, the very picture of defiance.
St. George! She must have looked superb. She was one of the few persons whom anger and disdain and the other pa.s.sions which we call ungentle seemed to illumine--they were so strong in her, and yet not violent. It seemed that every deep emotion but added to her beauty and brought it out, as the light within a church brings out the exquisite figuring on the windows.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
After Wolsey had gone, Jane said to Mary: ”Don't you think it would have been better had you sent a softer answer to your brother? I believe you could reach his heart even now if you were to make the effort. You have not tried in this matter as you did in the others.”
”Perhaps you are right, Jane. I will go to Henry.”
Mary waited until she knew the king was alone, and then went to him.
On entering the room, she said: ”Brother, I sent a hasty message to you by the Bishop of Lincoln this morning, and have come to ask your forgiveness.”
”Ah! little sister; I thought you would change your mind. Now you are a good girl.”
”Oh! do not misunderstand me; I asked your forgiveness for the message; as to the marriage, I came to tell you that it would kill me and that I could not bear it. Oh! brother, you are not a woman--you cannot know.” Henry flew into a pa.s.sion, and with oaths and curses ordered her to leave him unless she was ready to give her consent. She had but two courses to take, so she left with her heart full of hatred for the most brutal wretch who ever sat upon a throne--and that is making an extreme case. As she was going, she turned upon him like a fury, and exclaimed:
”Never, never! Do you hear? Never!”
Preparations went on for the marriage just as if Mary had given her solemn consent. The important work of providing the trousseau began at once, and the more important matter of securing the loan from the London merchants was pushed along rapidly. The good citizens might cling affectionately to their angels, double angels, crowns and pounds sterling, but the fear in which they held the king, and a little patting of the royal hand upon the plebeian head, worked the charm, and out came the yellow gold, never to be seen again, G.o.d wot. Under the stimulus of the royal smile they were ready to shout themselves hoa.r.s.e, and to eat and drink themselves red in the face in celebration of the wedding day. In short, they were ready to be tickled nearly to death for the honor of paying to a wretched old lecher a wagon-load of gold to accept, as a gracious gift, the most beautiful heart-broken girl in the world. That is, she would have been heart-broken had she not been inspired with courage. As it was, she wasted none of her energy in lamentations, but saved it all to fight with. Heavens! how she did fight! If a valiant defense ever deserved victory, it was in her case. When the queen went to her with silks and taffetas and fine cloths, to consult about the trousseau, although the theme was one which would interest almost any woman, she would have none of it, and when Catherine insisted upon her trying on a certain gown, she called her a blackamoor, tore the garment to pieces, and ordered her to leave the room.
Henry sent Wolsey to tell her that the 13th day of August had been fixed upon as the day of the marriage, de Longueville to act as the French king's proxy, and Wolsey was glad to come off with his life.
Matters were getting into a pretty tangle at the palace. Mary would not speak to the king, and poor Catherine was afraid to come within arm's length of her; Wolsey was glad to keep out of her way, and she flew at Buckingham with talons and beak upon first sight. As to the battle with Buckingham, it was short but decisive, and this was the way it came about: There had been a pa.s.sage between the duke and Brandon, in which the latter had tried to coax the former into a duel, the only way, of course, to settle the weighty matters between them.
Buckingham, however, had had a taste of Brandon's nimble sword play, and, bearing in mind Judson's fate, did not care for any more. They had met by accident, and Brandon, full of smiles and as polite as a Frenchman, greeted him.
”Doubtless my lord, having crossed swords twice with me, will do me the great honor to grant that privilege the third time, and will kindly tell me where my friend can wait upon a friend of his grace.”
”There is no need for us to meet over that little affair. You had the best of it, and if I am satisfied you should be. I was really in the wrong, but I did not know the princess had invited you to her ball.”
”Your lords.h.i.+p is pleased to evade,” returned Brandon. ”It is not the ball-room matter that I have to complain of; as you have rightly said, if you are satisfied, I certainly should be; but it is that your lords.h.i.+p, in the name of the king, instructed the keeper of Newgate prison to confine me in an underground cell, and prohibited communication with any of my friends. You so arranged it that my trial should be secret, both as to the day thereof and the event, in order that it should not be known to those who might be interested in my release. You promised the Lady Mary that you would procure my liberty, and thereby prevented her going to the king for that purpose, and afterwards told her that it had all been done, as promised, and that I had escaped to New Spain. It is because of this, my Lord Buckingham, that I now denounce you as a liar, a coward and a perjured knight, and demand of you such satisfaction as one man can give to another for mortal injury. If you refuse, I will kill you as I would a cut-throat the next time I meet you.”