I was afraid to tread this gloomy and dangerous path alone; I needed a strong manly arm to lean upon; and so John Heywood lent me his." "And you were really with Anne Askew," interposed the king, thoughtfully--"with that hardened sinner, who despised mercy, and in the stubbornness of her soul would not be a partaker of the pardon that I offered her ?" "My lord and husband," said the queen, with tears in her eyes, "she whom you have just accused stands even now before the throne of the Lord, and has received from her God the forgiveness of her sins! Therefore, do you likewise pardon her; and may the flames of the stake, to which yesterday the noble virgin body of this girl was bound, have consumed also the wrath and hatred which had been kindled in your heart against her! Anne Askew passed away like a saint; for she forgave all her enemies and blessed her tormentors." "Anne Askew was a damnable sinner, who dared resist the command of her lord and king!" interrupted Bishop Gardiner, looking daggers at her.
"And dare you maintain, my lord, that you at that time fulfilled the commands of your royal master simply and exactly ?" asked Catharine.

"Did you keep within them with respect to Anne Askew?
No! I say; for the king had not ordered you to torture her; he had not bidden you to lacerate in blasphemous wrath a noble human form, and distort that likeness of God into a horrible caricature.

And that, my lord, you did! Before God and your king, I accuse you of it--I, the queen! For you know, my lord and husband, I was there when Anne Askew was racked.

I saw her agony, and John Heywood saw it with me." The eyes of all were now directed inquiringly to the king, of whose ferocity and choler every one expected a violent outbreak.
But this time they were mistaken.

The king was so well satisfied to find his consort clear of the crime laid to her charge, that he willingly forgave her for having committed a crime of less weighty character.
Besides, it filled him with respect to see his consort confronting her accusers so boldly and proudly; and he felt toward them just as burning wrath and hatred as he had before harbored against the queen.