"The king is a sublime idea, a mighty, world-embracing thought.

Whoever injures the king, has not injured a person, but a divinely instituted royalty--the universal thought that holds together the whole world!" "Whoever injures the king has injured God!" yelled the king; "and whoever seizes our crown and reviles us, shall have his hand struck off, and his tongue torn out, as is done to atheists and patricides!" "Well, strike off their hand then, mutilate them; but do not kill them!" cried Catharine, passionately.

"Ascertain at least whether their crime is so grievous as they want to make you believe, my husband.

Oh, it is so easy now to be accused as a traitor and atheist! All that is needed for it is an inconsiderate word, a doubt, not as to God, but to his priests and this Church which you, my king, have established; and of which the lofty and peculiar structure is to many so new and unusual that they ask themselves in doubt whether that is a Church of God or a palace of the king, and that they lose themselves in its labyrinthine passages, and wander about without being able to find the exit." "Had they faith," said Gardiner, solemnly, "they would not lose their way; and were God with them, the entrance would not be closed to them." "Oh, I well know that YOU are always inexorable!" cried Catharine, angrily.

"But it is not to you either that I intercede for mercy, but to the king; and I tell you, sir bishop, it would be better for you, and more worthy of a priest of Christian love, if you united your prayers with mine, instead of wanting to dispose the king's noble heart to severity.