Mankind cannot be governed by mercy, but only through fear.

Your majesty holds the sword in his hands.

If you hesitate to let it fall on evil-doers, they will soon wrest it from your hands, and you will be powerless!" "Those are very cruel words, your highness!" exclaimed Catharine, who allowed herself to be carried away by her magnanimous heart, and suspected that Gardiner had come to move the king to some harsh and bloody decision.
She wanted to anticipate his design; she wanted to move the king to mildness.

But the moment was unpropitious for her.
The king, whom she had just before irritated by her victory over him, felt his vexation heightened by the opposition which she offered to the bishop; for this opposition was at the same time directed against himself.

The king was not at all inclined to exercise mercy; it was, therefore, a very wicked notion of the queen's to praise mercy as the highest privilege of princes.
With a silent nod of the head, he took the papers from Gardiner's hands, and opened them.
"Ah," said he, running over the pages, "your highness is right; men do not deserve to be treated with mercy, for they are always ready to abuse it.