"And you have been to visit him." Frances denied nothing.

She was simply stunned by grief and benumbed by a sense of outrage put upon her by the king.

So after a moment of inimitable pantomime, she answered, speaking softly:-- "I fear a gentle madness has touched your Majesty's brain, else you would not so cruelly accuse me.

You have so many weighty affairs to trouble you and to prey on your mind that it is no wonder--" "Did you not set out this morning with the avowed purpose of going to your father's house ?" asked the king.
"Yes, your Majesty," she answered soothingly, almost pityingly.

"What then ?" "Did you go there ?" asked Charles.
"No, your Majesty." "Where did you go ?" "Am I a prisoner in Whitehall that I may not come and go at will ?" she asked indignantly, knowing well the maxim of battle that the best way to meet a charge is by a countercharge.