The Miracle at St. Bruno's

"How unfortunate are the King's wives," I said.

"I do not think the lady who will soon become the fifth would agree with this.”

"Poor girl. She is very young, I hear.”

"Aye, and the King is eager for her.”

"Perhaps when he is married to her he will soften toward her and pardon Cromwell.”

"That man has too many enemies. His doom is certain. The King never had any affection for him.”

I shivered.

I shall never forget that July. The scent of roses filled the pond garden and the leaves were thick in the pleached alley. I used to carry the baby out to the seat in his wicker basket and sit him down at my feet while I stitched at some garment for him. Kate would join me. She was planning her next visit to Court.

"They say Katharine Howard is already the King's wife. I wonder how long she will last.”

"Poor girl," I murmured.

"At least she will be a Queen, if only for a short time. I have heard it said that in the Duchess of Norfolk's household she was a very merry little lady at one time.”

"The King would hardly wish for a somber one.”

"Rather free with her smiles and other favors.”

“‘Tis always better to smile than frown-something which you might remember.”

She laughed. "My mentor!" she murmured. "You always seem to know what is best for me. Why should you think that you are so much wiser than I?”

"Because I should be hard put to it to be less so.”

"Oh, so now we are clever! Go on, clever Damask. I will sit with my hands folded and listen to your sermons.”

We were silent for a while. There was no sound in the garden but the buzzing of the bees in the lavender.

Then she said: "How does it feel to die... to leave all this, I wonder.”

I looked at her in a startled fashion and she went on: "How did Queen Anne feel in her prison in the Tower, knowing that her end was near. It is four years since she died, Damask, and in the month of May, the beauteous month when all nature is reborn… and she died. And now that man, who was no friend of hers is also to die. She was brave. They say she walked most calmly to her death, that she was elegantly attired as always. She was scornful of her fate. That is how I would be. And think of the King, Damask. He heard the death gun booming from the Tower. 'The deed is done,’ so they tell me he said. 'Uncouple the hounds and away.' And to Wolf Hall he went where Jane Seymour was waiting. But she did not long enjoy her crown.”

"Poor soul," I said. "Yet she died in her bed and not on a bloody scaffold.”

"Perhaps it was better that she died thus than live to face a worse death.”

"Death is death," said Kate. "Wherever it is met. But not all die as Anne died. I can picture her lifting her head high as she walked and as calmly laying it down to receive the blow from the executioner's sword. How different is Cromwell. He begs for his life, they say. He has sworn all that the King asks him to swear. He declares the King confided to him on the wedding night... because that is what the King wishes. He begged for mercy.”

"And will it be granted?”

"Is the King ever merciful?”

"I wonder," I said.

We were interrupted in the garden by the arrival of a visitor. He came from Court and Kate went out to greet him. That day we dined in the great hall and Kate was animated and I thought that having a child had by no means impaired her beauty. Lord Remus could not take his eyes from her and I marveled at her power to win such devotion without making much effort to do so.

The talk was of the Court as Kate wished it to be.

The fall of Cromwell and the King's infatuation for Katharine Howard were the topics.

'My Lady of Cleves now passes her time most comfortably at Richmond Palace," our visitor told us. "Those who have seen her say that a great serenity has fallen upon her. She has many dresses and all of the latest fashion. She walks in the gardens and is most pleasant to all who approach her. The truth is that she has come through a trying ordeal. They say she was terrified when the King showed he would not have her and greatly feared that her head would roll in the dust as had that of Queen Anne Boleyn.”

"What a merciful escape.”

"It is not always judicious to cut off the heads of those who have powerful friends in Europe. Thomas Boleyn was an Englishman, and no powerful monarch. So Anne lost her head.”

"It is small wonder that my lady Anne revels in her freedom," I said. "I can understand how she feels now. Free... with no anxiety! Free to enjoy the King's mercy.”

"The King was merciful to Cromwell too" was the answer. "He gave him the ax in place of the gallows. As a lowborn man it should have been the gallows but the King was a little moved by his pleas for mercy and granted the block.”

"And now he is no more.”