Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/405

1537.] of the two crowns. Then there would have been no divorce of Catherine; for there would have been no object for a divorce. The declining years of Henry would have escaped the scandals which will envelop them for ever. Perhaps there would have been no breach with Rome, and no Reformation in the form which it in fact assumed. On the behaviour of such poor creatures as Margaret events of so mighty moment at times depend. Her own condition, as might have been expected, was become entirely deplorable. She was growing old; her pleasant vices had lost their charms. She was neglected by her son, despised by the Court, ill-treated by her husband. Methuen had valued in his intrigue only the influence which he gained by it. When the power departed from the queen-mother his interest in her departed also. He spent her money, he involved her in debt, and ventured during James's absence on coarse ill-usage. She had squandered in profligacy her opportunity of being of use to England. In her misfortune she remembered her birth, and cried out passionately for protection to her brother.

Provoked as Henry had been with her conduct, he would not leave her in distress. He made inquiry into the circumstances of which she complained; and, although the accounts of others scarcely tallied with her own, he sent Sir Ralph Sadler privately to Edinburgh to ascertain her real condition. Sadler assured himself