Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/486

466 he had thus warmly expressed his confidence, a letter was brought to him from Cranmer, revealing a story of profligacy necessary to be told, yet too hideous to dwell upon. I shall touch upon it but lightly, inasmuch as the entire body of evidence survives in its voluminous offensiveness, and leaves no room for the most charitable scepticism to raise questions or suggest uncertainties.

During the King's absence a gentleman named Lascelles came to the Archbishop and told him that his sister had been in the household of the Duchess of Norfolk, where the Queen had been brought up; that a short time previously he had advised her, on the plea of early acquaintance, to seek for a situation as maid of honour at the palace, and that she had replied that she would not take service under a mistress who, before her marriage, had disgraced herself. She was sorry to speak in such terms of the King's wife, but she mentioned the names of two gentlemen, one of them her cousin, Francis Derham, the other a person called Mannock, on the establishment of the Duchess, with whom her intimacy had been of the most unambiguous description. The Archbishop, perplexed and frightened, consulted the chancellor and Lord Hertford, the only members of the council remaining in London. They agreed that Lascelles's story must be communicated to the King before any other step should be taken; and