Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/488

468 overwhelmed; some dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it with infamy. The council were assembled, and he attempted to address them. But it was long before he could speak; and his words, when they came at last, were choked with tears. After a brief and miserable consultation, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Sussex, the Lord Chancellor, and Cranmer were deputed to wait upon the Queen, and hear what she could say in her defence. The wretched lady at first attempted a denial; but from the questions which were put to her she discovered rapidly that too much was known; and after a fit of hysterics, and encouraged by promises of forgiveness, which Cranmer brought to her from the King on condition of a full confession, she acknowledged as much of her guilt as she saw that it was useless to disclaim. Foul as her behaviour had been before her marriage, Henry had as yet no reason to suppose that she had repeated her offences since she had been his Queen. Though she had disgraced herself as a woman, and had cruelly injured him as her husband, she had, as far as he knew, committed no crime against the State, and he allowed the Archbishop to quiet her alarms by a hope that her worst punishment would be the exposure of her shame.