He sent Margot Poins from the room, and stood in the firelight that threw his great shadow to shake upon the hangings, towering above Katharine Howard upon her knees. He was silent, as if he would threaten her, and his brooding eyes glowed and devoured her face. Here then, she thought, was the man from the other camp descending secretly upon her. He had no need to threaten, for she was of his side. He said that a Magister Udal had reported that she stood in need of Christian aid, and, speaking Latin with a heavy voice, he interrogated her as to her faith. The times were evil: many and various heresies stalked about the land: let her beware of trafficking with them. Kneeling still in the firelight, she answered that, so far as was lawful, she was a daughter of the Church. He muttered: 'Lawful!' and looked at her for a long time with brooding and fanatical eyes. 'I hear you have read many heathen books under a strange master.' She answered: 'Most Reverend, I am for the Old Faith in the old way.' 'A prudent tongue is also a Christian possession,' he muttered. 'Nay there is no one to hear in this room,' she said. He bent over her to raise her to her feet and holding before her eyes his missal, he indicated to her certain prayers that she should recite in order to prevent the fiend's coming to her again. Suddenly he commanded her to tell him how often she had conversed with the King's Highness. Gardiner was the bitterest of all whom Cromwell had to hate him. He had been of the King's Council, and a secretary before Cromwell had reached the Court, and, but for Cromwell, he might well have been the King's best minister. But Cromwell had even taken his secretaryship; and he was set upon having Privy Seal down all through those ten years. He had been bishop before any of these changes had been thought of, and by such Papists as Katharine Howard he was esteemed the most holy man in the land. She told him that she had seen the King but once for a little time. 'They told me it was many times,' he answered fiercely. 'Should I have come here merely to chatter with you?' There was something sinister and harsh even in the bluish tinge of his shaven jaws, and his agate-blue eyes were sombre, threatening and suspicious. She answered: 'But once,' and related the story very soberly. He threatened her with his finger. 'Have a care that you speak truth. Things will not always remain in this guise. I come to warn you that you speak the King with a loyal purpose. His Highness listens sometimes to the promptings of his women.' 'You might have saved your journey,' she answered. 'I could speak no otherwise if he loved me.' He gazed involuntarily round at the hangings as if he suspected a listener. 'Your Most Reverence does ill to doubt me,' Katharine said submissively. 'I am of a true house.'