He laughed, and continued pensively: 'A very pretty treason might be made up of his speech before his armoury to Baumbach. Mark again how it went. Says he: "_Here are such weaponings as no king, nor prince, nor emperor hath in Christendom. And in this country of ours are twenty gentlemen, my friends, have armouries as great or greater._" Then he sighs heavily, and saith: "_But our King will never join with your Schmalkaldners. Yet I would give my head that he should._"... Your madamship marks that this was said to the ambassador from the Lutheran league?' 'You cannot twist that into a treason,' Katharine whispered. 'No doubt,' he said reasonably, 'such words from a minister to an envoy are but a courtesy, as one would say, "_I fain would help you, but my master wills it not._"' The voice suddenly grew crafty. 'But these words, spoken before an armoury and the matter of twenty gentlemen with armouries greater. Say that these twenty are creatures of my Lord Cromwell, _implicitur_, for the Lutheran cause. And again, the matter, "_No king hath such an armoury._"... _No_ king, I would have you observe.' 'Why, this is monstrous foolish pettifogging,' Katharine said. 'No king would believe a treason in such words.' 'I call to mind Gilmaw of Hurstleas, near our homes,' the voice came, reflectively. 'I did know him,' said Katharine. 'You had his head.' 'You never heard how Privy Seal did that,' the voice came back mockingly. 'Goodman Gilmaw had many sheep died of the rot because it rained seven weeks on end. So, coming back from a market-day, with too much ale for prudence and too little for silence, he cried, "_Curse on this rain! The weather was never good since knaves ruled about the King._" So that came to the ears of Privy Seal, who made a treason of it, and had his sheep, and his house, and his lands, and his head. He was but one in ten thousand that have gone the same road home from market and made speeches as treasonable.' 'Thus poor Gilmaw died?' Katharine asked. 'What a foul world this is!' 'Time it was cleansed,' he answered. He let his words rankle for a time, then he said softly: 'Privy Seal's words before his armoury were as treasonable as Gilmaw's on the market road.' Again he paused. 'Privy Seal may call thee to account for such a treason,' he said afterwards. 'He holdeth thee in a hollow of his hand.' She did not speak. He said softly: 'It is a folly to be too proud to fight the world with the world's weapons.' The heavy darkness seemed to thrill with her silence. He could tell neither whether she were pondering his words nor whether she still scorned him. He could not even hear her breathing. 'God help me!' he said at last, in an angry high note, 'I am not such a man as to be played with too long. People fear me.' She kept silence still, and his voice grew high and shrill: 'Madam Howard, I can bend you to my will. I have the power to make such a report of you as will hang you to-morrow.'