'That when the Duke of Orleans his ambassadors come asking your hand in marriage, you do show them a pleasant and acquiescent countenance.' The sacredness of that dark place kept Mary from laughing aloud. 'That, too, you dare not ask in the light of day, Queen,' she said. 'Ask on!' 'That when the Emperor's ambassadors shall ask for your hand you shall profess yourself glad indeed.' 'Well, here is more shame, that I should be prayed to feign this gladness. I think the angels do laugh that hear you. Ask even more.' Katharine said patiently-- 'That, having in reward of these favours, been set again on high, having honours shown you and a Court appointed round you, you shall gladly play the part of a princess royal to these realms, never gibing, nor sneering upon this King your father, nor calling upon the memory of the wronged Queen your mother.' 'Queen,' the Lady Mary said, 'I had thought that even in the darkness you had not dared to ask me this.' 'I will ask it you again,' the Queen said, 'in your room where the light of the candles shines upon my face.' 'Why, you shall,' the Lady Mary said. 'Let us presently go there.' * * * * * They went down the dark and winding stair. At the foot the procession of the _coucher de la royne_ awaited them, first being two trumpeters in black and gold, then four pikemen with lanthorns, then the marshal of the Queen's household and five or seven lords, then the Queen's ladies, the Lady Rochford that slept with her, the Lady Cicely Rochford; the Queen's tiring-women, leaving a space between them for the Queen and the Lady Mary to walk in, then four young pages in scarlet and with the Queen's favours in their caps, and then the guard of the Queen's door, and four pikemen with torches whose light, falling from behind, illumined the path for the Queen's steps. The trumpeters blew four shrill blasts and then four with their fists in the trumpet mouths to muffle them. The brazen cries wound down the dark corridors, fathoms and fathoms down, to let men know that the Queen had done her prayers and was going to her bed. This great state was especially devised by the King to do honour to the new Queen that he loved better than any he had had. The purpose of it was to let all men know what she did that she might be the more imitated. But the Queen bade them guide her to the Lady Mary's door, and in the doorway she dismissed them all, save only her women and her door guard and pikemen who awaited her without, some on stools and some against the wall, ladies and men alike. The Lady Mary looked into the Queen's face very close and laughed at her when they were in the fair room and the light of the candles. 'Now you shall say your litany over again,' she sneered; 'I will sit me down and listen.' And in her chair at the table, with her face averted, she dug with little stabs into the covering rug the stiletto with which she was wont to mend her pens.