'I acknowledge thee to be my mother,' she said, 'that have married the King, my father. I pray you that you do take me by the hand and set me in that seat that you did raise for me. I pray you that you do style me a princess, royal again in this land. And I pray you to lesson me and teach me that which you would have me do as well as that which it befits me to do. Take me by the hand.' 'Nay, it is my lord that should do this,' the Queen whispered. Before that she had started to her feet; her face had a flush of joy; her eyes shone with her transparent faith. She brushed back a strand of hair from her brow; she folded her hands on her breasts and raised her glance upwards to seek the dwelling-place of Almighty God and the saints in their glorious array. 'It is my lord should do this!' she said again. 'Speak no more words,' the Lady Mary said. 'I have heard enow of thy pleadings. You have heard me say that.' She continued upon her knees. 'It is thou or none!' she said. 'It is thou or none shall witness this my humiliation and my pride. Take me by the hand. My patience will not last for ever.' The Queen set her hand between the girl's. She raised her to her feet. When the Lady Mary stood high and shadowy, in black, with her white face beneath that dais, she looked down upon the Queen. 'Now, hear me!' she said. 'In this I have been humble to you; but I have been most proud. For I have in my veins a greater blood than thine or the King's, my father's. For, inasmuch as Tudor blood is above Howard's, so my mother's, that was royal of Spain, is above Tudor's. And this it is to be royal---- 'I have had you, a Queen, kneel before me. It is royal to receive petitions--more royal still it is to grant them. And in this, further, I am more proud. For, hearing you say that you had prayed the King for Cromwell's life, I thought, this is a virtue-mad Queen. She shall most likely fall!--Prudence biddeth me not to be of her party. But shall I, who am royal, be prudent? Shall I, who am of the house of Aragon, be more afraid than thou, a Howard? 'I tell you--No! If you will be undone for the sake of virtue, blindly, and like a fool, unknowing the consequences, I, Mary of Aragon and England, will make alliance with thee, knowing that the alliance is dangerous. And, since it is more valiant to go to a doom knowingly than blindfold, so I do show myself more valiant than thou. For well I know--since I saw my mother die--that virtue is a thing profitless, and impracticable in this world. But you--you think it shall set up temporal monarchies and rule peoples. Therefore, what you do you do for profit. I do it for none.' 'Now, by the Mother of God,' Katharine Howard said, 'this is the gladdest day of my life.'