Katharine was allowed to remain undisturbed at Buckden, till Mary was removed from Beaulieu, when it was resolved to send her to Somersham, in the Isle of Ely, a place surrounded with deep water and marshes, the most unhealthy and pestilential spot in England. Katharine, knowing what awaited her there, refused to stir, and for six days, Henry’s commissioners remained with her, using persuasion and threats in vain. She shut herself up in her room, and told them through a hole in the wall, that if they would take her away they must break open the doors, and carry her off by force. This they dared not do, for fear of the people; and the Duke of Suffolk was obliged to depart with his mission entirely unfulfilled. To do him justice, it must be remarked that he was extremely loth to undertake it. “The Duke of Suffolk,” wrote Chapuys,[114] “as I am informed by his wife’s mother, confessed on the Sacrament, and wished some mischief might happen to him, to excuse himself from this journey. The King, at the solicitation of the Lady, whom he dares not contradict, has determined to place the Queen in the said house, either to get rid of her, or to make sure of her, as the house is strong; and besides, it is seven miles from another house, situated in a lake, which one cannot approach within six miles, except on one side; and the King and the Lady have agreed to seek all possible occasions to shut up the Queen within the said island, and failing all other pretexts to accuse her of being insane.”