It is not necessary to describe the character of “Old Tom” at length, for it stands out from the records so vividly that more than any of his contemporaries he seems a living man; we learn to know his out-spokenness, his grim humour, his high sense of honour at a time when the very meaning of honour was almost forgotten. It was a very cruel fate which placed him in an age when it was impossible to live according to his motto, “One God, One King, One Faith.” From the day on which Darcy rode north there was something stirring in the land far more serious than any court intrigue, or any wild scheme of the Emperor’s interference. To do the White Rose party justice they were less concerned with hopes of their own advancement than with anxiety for Katherine and Mary. On 6 Nov. 1535, Chapuys wrote to the Emperor: “The Marchioness of Exeter has sent to inform me that the King has lately said to some of his most confidential councillors that he would not longer remain in the trouble, fear and suspense he had so long endured on account of the Queen and the Princess, and that they should see at the coming Parliament, to get him released therefrom, swearing most obstinately that he would wait no longer. The Marchioness declares that this is as true as the Gospel, and begs me to inform your Majesty and pray you to have pity upon the ladies.”[96] A few days later he related the sequel: “The personage who informed me of what I wrote to your Majesty on the 6th about the Queen and Princess[97]—came yesterday to this city (London) in disguise to confirm what she had sent to me to say, and conjure me to warn your Majesty, and beg you most urgently to see a remedy. She added that the King, seeing some of those to whom he used this language shed tears, said that tears and wry faces were of no avail, because even if he lost his crown he would not forbear to carry his purpose into effect.”[98] It is evident that Henry had purposely alarmed and distressed some of Katherine’s friends by threats of an outrage which even he could scarcely have ventured to commit. Was the Marquis of Exeter himself one of the councillors who wept? Someone must have told the Marchioness about the King’s threats of getting rid of the Queen and Princess, either her husband or another of the confidential councillors. And she herself, if not her informant, was deliberately communicating the “secrets of the realm of England” to a foreign power. If the King knew this he was quite justified in regarding the Courtenays with suspicion and expelling the Marquis from the Council. The Marchioness acted treasonably, though she did only what any good woman would have done under the circumstances. But Henry could not be expected to see that. Katherine soon gave her friends no more care, for she died in January 1536. In the same month Henry’s long parliament met for its last session, that in which the Act for the Suppression of the Lesser Monasteries was to be passed.