After Mary’s refusal of Francis, and after he had learned that the sacrifice of Claude would not help him, he grew desperate, and determined to keep the English girl in his court at any price and by any means.  So he hit upon the scheme of marrying her to his weak-minded cousin, the Count of Savoy.  To that end he sent a hurried embassy to Henry VIII, offering, in case of the Savoy marriage, to pay back Mary’s dower of four hundred thousand crowns.  He offered to help Henry in the matter of the imperial crown in case of Maximilian’s death—­a help much greater than any King Louis could have given.  He also offered to confirm Henry in all his French possessions, and to relinquish all claims of his own thereto—­all as the price of one eighteen-year-old girl.  Do you wonder she had an exalted estimate of her own value?

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As to Henry, it, of course, need not be said, that half the price offered would have bought him to break an oath made upon the true cross itself.  The promise he had made to Mary, broken in intent before it was given, stood not for an instant in the way of the French king’s wishes; and Henry, with a promptitude begotten of greed, was as hasty in sending an embassy to accept the offer as Francis had been to make it.  It mattered not to him what new torture he put upon his sister; the price, I believe, was sufficient to have induced him to cut off her head with his own hands.

If Francis and Henry were quick in their movements, Mary was quicker.  Her plan was made in the twinkling of an eye.  Immediately upon seeing me at the palace she sent for Queen Claude, with whom she had become fast friends, and told her all she knew.  She did not know of the scheme for the Savoy marriage, though Queen Claude did, and fully explained it to Mary.  Naturally enough, Claude would be glad to get Mary as far away from France and her husband as possible, and was only too willing to lend a helping hand to our purpose, or Mary’s, rather, for she was the leader.

We quickly agreed among ourselves that Mary and Queen Claude should within an hour go out in Claude’s new coach for the ostensible purpose of hearing mass.  Brandon and I were to go to the same little chapel in which Jane and I had been married, where Mary said the little priest could administer the sacrament of marriage and perform the ceremony as well as if he were thrice as large.

I hurriedly found Brandon and repaired to the little chapel, where we waited for a very long time, we thought.  At last the two queens entered as if to make their devotions.  As soon as Brandon and Mary caught sight of each other, Queen Claude and I began to examine the shrines and decipher the Latin inscriptions.  If these two had not married soon they would have been the death of me.  I was compelled at length to remind them that time was very precious just at that juncture, whereupon Mary, who was half laughing, half crying, lifted her hands to her hair and let it fall in all its lustrous wealth down over her shoulders.  When Brandon saw this, he fell upon his knee and kissed the hem of her gown, and she, stooping over him, raised him to his feet and placed her hand in his.