Mary had as hard a game to play as ever fell to the lot of woman, but she was equal to the emergency if any woman ever was.  She did not give Henry the slightest hint that she knew anything of the Count of Savoy episode, but calmly assumed that of course her brother had meant literally what he said when he made the promise as to the second marriage.

The king soon asked:  “But what are you doing here?  They have hardly buried Louis as yet, have they?”

“I am sure I do not know,” answered Mary, “and I certainly care less.  I married him only during his life, and not for one moment afterwards, so I came away and left them to bury him or keep him, as they choose; I care not which.”

“But—­” began Henry, when Mary interrupted him, saying:  “I will tell you—­”

I had taken good care that Wolsey should be present at this interview; so we four, the king, Wolsey, Mary and myself, quietly stepped into a little alcove away from the others, and prepared to listen to Mary’s tale, which was told with all her dramatic eloquence and feminine persuasiveness.  She told of the ignoble insults of Francis, of his vile proposals—­insisted upon, almost to the point of force—­carefully concealing, however, the offer to divorce Claude and make her queen, which proposition might have had its attractions for Henry.  She told of her imprisonment in the palace des Tournelles, and of her deadly peril and many indignities, and the tale lost nothing in the telling.  Then she finished by throwing her arms around Henry’s neck in a passionate flood of tears and begging him to protect her—­to save her! save her! save her! his little sister.

It was all such perfect acting that for the time I forgot it was acting, and a great lump swelled up in my throat.  It was, however, only for the instant, and when Mary, whose face was hidden from all the others, on Henry’s breast, smiled slyly at me from the midst of her tears and sobs, I burst into a laugh that was like to have spoiled everything.  Henry turned quickly upon me, and I tried to cover it by pretending that I was sobbing.  Wolsey helped me out by putting a corner of his gown to his eyes, when Henry, seeing us all so affected, began to catch the fever and swell with indignation.  He put Mary away from him, and striding up and down the room exclaimed, in a voice that all could hear, “The dog! the dog! to treat my sister so.  My sister!  My father’s daughter!  My sister!  The first princess of England and queen of France for his mistress!  By every god that ever breathed, I’ll chastise this scurvy cur until he howls again.  I swear it by my crown, if it cost me my kingdom,” and so on until words failed him.  But see how he kept his oath, and see how he and Francis hobnobbed not long afterward at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

Henry came back to Mary and began to question her, when she repeated the story for him.  Then it was she told of my timely arrival, and how, in order to escape and protect herself from Francis, she had been compelled to marry Brandon and flee with us.