Enter a Gentleman.

Q. Kath. How now!

Gent.

An 't please your grace, the two

great cardinals

Wait in the presence.

Q. Kath.

Gent.

Q. Kath.

Would they speak with me?

They will'd me say so, madam.

Pray their graces

To come near. [exit Gent.] What can be their business

With me, a poor weak woman, fall'n from favour?

I do not like their coming. Now I think

I would be all, against the worst may hap

pen.

What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords?

Wol. May it please you, noble madam, to withdraw

Into your private chamber, we shall give you The full cause of our coming.

Q. Kath.

Speak it here; There's nothing I have done yet, o' my

conscience,

Deserves a corner: would all other women Could speak this with as free a soul as I do! My lords, I care not, so much I am happy Above a number, if my actions

Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw

'em,

Envy and base opinion set against 'em,
I know my life so even. If your business
Seek me out, and that way I am wife in,
Out with it boldly: truth loves open deal-
ing.

Wol. Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina serenissima,

Q. Kath. O, good my lord, no Latin;

I am not such a truant since my coming,
As not to know the language I have lived

in:

A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, suspicious;

Pray speak in English: here are some will thank you,

If you speak truth, for their poor mistress'

sake;

Believe me, she has had much wrong: lord

cardinal,

The willing'st sin I ever yet committed

May be absolved in English.

Wol.

Noble lady,

I am sorry my integrity should breed,
And service to his majesty and you,

So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant.

We come not by the way of accusation,
To taint that honour every good tongue

blesses,

Nor to betray you any way to sorrow-
You have too much, good lady-but to know
How you stand minded in the weighty dif-
ference

Between the king and you, and to deliver,
Like free and honest men, our just opinions
And comforts to your cause.

Сат,

Most honour'd madam,

My Lord of York, out of his noble nature, Zeal and obedience he still bore your grace, Forgetting, like a good man, your late

censure

Both of his truth and him, which was too

far,

Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace,

His service and his counsel.

Q. Kath.

[aside] To betray me.

My lords, I thank you both for your good

wills;

Ye speak like honest men; pray God, ye prove so!

But how to make ye suddenly an answer, In such a point of weight, so near mine honour,

More near my life, I fear, with my weak

wit,

And to such men of gravity and learning, In truth, I know not. I was set at work Among my maids, full little, God knows, looking

Either for such men or such business.

For her sake that I have been-for I feel

The last fit of my greatness-good your

graces,

Let me have time and counsel for my cause: Alas, I am a woman, friendless, hopeless! Wol. Madam, you wrong the king's love with these fears:

Your hopes and friends are infinite.

Q. Kath. In England But little for my profit : can you think, lords, That any Englishman dare give me counsel? Or be a known friend, 'gainst his highness' pleasure

Though he be grown so desperate to be honest

And live a subject? Nay, forsooth, my friends,

They that must weigh out my afflictions, They that my trust must grow to, live not here:

They are, as all my other comforts, far