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'Shalt be beaten. He strode across to the basting range and gripped a great ladle, his brown eyes glinting, and stood caressing his thin chin passionately. She folded her arms complacently. 'Husband, she said, 'it is well that wives be beaten when they have merited it. But, till I have, I have seven cooks and five knaves to bear my part. Udal's hand fell suddenly and dispiritedly to his side.
The doctor, his hard blue eyes spinning with sardonic humour beneath his black beretta, said that his mission, even as Udal's had been, was to gain some crowns by setting into the learned language letters that should pass between his ambassador and the King's men of France. Udal grinned disconcertedly. 'Be certified in your mind, he said, 'that I am not here a spy or informer of Privy Seal's.
In the broader space before the arch of Udal's courtyard they stayed to wait for the horsemen to disentangle themselves from the alley; the Englishmen looked glumly at the tall housefronts; the French loosened the mouthplates of their helmets to breathe the air for a minute.
'Then unpouch quickly thy Cleves papers, he said; 'we have but a little time to turn them round. Udal's thin hand sought nervously the opening of his jerkin beneath his gown: he drew it back, moved it forward again, and stood quivering with doubt. Throckmorton stood vaingloriously back upon his feet and combed his great beard with his white fingers.
From behind Udal's back came a crash, and he started back to see the large woman, who had overturned a chest. 'That is to test how he sleeps, she said. 'See if he have moved. The man, plain to see through the knot-hole, had stirred no muscle; again the heavy rumble of the snore came to them. She spoke quite loudly now. 'Why, naught shall wake him these five hours.
Udal's hands were in at the hole with the swift clutch of a miser visiting his treasure-chest. The woman surveyed him with pleasure and with pride in her achievement, and with the calmness of routine she fitted a bar across the door of the cupboard where it opened into the envoy's room. Udal was fumbling already with the strings of a packet, his eyes searching the superscription in the gloom.
Being about the court, he had for Udal's learning and office a reverence that neither the printer nor his grandfather could share. He unfastened his grey cloak at the neck and cast it into a corner after his hat. His figure flashed out, lithe, young, a blaze of scarlet with a crowned rose embroidered upon a chest rendered enormous by much wadding.
'Shame it were before Apollo and Priapus that men's missions should come before kings' mistresses. 'It is true, then, that she shall be queen? Udal's wife asked. The fall of a great dish in the rear of the tall kitchen gave the scholar time to collect his suspicions for he took it for an easy thing that this woman, if she were Udal's leman, might be, she too, a spy in the service of Privy Seal.
Udal's arms flew above his head; his eyes started from their sockets; his tongue came forth from his pale mouth to lick his dry lips, and his legs failed him so that he sat himself down, wavering from side to side in the window-seat. 'Then the commentary of Plautus shall never be written, he wailed. He wrung his hands. 'Whom have they taken else? he said.
To-night I walk for the first time after five days since he did beat me. And I ask you whom you shall here find the better servant? His thin figure was suddenly shaking with rage. 'Why, this is conspiracy! Katharine cried. 'A conspiracy! Udal's voice rose up into a shriek.
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