Текст книги "Katharine, The Virgin Widow"

Автор книги: Jean Plaidy

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Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

Francesca was the only member of the Infanta’s household who was not depressed by the way things were going; each day she contrived to slip away, and remained absent for several hours.

Fuensalida was making himself unpleasant to various members of the Infanta’s household. He had quarrelled with Puebla many times, and only the little man’s humility and desire to bring about a successful solution of the troublesome matter of the dowry made their association possible. His chief enemy in the household was Fray Diego Fernandez, who was Katharine’s confessor and whose position gave him especial influence over her. This friar seemed to Fuensalida an arrogant young man because he did not show sufficient respect to the ambassador, and he had threatened to write to Ferdinand to the effect that Fernandez was not only incompetent but dangerous, as the Infanta placed too much trust in him.

Katharine was desperate, realizing that when she needed as much support as she could get, her affairs were continually being obstructed by strife within her own circle.

One day Fernandez came to her in a state of great indignation. He had had a narrow escape, he told her. Fuensalida had made an attempt to have him arrested and shipped out of the country.

Katharine was angry, but there was nothing she could do. Puebla was confined to his bed and clearly was dying; now she reproached herself for not appreciating that little man before. It was only now that she could compare him with Fuensalida that she realized how admirable he had been. She could not ask her father to recall Fuensalida and send her another ambassador. The situation was too involved and, by the time a new man arrived, who could say what might have happened?

So she prayed constantly that her ill luck would change and that soon her affairs might be put in order.

* * *

WHAT JOY IT WAS to escape to the house of the Genoese banker! thought Francesca. How merry that man was, and how delighted that Francesca de Carceres should deign to visit him. It was true, of course, that she was of a most noble family and he was merely a banker; but how much more extravagantly he lived, and what great comfort he enjoyed!

She could not recall how many times she had been to his house, ostensibly to visit the ambassador, and how she arranged her visits to fall at those times when she knew Fuensalida would not be present.

She had meant to implore him to do something for Katharine’s maids of honor, who should have marriages arranged for them, but she had found no opportunity of speaking of this matter to the ambassador.

There was so much of interest to see in the house, and her banker delighted in showing her. She had only to admire something, and he implored her to accept it. He was surely the most generous man in the world!

So it was fun to slip on her cloak and hasten to his lodgings.

On this occasion he was waiting for her, and he seemed more serious; as it was unusual to see him serious, she wondered what had happened.

They took wine together with some of those excellent cakes which his cooks made especially for her, and as they sat together he said suddenly: “How strange that I should be Francesco, and you Francesca. It seems yet another link between us.”

“Yes,” she smiled, “it is certainly strange.”

Then he became even more serious and said: “How long can this continue?”

“You mean my visits? Oh, until the Court moves, or until I am discovered and forbidden to come.”

“That would stop you…if you were forbidden?”

“I might be tempted to disobey.”

He leaned towards her and took one of her hands. “Francesca,” he said, “would you consider becoming mistress of this house?”

She grew a little pale, realizing the enormity of what he was suggesting. She…marry him! But her marriage was one which would have to be approved by the Infanta, by the Queen of Castile or by Ferdinand, and by the King of England. Did he not understand that she was not a little seamstress or some such creature to make a match on the spur of the moment?

“The suggestion is repulsive to you?” he said wistfully.

“No…no!” She was emphatic. She was thinking of how dull her life had been before these visits; and how it would seem even more dull if she were forced to give them up. She went on: “Marriages are arranged for people in my position. I should never be allowed to marry you.”

“You have been neglected,” he argued. “To whom do you owe loyalty? As for myself, I am no subject of the King of England. If I wish to marry, I marry. If you decided you did not want to go back to the palace one day, I would have a priest here who should marry us. I would place all my possessions and myself at your service. I love you, Francesca. You are young, you are beautiful, you are of noble birth, but you are a prisoner; and the only one of these attributes which can remain to you is your noble birth. Francesca, do not allow them to bury you alive. Marry me. Have we not been happy together? I will make you happy for the rest of your life.”

Francesca rose. She was trembling.

She must go quickly. She must be alone to think. She was terrified that she would commit some indiscretion which would decide the whole of her future life.

“You are afraid now,” he said gently. “Make no mistake. It is not of me, Francesca, that you should be afraid. You would never be afraid of me. You are bold and adventurous. Not for you the palace prison. Come to me, Francesca, and I will make you free.”

“I must go,” she said.

He did not attempt to detain her.

“You will think of what I have said?” he asked.

“I cannot stop thinking of it,” she answered. Then he took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead tenderly. She knew that she was going to feel cheated if she did not see him again. Yet how could she?

Juana at Tordesillas

JUANA IN THE TOWN OF ARCOS KNEW NOTHING OF THE negotiations which had been going on to marry her to the King of England. She had settled in this most unhealthy climate, but she was quite unaware of the cold winds which penetrated the palace. Her little Catalina had become a lively little girl who seemed readily to accept the strangeness of her mother. Juana had also insisted that her son Ferdinand should be brought to live with her, and this wish had been granted. But little Ferdinand, who was nearly six years old, did not take kindly to his mother’s household. He did not like the coffin which was always prominently displayed; nor did he care to look on his dead father and to see his mother fondling the corpse.

Juana went about the palace dressed in rags, and she did not sit at table but ate her food from a plate on the floor like a cat or a dog. She never washed herself, and there were no women-servants in the house except the old washerwoman.

Music could sometimes be heard being played in the Queen’s apartment; otherwise there was almost continuous silence.

Young Ferdinand was very happy when his grandfather came to Arcos and took him away, although his mother screamed and shouted and had to be held by attendants while he rode away with his grandfather. Ferdinand loved his grandfather, who made much of him.

“We are both Ferdinands,” said the elder Ferdinand, and that delighted the boy, who decided that he would be exactly like his grandfather when he grew up.

Juana might have gone on in this state at Arcos but for the fact that revolt broke out in Andalusia, and it immediately occurred to Ferdinand that the rebels might plan to use her as a figurehead. He decided then that he was going to remove her to the isolated castle of Tordesillas, where it would be so much easier to keep her under restraint.

He came to the Palace of Arcos one day and went straight to those apartments where Juana was sitting, staring moodily at the coffin of her husband. Her hair, which had not been dressed for many months, hung about her haggard face; her face and hands were dirty, and her clothes hung in filthy rags about her gaunt figure.

Ferdinand looked at her in horror. There was indeed no need to pretend that she was mad.

Undoubtedly she must be removed to Tordesillas. He knew that there was a plot afoot to displace him and set up young Charles as King. As Charles was now nine, this arrangement would give certain ambitious men the power they needed; but Ferdinand was determined that the Regency should remain in his hands, and he would be uneasy until Juana was his prisoner in some place where he could keep her well guarded.

“My daughter,” he said as he approached her—he could not bring himself to touch her. As well touch a beggar or gipsy; they would probably be more wholesome—“I am anxious on your account.”

She did not look at him.

“Last time I was here,” he went on, “I did not please you. But you must realize that it is necessary for the people to see little Ferdinand; and what I did was for the best.”

Still she did not answer. It was true then that, although she had raged when he had taken her son, a few days later she had completely forgotten the boy. There was no real place in that deranged mind for anyone but the dead man in the coffin.

Ferdinand went on: “This place is most unhealthy. You cannot continue to live here in this…squalor. I must insist that you leave here. The castle of Tordesillas has been made ready to receive you. It is worthy of you. The climate is good. There you will recover your health.”

She came to life suddenly. “I shall not go. I shall stay here. You cannot make me go. I am the Queen.”

He answered quietly: “This place is surrounded by my soldiers. If you do not go of your own free will, I shall be obliged to force you to go. You must prepare to leave at once.”

“So you are making me a prisoner!” she said.

“The soldiers are here to guard you. All that is done is for your good.”

“You are trying to take him away from me,” she screamed.

“Take the coffin with you. There is no reason why you should not continue to mourn in Tordesillas, as you do in Arcos.”

She was silent for a while. Then she said: “I need time to prepare myself.”

“A day,” he said. “You can wash yourself, have your hair dressed, change into suitable clothes in a day.”

“I never travel by day.”

“Then travel by night.”

She sat still, nodding.

And the next night she left Arcos. She had been washed; her wild hair had been set into some order; she wore a gown suited to her rank; and, taking little Catalina in her litter, she set out with her followers; as usual, beside the Queen’s litter, so that it was never out of her sight, went the hearse drawn by four horses.

Through the nights she travelled and, as the third day was beginning to break, the party arrived at the old bridge across the Douro. There Juana paused to look at the castle which was so like a fortress. Immediately opposite this castle was the convent of Santa Clara, and in the cloisters of this convent she allowed the coffin to be placed. Then from the windows of her apartments she could look across to the coffin, and she spent the greater part of her days at her window watching over her dead. Each night she left the castle for the convent, where she embraced the corpse of Philip the Handsome.

So dragged on the long years of mourning, and each day she grew a little more strange, a little more remote from the world; only in one thing was she constant—her love for the handsome philanderer who had played such a large part in making her what she was.

King Henry VIII

KATHARINE HAD NOW LOST ALL HOPE. HER AFFAIRS WERE IN the direst disorder. Fuensalida had quarrelled openly with Henry, and when the ambassador had gone to Court he had been told that the King had no wish to see him.

Fuensalida, haughty, arrogant and tactless, had even tried to force an entry, with the result that he had suffered the extreme indignity of being seized by guards and put outside the Palace precincts.

Never had an ambassador been submitted to such shame, which clearly indicated that Henry had no respect for Ferdinand’s suggestions. Indeed Henry was boasting that he would marry Mary and Charles without the help of Spain.

Katharine was with her maids of honor when the news was brought to her of Puebla’s death. This, she had at last come to realize, was one of the greatest blows which could befall her, for now there was no one to work for her in England but the incompetent Fuensalida.

“This is the last blow,” she said. “I fear now that there is no hope.”

“But what will become of us?” asked Maria de Salinas.

“Doubtless we shall be sent back to Spain,” put in Maria de Rojas hopefully.

Katharine said nothing. She realized that to be sent back to Spain was the last thing she wanted. She would go back, humiliated, the unwanted Infanta, the widow who was yet a virgin. Had ever any Princess of Spain been so unfortunate as she was? There was only one dignified course left to her, and that was marriage with the Prince of Wales.

That was hopeless, for the King had shown so clearly that he would not allow the marriage to take place. Whenever she saw the Prince he had kindly smiles for her, which was comforting, for his importance grew daily, one might say hourly.

Katharine noticed that Francesca was not with them.

“Where is Francesca?” she asked.

“I have not seen her, Highness,” answered Maria de Salinas.

“Now that I recall it,” pursued Katharine, “she seems to absent herself often. What does she do when she is not with us?”

No one could answer that; which was strange because Francesca had been inclined to talk a great deal—often it seemed too much—of her personal affairs.

“I shall ask her when she returns,” said Katharine; and then they fell to discussing what would happen when Ferdinand learned that his ambassador had been refused admittance to the Palace.

Nothing would happen, thought Katharine wretchedly. Looking back over the years since Arthur’s death, she saw that her position had changed but little. She could go on living in penury and uncertainty for the rest of her days.

* * *

“HIGHNESS!” It was Maria de Rojas, and her voice was trembling with excitement.

Katharine had left her maids of honor an hour before because she wished to be alone; she had felt she could no longer endure their chatter, which alternated between the desire to raise her hopes by improbable changes of fortune and sighing for their native land.

She looked at Maria quickly, eager to know what had happened to change her mood.

“This has been delivered at the Palace. It is for you.”

Katharine took the letter which Maria was holding out to her. “It is in Francesca’s handwriting,” said Maria.

“Francesca!”

Katharine’s heart began to beat fast as she opened the letter, and she hastily scanned the words without taking them in the first time. Then she read it again. It was brief and to the point.

Francesca would never return. She had married Francesco Grimaldi, the banker from Genoa.

“It is…impossible!” breathed Katharine.

Maria was at her side; forgetting all ceremony, all discipline as she looked over Katharine’s shoulder and read the words which the newly married bride had written.

“Francesca…married! And to a banker! Oh, how could she? How could she! A banker! What will her family say? Highness, what will you do?”

“It must be some joke,” murmured Katharine.

But they both knew that it was no joke; Maria’s horror changed momentarily to envy. “At least she married,” she whispered; her lips quivered and there came to her eyes the frantic look of a prisoner who has heard of another’s escape, but sees no way out for herself.

“So this is where she has been,” went on Katharine. “It is the man with whom Fuensalida had his lodgings. How could she, a Carceres, so far forget the honor due to her rank as to marry a banker!”

Maria was speaking as though to herself: “Perhaps she fell in love with him. But it is more likely to be because he is very rich and we have been so poor. Francesca did not have an offer all the time we were here…perhaps she thought she never would have one.”

Katharine remembered her dignity. “Leave me now,” she said. “If she has left us we should make no effort to bring her back. She has chosen the way she wishes to go.”

“Your Highness will allow this?”

Katharine smiled bitterly. “You do not blame her, Maria. I can remember, when I came to England, how eager you all were to come with me. It seemed such a glorious future, did it not? But how differently it turned out! Francesca has escaped…that is all. As you would escape, Maria, if the opportunity offered itself. Go now. Break this news to the others. I’ll warrant they will share your envy of Francesca.”

Maria left her mistress and Katharine reread the letter. Francesca was happy, she said. She had married the man of her choice. There was excitement in every line. Francesca had escaped.

It seemed to Katharine in that moment that she touched the depth of hopelessness. Gay Francesca had risked the displeasure of kings and a powerful noble family to escape from the dreary existence which she had been forced to share with the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.

* * *

IT WAS THE month of April. The birch and willow were in flower; the stitchwort threw a silvery sheen on the green hedges; and the meadows were bright with deep yellow cowslips.

In the Palace of Richmond, Henry VII lay dying, and in the streets the people rejoiced furtively. The old reign was passing and the new one would soon begin. People forgot that their King had brought peace to England. To most he had seemed unkingly because he hated war—not because of the misery it brought, it was true, but because of the waste of good money and lives which could be used to make the country prosperous. He had never spent lavishly on pageants for the people’s pleasure, and there had only been rich ceremonies when there had been the need to impress other rulers with England’s powers.

To the people he was a miserly King, insignificant in appearance; he had imposed cruel taxes on his subjects; he had shown little affection even to his family. They forgot that from 1485, when he had come to the throne, to this year of 1509 the country had lived in peace, and in place of a bankrupt state he had built up a rich treasury. They did not tell themselves that this was the first King who had lived within his income, who had laid the foundations on which could be built a major Power. They said: “The old miser is dying. Old Henry is passing; this is the day of young Henry.” And when they thought of their laughing, golden Prince, they said: “Now England will be merry.”

The excitement throughout the Court was growing to a feverish pitch. Courtiers gathered in little groups waiting for the cry of “The King is dead.”

That young Henry should marry almost immediately was a matter on which all seemed to agree. Such a Prince needed a Queen. Who should it be?

There were many who favored alliance with France. Let it be Marguerite of Angoulême, they said. There were others who believed that alliance with the Hapsburgs would be more advantageous. Let it be Eleanor, the daughter of Juana and Philip. Was Eleanor too young for their golden Prince? Well then, Duke Albert of Bavaria had a daughter. Maximilian would be delighted to sponsor such a match.

There was no mention of Katharine of Aragon, who had gone through a betrothal ceremony with the Prince of Wales some years before.

When Fuensalida came to visit Katharine he was gloomy. He was shut out from the Palace; he was useless as an ally. He told her that he was making arrangements to have her plate and jewels secretly shipped back to Spain.

He could not have said more clearly: The game is over, and we have lost.

* * *

THE PRINCE OF WALES waited in his apartments. Soon he would hear the stampede. They would come to acclaim him as their King. They, no less than he, had been waiting for this day.

He would tower above them all; none could mistake him, with his great height and his crown of fiery hair; his big, beaming and benign countenance was known throughout the country.

His eyes narrowed as he thought of the years of restraint when he, the beloved of the people, had been forced to obey his father.

He was no longer a boy, being in his eighteenth year. Surely this was the threshold of glorious manhood. He could not be merely a man; he was a god. He had so much beauty, so much strength. There was none at Court who could compare with him; and now, as though not content with the gifts which had been showered on him, fate was putting the crown of yellow gold on that red-gold head.

From his window he could see the courtiers. They were whispering together…about him. Of course it was about him. The whole country was talking about him. They were saying he should marry soon, and marry soon he would, for he had a fancy for a wife.

Marguerite from France, who thought her brother the most wonderful man in the world? Little Eleanor who was but a child? They were daring to choose his bride for him!

He could scarcely wait for the moment when they would proclaim him King. One of his first acts would be to show them that he was their King in truth, and that, whether it was a bride or a matter of policy, it was the King who would decide.

They were coming now. So it was all over. The long-awaited moment was at hand.

He was ready for them as they came into the apartment. His eyes gleamed with appreciation, for he quickly sensed the new respect, the subtle difference in the way a King was greeted.

They were on their knees before him.

“Then it is so?” he said. “Alas, my father!”

But there was no time for sorrow. There was only triumph for the cry had gone up: “The King is dead. Long live the King! Long live King Henry VIII!”

* * *

KATHARINE HAD COME to pay homage with the rest, and kneeling before him, she looked appealing in her humility.

The young King turned to those who stood about him and said: “You may leave us. I have something to say to the Infanta which she must know before all others.”

When they were alone he said: “You may rise, Katharine.”

He was smiling at her with the expression of a boy who has prepared, for a friend, a wonderful surprise, in which he is going to find as much pleasure—or even more—than the one for whom it is intended.

“Doubtless,” he said, “you have heard of many plans afoot to marry me to Princesses of Europe.”

“I have, Your Grace.”

“And I venture to think they have caused you some disquiet.” Henry did not wait for confirmation of that which he considered to be obvious. “They need concern you no more. I have chosen my own bride. Do you think, Katharine, that I am the man to allow others to decide such a matter for me?”

“I did not think you would be, Your Grace.”

“Then you are right, Kate. I have chosen.” He took both her hands in his and kissed them. “You are to be my bride. You are to be Queen of England.”

“I…I…,” she stammered.

He beamed. No speech could have been more eloquent in his ears. She was overwhelmed by the honor; she was overcome with joy. He was delighted with her.

“I’ll brook no refusal!” This was a joke. How could any woman in her right senses refuse the most glorious offer that could possibly be made? “I have made up my mind. You shall be my bride!”

How handsome he was; his face creased in that happy, sunny smile. Yet behind it there remained the shadow of the sullen boy who had said: Nobody shall tell me what I must do. I make my own decisions.

For a brief moment Katharine asked herself what would have become of her if this boy had been told he must marry her instead of having been forbidden to.

Then she refused to consider such a thought.

Of what importance was what might have been, when she was being offered freedom from poverty and the humiliating position in which she had lived for so many years?

She knew the waiting was over. The neglected Infanta was about to become the most courted woman in England, the Queen, the bride of the most handsome, the most kingly ruler in Christendom.