Ah, as soon as it is the aim to calumniate a neighbor and plunge him in misery, men are all poets!" "But you just now said that poets are crack-brained, and should be hung to the first tree.

We will, therefore, treat these slanderers as poets, that is all." "No, that is not all!" said John Heywood, energetically.

"For slanderers are like earth-worms.

You cut them in pieces, but instead of thereby killing them, you multiply each one and give it several heads." "But what is it, then, that I am accused of ?" exclaimed Catharine, impatiently.

"Does not my life lie open and clear before you all?
Do I ever take pains to have any secrets?
Is not my heart like a glass house, into which you can all look, to convince yourselves that it is a soil wholly unfruitful, and that not a single poor little flower grows there ?" "Though this be so, your enemies will sow weeds and make the king believe that it is burning love which has grown up in your heart." "How! They will accuse me of having a love-affair ?" asked Catharine, and her lips slightly trembled.
"I do not know their plans yet; but I will find them out.