"But I will tell you what I will drink. I will
drink the health of King Henry's lawful consort, Catherine of Arragon;
and I will add to it a wish that the Pope may forge her marriage chains
to her royal husband faster than ever."
"A foolish wish," cried Bryan. "Why, Mark, you are clean crazed!"
"It is the king who is crazed, not me! " cried Mark. "He would sacrifice
his rightful consort to his unlawful passion; and you, base hirelings,
support the tyrant in his wrongful conduct I"
"Saints protect us! " exclaimed Bryan. " Why, this is flat treason. Mark,
I can no longer uphold you."
"Not if you do not desire to share his prison, mine host," cried the Duke
of Shoreditch. "You have all heard him call the king a tyrant. Seize him,
my masters!"
"Let them lay hands upon me if they dare!" cried the butcher resolutely.
"I have felled an ox with a blow of my fist before this, and I promise you
I will show them no better treatment."
Awed by Mark's determined manner, the bystanders kept aloof.
"I command you, in the king's name, to seize him!" roared Shoreditch.
"If he offers resistance he will assuredly be hanged."
"No one shall touch me!" cried Mark fiercely.
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