autrenecherche:

You must go back to the New Troy, the New Jerusalem, and the sins and crimes of the kings who rode under the tattered banners of Arthur and who married women who came out of the sea or hatched out of eggs, women with scales and fins and feathers; besides which, he says, the match with Anne looks less unusual. These are old stories, he says, but some people, let us remember, do believe them. 

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Some of the candles have gone out; Wolsey does not call for more lights. “So you see,” he says, “King Edward’s advisers were planning to marry him to a French princess. As I…as I have intended. And look what happened instead. Look how he chose.” [ x ]