Summary

In “Mirror,” Cromwell is imprisoned in the same comfortable apartments where Anne Boleyn spent her final days. Christophe brings news from Austin Friars, where search parties are tearing Cromwell’s rooms apart. Call-Me, Christophe reports, was among them; Cromwell reflects that Gardiner must have threatened the young man with death.

Christophe has managed to destroy incriminating documents, including letters from Protestant thinkers and the “Book Called Henry.” He is enraged and vengeful, but Cromwell merely feels frightened, wondering, “is there an instance—he cannot think of one—where, having turned his face away, Henry turns it back?” (699). Cromwell calculates: will his enemies want him dead right away, or can he preserve himself by helping Henry to dissolve his marriage?

Rafe visits, and Cromwell embraces him, relieved that he and the other young men are safe. Rafe reports that the case against Cromwell is founded...