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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Henry VIII And His Court, by Louise Muhlbach
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Henry VIII And His Court
+
+Author: Louise Muhlbach
+
+Translator: H. N. Pierce
+
+Posting Date: February 1, 2009 [EBook #3476]
+Release Date: October, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRY VIII AND HIS COURT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks, Ralph Zimmermann and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HENRY VIII AND HIS COURT
+
+A HISTORICAL NOVEL
+
+By Louise Muhlbach
+
+
+Translated From German, by H. N. Pierce
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. CHOOSING A CONFESSOR.
+
+
+It was in the year 1543. King Henry the Eighth of England that day
+once more pronounced himself the happiest and most enviable man in his
+kingdom, for to-day he was once more a bridegroom, and Catharine Parr,
+the youthful widow of Baron Latimer, had the perilous happiness of being
+selected as the king's sixth consort.
+
+Merrily chimed the bells of all the steeples of London, announcing to
+the people the commencement of that holy ceremony which sacredly bound
+Catharine Parr to the king as his sixth wife. The people, ever fond of
+novelty and show, crowded through the streets toward the royal palace to
+catch a sight of Catharine, when she appeared at her husband's side upon
+the balcony, to show herself to the English people as their queen, and
+to receive their homage in return.
+
+Surely it was a proud and lofty success for the widow of a petty baron
+to become the lawful wife of the King of England, and to wear upon her
+brow a royal crown! But yet Catharine Parr's heart was moved with a
+strange fear, her cheeks were pale and cold, and before the altar her
+closely compressed lips scarcely had the power to part, and pronounce
+the binding "I will."
+
+At last the sacred ceremony was completed. The two spiritual
+dignitaries, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and Cranmer, archbishop
+of Canterbury, then, in accordance with court etiquette, led the young
+bride into her apartments, in order to bless them, and once more to pray
+with her, before the worldly festivities should begin.
+
+Catharine, however, pale and agitated, had yet sustained her part in the
+various ceremonies of the day with a true queenly bearing and dignity;
+and, as now with head proudly erect and firm step, she walked with a
+bishop at either side through the splendid apartments, no one suspected
+how heavy a burden weighed upon her heart, and what baleful voices were
+whispering in her breast.
+
+Followed by her new court, she had traversed with her companions the
+state apartments, and now reached the inner rooms. Here, according to
+the etiquette of the time, she must dismiss her court, and only the two
+bishops and her ladies of honor were permitted to accompany the queen
+into the drawing-room. But farther than this chamber even the bishops
+themselves might not follow her. The king himself had written down
+the order for the day, and he who swerved from this order in the most
+insignificant point would have been proclaimed guilty of high treason,
+and perhaps have been led out to death.
+
+Catharine, therefore, turned with a languid smile to the two high
+ecclesiastics, and requested them to await here her summons. Then
+beckoning to her ladies of honor, she withdrew into her boudoir.
+
+The two bishops remained by themselves in the drawing-room. The
+circumstance of their being alone seemed to impress them both alike and
+unpleasantly; for a dark scowl gathered on the brows of both, and they
+withdrew, as if at a concerted signal, to the opposite sides of the
+spacious apartment.
+
+A long pause ensued. Nothing was heard save the regular ticking of a
+large clock of rare workmanship which stood over the fireplace, and from
+the street afar off, the rejoicing of the people, who surged toward the
+palace like a roaring sea.
+
+Gardiner had stepped to the window, and was looking up with his peculiar
+dark smile at the clouds which, driven by the tempest, were sweeping
+across the heavens.
+
+Cranmer stood by the wall on the opposite side, and sunk in sad
+thoughts, was contemplating a large portrait of Henry the Eighth,
+the masterly production of Holbein. As he gazed on that countenance,
+indicative at once of so much dignity and so much ferocity; as he
+contemplated those eyes which shone with such gloomy severity, those
+lips on which was a smile at once voluptuous and fierce, there came over
+him a feeling of deep sympathy with the young woman whom he had that
+day devoted to such splendid misery. He reflected that he had, in like
+manner, already conducted two wives of the king to the marriage altar,
+and had blessed their union. But he reflected, too, that he had also,
+afterward, attended both these queens when they ascended the scaffold.
+
+How easily might this pitiable young wife of the king fall a victim to
+the same dark fate! How easily might Catharine Parr, like Anne Boleyn
+and Catharine Howard, purchase her short-lived glory with an ignominious
+death! At any time an inconsiderate word, a look, a smile, might be her
+ruin. For the king's choler and jealousy were incalculable, and, to his
+cruelty, no punishment seemed too severe for those by whom he fancied
+himself injured.
+
+Such were the thoughts which occupied Bishop Cranmer. They softened him,
+and caused the dark wrinkles to disappear from his brow.
+
+He now smiled to himself at the ill-humor which he had felt shortly
+before, and upbraided himself for having been so little mindful of his
+holy calling, and for having exhibited so little readiness to meet his
+enemy in a conciliating spirit.
+
+For Gardiner was his enemy; that Cranmer very well knew. Gardiner had
+often enough showed him this by his deeds, as he had also taken pains by
+his words to assure him of his friendship.
+
+But even if Gardiner hated him, it did not therefore follow that Cranmer
+was obliged to return that hatred; that he should denominate him his
+enemy, whom he, in virtue of their mutual high calling, was bound to
+honor and love as his brother.
+
+The noble Cranmer was, therefore, ashamed of his momentary ill-humor.
+A gentle smile lighted up his peaceful countenance. With an air at once
+dignified and friendly, he crossed the room and approached the Bishop of
+Winchester.
+
+Lord Gardiner turned toward him with morose looks, and, without
+advancing from the embrasure of the window in which he was standing,
+waited for Cranmer to advance to him. As he looked into that noble,
+smiling countenance, he had a feeling as if he must raise his fist and
+dash it into the face of this man, who had the boldness to wish to be
+his equal, and to contend with him for fame and honor.
+
+But he reflected in good time that Cranmer was still the king's
+favorite, and therefore he must proceed to work against him with great
+caution.
+
+So he forced these fierce thoughts back into his heart, and let his face
+again assume its wonted grave and impenetrable expression.
+
+Cranmer now stood close before him, and his bright, beaming eye was
+fixed upon Gardiner's sullen countenance.
+
+"I come to your highness," said Cranmer, in his gentle, pleasant voice,
+"to say to you that I wish with my whole heart the queen may choose you
+for her confessor and spiritual director, and to assure you that, should
+this be the case, there will not be in my soul, on that account, the
+least rancor, or the slightest dissatisfaction. I shall fully comprehend
+it, if her majesty chooses the distinguished and eminent Bishop of
+Winchester as her confessor, and the esteem and admiration which I
+entertain for you can only be enhanced thereby. In confirmation of this,
+permit me to offer you my hand." He presented his hand to Gardiner, who,
+however, took it reluctantly and but for a moment.
+
+"Your highness is very noble, and at the same time a very subtle
+diplomatist, for you only wish in an adroit and ingenious way to give
+me to understand how I am to act should the queen choose you for her
+spiritual director. But that she will do so, you know as well as I. It
+is, therefore, for me only a humiliation which etiquette imposes when
+she compels me to stand here and wait to see whether I shall be chosen,
+or contemptuously thrust aside."
+
+"Why will you look at matters in so unfriendly a light?" said Cranmer,
+gently. "Wherefore will you consider it a mark of contempt, if you are
+not chosen to an office to which, indeed, neither merit nor worthiness
+can call us, but only the personal confidence of a young woman?"
+
+"Oh! you admit that I shall not be chosen?" cried Gardiner, with a
+malicious smile.
+
+"I have already told you that I am wholly uninformed as to the queen's
+wish, and I think it is known that the Bishop of Canterbury is wont to
+speak the truth."
+
+"Certainly that is known, but it is known also that Catharine Parr was
+a warm admirer of the Bishop of Canterbury; and now that she has
+gained her end and become queen, she will make it her duty to show her
+gratitude to him."
+
+"You would by that insinuate that I have made her queen. But I assure
+your highness, that here also, as in so many other matters which relate
+to myself, you are falsely informed."
+
+"Possibly!" said Gardiner, coldly. "At any rate, it is certain that the
+young queen is an ardent advocate of the abominable new doctrine which,
+like the plague, has spread itself from Germany over all Europe and
+scattered mischief and ruin through all Christendom. Yes, Catharine
+Parr, the present queen, leans to that heretic against whom the Holy
+Father at Rome has hurled his crushing anathema. She is an adherent of
+the Reformation."
+
+"You forget," said Cranmer, with an arch smile, "that this anathema was
+hurled against the head of our king also, and that it has shown itself
+equally ineffectual against Henry the Eighth as against Luther. Besides,
+I might remind you that we no longer call the Pope of Rome, 'Holy
+Father,' and that you yourself have recognized the king as the head of
+our church."
+
+Gardiner turned away his face in order to conceal the vexation and rage
+which distorted his features. He felt that he had gone too far, that he
+had betrayed too much of the secret thoughts of his soul. But he could
+not always control his violent and passionate nature; and however much
+a man of the world and diplomatist he might be, still there were moments
+when the fanatical priest got the better of the man of the world, and
+the diplomat was forced to give way to the minister of the church.
+
+Cranmer pitied Gardiner's confusion, and, following the native goodness
+of his heart, he said pleasantly: "Let us not strive here about dogmas,
+nor attempt to determine whether Luther or the pope is most in the
+wrong. We stand here in the chamber of the young queen. Let us,
+therefore, occupy ourselves a little with the destiny of this young
+woman whom God has chosen for so brilliant a lot."
+
+"Brilliant?" said Gardiner, shrugging his shoulders. "Let us first wait
+for the termination of her career, and then decide whether it has been
+brilliant. Many a queen before this has fancied that she was resting on
+a couch of myrtles and roses, and has suddenly become conscious that she
+was lying on a red-hot gridiron, which consumed her."
+
+"It is true," murmured Cranmer, with a slight shudder, "it is a
+dangerous lot to be the king's consort. But just on that account let us
+not make the perils of her position still greater, by adding to them our
+own enmity and hate. Just on that account I beg you (and on my part I
+pledge you my word for it) that, let the choice of the queen be as it
+may, there may be no feeling of anger, and no desire for revenge
+in consequence. My God, the poor women are such odd beings, so
+unaccountable in their wishes and in their inclinations!"
+
+"Ah! it seems you know the women very intimately," cried Gardiner, with
+a malicious laugh. "Verily, were you not Archbishop of Canterbury, and
+had not the king prohibited the marriage of ecclesiastics as a very
+grave crime, one might suppose that you had a wife yourself, and had
+gained from her a thorough knowledge of female character."
+
+Cranmer, somewhat embarrassed, turned away, and seemed to evade
+Gardiner's piercing look. "We are not speaking of myself," said he at
+length, "but of the young queen, and I entreat for her your good wishes.
+I have seen her to-day almost for the first time, and have never spoken
+with her, but her countenance has touchingly impressed me, and it
+appeared to me, her looks besought us to remain at her side, ready to
+help her on this difficult pathway, which five wives have already trod
+before her, and in which they found only misery and tears, disgrace, and
+blood."
+
+"Let Catharine beware then that she does not forsake the right way,
+as her five predecessors have done!" exclaimed Gardiner. "May she be
+prudent and cautious, and may she be enlightened by God, that she may
+hold the true faith, and have true wisdom, and not allow herself to be
+seduced into the crooked path of the godless and heretical, but remain
+faithful and steadfast with those of the true faith!"
+
+"Who can say who are of the true faith?" murmured Cranmer, sadly. "There
+are so many paths leading to heaven, who knows which is the right one?"
+
+"That which we tread!" cried Gardiner, with all the overweening pride
+of a minister of the church. "Woe to the queen should she take any other
+road! Woe to her if she lends her ear to the false doctrines which
+come ringing over here from Germany and Switzerland, and in the worldly
+prudence of her heart imagines that she can rest secure! I will be her
+most faithful and zealous servant, if she is with me; I will be her most
+implacable enemy if she is against me."
+
+"And will you call it being against you, if the queen does not choose
+you for her confessor?"
+
+"Will you ask me to call it, being for me?"
+
+"Now God grant that she may choose you!" exclaimed Cranmer, fervently,
+as he clasped his hands and raised his eyes to heaven. "Poor,
+unfortunate queen! The first proof of thy husband's love may be thy
+first misfortune! Why gave he thee the liberty of choosing thine own
+spiritual director? Why did he not choose for thee?"
+
+And Cranmer dropped his head upon his breast, and sighed deeply.
+
+At this instant the door of the royal chamber opened, and Lady Jane,
+daughter of Earl Douglas, and first maid of honor to the queen, made
+her appearance on the threshold. Both bishops regarded her in breathless
+silence. It was a serious, a solemn moment, the deep importance of which
+was very well comprehended by all three.
+
+"Her majesty the queen," said Lady Jane, in an agitated voice, "her
+majesty requests the presence of Lord Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury,
+in her cabinet, in order that she may perform her devotions with him."
+
+"Poor queen!" murmured Cranmer, as he crossed the room to go to
+Catharine--"poor queen! she has just made an implacable enemy."
+
+Lady Jane waited till Cranmer had disappeared through the door, then
+hastened with eager steps to the bishop of Winchester, and dropping on
+her knee, humbly said, "Grace, your highness, grace! My words were in
+vain, and were not able to shake her resolution."
+
+Gardiner raised up the kneeling maiden, and forced a smile. "It is
+well," said he, "I doubt not of your zeal. You are a true handmaid of
+the church, and she will love and reward you for it as a mother! It is
+then decided. The queen is--"
+
+"Is a heretic," whispered Lady Jane. "Woe to her!"
+
+"And will you be true, and will you faithfully adhere to us?"
+
+"True, in every thought of my being, and every drop of my heart's
+blood."
+
+"So shall we overcome Catharine Parr, as we overcame Catharine Howard.
+To the block with the heretic! We found means of bringing Catharine
+Howard to the scaffold; you, Lady Jane, must find the means of leading
+Catharine Parr the same way."
+
+"I will find them," said Lady Jane, quietly. "She loves and trusts me. I
+will betray her friendship in order to remain true to my religion."
+
+"Catharine Parr then is lost," said Gardiner, aloud.
+
+"Yes, she is lost," responded Earl Douglas, who had just entered, and
+caught the last words of the bishop. "Yes, she is lost, for we are
+her inexorable and ever-vigilant enemies. But I deem it not altogether
+prudent to utter words like these in the queen's drawing-room. Let us
+therefore choose a more favorable hour. Besides, your highness, you must
+betake yourself to the grand reception-hall, where the whole court
+is already assembled, and now only awaits the king to go in formal
+procession for the young queen, and conduct her to the balcony. Let us
+go, then."
+
+Gardiner nodded in silence, and betook himself to the reception-hall.
+
+Earl Douglas with his daughter followed him. "Catharine Parr is lost,"
+whispered he in Lady Jane's ear. "Catharine Parr is lost, and you shall
+be the king's seventh wife."
+
+Whilst this was passing in the drawing-room, the young queen was on her
+knees before Cranmer, and with him sending up to God fervent prayers for
+prosperity and peace. Tears filled her eyes, and her heart trembled as
+if before some approaching calamity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE QUEEN AND HER FRIEND
+
+
+At last this long day of ceremonies and festivities drew near its close,
+and Catharine might soon hope to be, for the time, relieved from this
+endless presenting and smiling, from this ever-renewed homage.
+
+At her husband's side she had shown herself on the balcony to receive
+the greetings of the people, and to bow her thanks. Then in the spacious
+audience-chamber her newly appointed court had passed before her in
+formal procession, and she had exchanged a few meaningless, friendly
+words with each of these lords and ladies. Afterward she had, at her
+husband's side, given audience to the deputations from the city and from
+Parliament. But it was only with a secret shudder that she had received
+from their lips the same congratulations and praises with which the
+authorities had already greeted five other wives of the king.
+
+Still she had been able to smile and seem happy, for she well knew that
+the king's eye was never off of her, and that all these lords and ladies
+who now met her with such deference, and with homage apparently so
+sincere, were yet, in truth, all her bitter enemies. For by her marriage
+she had destroyed so many hopes, she had pushed aside so many who
+believed themselves better fitted to assume the lofty position of queen!
+She knew that these victims of disappointment would never forgive her
+this; that she, who was but yesterday their equal, had to-day soared
+above them as queen and mistress; she knew that all these were watching
+with spying eyes her every word and action, in order, it might be, to
+forge therefrom an accusation or a death-warrant.
+
+But nevertheless she smiled! She smiled, though she felt that the choler
+of the king, so easily kindled and so cruelly vindictive, ever swung
+over her head like the sword of Damocles.
+
+She smiled, so that this sword might not fall upon her.
+
+At length all these presentations, this homage and rejoicing were well
+over, and they came to the more agreeable and satisfactory part of the
+feast.
+
+They went to dinner. That was Catharine's first moment of respite,
+of rest. For when Henry the Eighth seated himself at table, he was
+no longer the haughty monarch and the jealous husband, but merely the
+proficient artiste and the impassioned gourmand; and whether the pastry
+was well seasoned, and the pheasant of good flavor, was for him then a
+far more important question than any concerning the weal of his people,
+and the prosperity of his kingdom.
+
+But after dinner came another respite, a new enjoyment, and this time a
+more real one, which indeed for a while banished all gloomy forebodings
+and melancholy fears from Catharine's heart, and suffused her
+countenance with the rosy radiance of cheerfulness and happy smiles.
+For King Henry had prepared for his young wife a peculiar and altogether
+novel surprise. He had caused to be erected in the palace of Whitehall
+a stage, whereon was represented, by the nobles of the court, a comedy
+from Plautus. Heretofore there had been no other theatrical exhibitions
+than those which the people performed on the high festivals of the
+church, the morality and the mystery plays. King Henry the Eighth was
+the first who had a stage erected for worldly amusement likewise, and
+caused to be represented on it subjects other than mere dramatized
+church history. As he freed the church from its spiritual head, the
+pope, so he wished to free the stage from the church, and to behold
+upon it other more lively spectacles than the roasting of saints and the
+massacre of inspired nuns.
+
+And why, too, represent such mock tragedies on the stage, when the king
+was daily performing them in reality? The burning of Christian martyrs
+and inspired virgins was, under the reign of the Christian king Henry,
+such a usual and every-day occurrence, that it could afford a piquant
+entertainment neither to the court nor to himself.
+
+But the representation of a Roman comedy, that, however, was a new and
+piquant pleasure, a surprise for the young queen. He had the "Curculio"
+played before his wife, and if Catharine indeed could listen to the
+licentious and shameless jests of the popular Roman poet only with
+bashful blushes, Henry was so much the more delighted by it, and
+accompanied the obscenest allusions and the most indecent jests with his
+uproarious laughter and loud shouts of applause.
+
+At length this festivity was also over with, and Catharine was now
+permitted to retire with her attendants to her private apartments.
+
+With a pleasant smile, she dismissed her cavaliers, and bade her women
+and her second maid of honor, Anna Askew, go into her boudoir and await
+her call. Then she gave her arm to her friend Lady Jane Douglas, and
+with her entered her cabinet.
+
+At last she was alone, at last unwatched. The smile disappeared from her
+face, and an expression of deep sadness was stamped upon her features.
+
+"Jane," said she, "pray thee shut the doors and draw the window
+curtains, so that nobody can see me, nobody hear me, no one except
+yourself, my friend, the companion of my happy childhood. Oh, my God, my
+God, why was I so foolish as to leave my father's quiet, lonely castle
+and go out into the world, which is so full of terror and horror?"
+
+She sighed and groaned deeply; and burying her face in her hands, she
+sank upon the ottoman, weeping and trembling.
+
+Lady Jane observed her with a peculiar smile of malicious satisfaction.
+
+"She is queen and she weeps," said she to herself. "My God, how can a
+woman possibly feel unhappy, and she a queen?"
+
+She approached Catharine, and, seating herself on the tabouret at her
+feet, she impressed a fervent kiss on the queen's drooping hand.
+
+"Your majesty weeping!" said she, in her most insinuating tone. "My God,
+you are then unhappy; and I received with a loud cry of joy the news of
+my friend's unexpected good fortune. I thought to meet a queen, proud,
+happy, and radiant with joy; and I was anxious and fearful lest the
+queen might have ceased to be my friend. Wherefore I urged my father,
+as soon as your command reached us, to leave Dublin and hasten with me
+hither. Oh, my God! I wished to see you in your happiness and in your
+greatness."
+
+Catharine removed her hands from her face, and looked down at her friend
+with a sorrowful smile. "Well," said she, "are you not satisfied with
+what you have seen? Have I not the whole day displayed to you the
+smiling queen, worn a dress embroidered with gold? did not my neck
+glitter with diamonds? did not the royal diadem shine in my hair? and
+sat not the king by my side? Let that, then, be sufficient for the
+present. You have seen the queen all day long. Allow me now for one
+brief, happy moment to be again the feeling, sensitive woman, who
+can pour into the bosom of her friend all her complaint and her
+wretchedness. Ah, Jane, if you knew how I have longed for this hour,
+how I have sighed after you as the only balm for my poor smitten heart,
+smitten even to death, how I have implored Heaven for this day, for this
+one thing--'Give me back my Jane, so that she can weep with me, so that
+I may have one being at my side who understands me, and does not allow
+herself to be imposed upon by the wretched splendor of this outward
+display!'"
+
+"Poor Catharine!" whispered Lady Jane, "poor queen!"
+
+Catharine started and laid her hand, sparkling with brilliants, on
+Jane's lips. "Call me not thus!" said she. "Queen! My God, is not all
+the fearful past heard again in that word? Queen! Is it not as much as
+to say, condemned to the scaffold and a public criminal trial? Ah, Jane!
+a deadly tremor runs through my members. I am Henry the Eighth's
+sixth queen; I shall also be executed, or, loaded with disgrace, be
+repudiated."
+
+Again she hid her face in her hands, and her whole frame shook; so she
+saw not the smile of malicious satisfaction with which Lady Jane again
+observed her. She suspected not with what secret delight her friend
+heard her lamentations and sighs.
+
+"Oh! I am at least revenged!" thought Jane, while she lovingly stroked
+the queen's hair. "Yes, I am revenged! She has robbed me of a crown, but
+she is wretched; and in the golden goblet which she presses to her lips
+she will find nothing but wormwood! Now, if this sixth queen dies not on
+the scaffold, still we may perhaps so work it that she dies of anxiety,
+or deems it a pleasure to be able to lay down again her royal crown at
+Henry's feet."
+
+Then said she aloud: "But why these fears, Catharine? The king loves
+you; the whole court has seen with what tender and ardent looks he has
+regarded you to-day, and with what delight he has listened to your every
+word. Certainly the king loves you."
+
+Catharine seized her hand impulsively. "The king loves me," whispered
+she, "and I, I tremble before him. Yes, more than that, his love fills
+me with horror! His hands are dipped in blood, and as I saw him to-day
+in his crimson robes I shuddered, and I thought, How soon, and my blood,
+too, will dye this crimson!"
+
+Jane smiled. "You are sick, Catharine," said she. "This good fortune has
+taken you by surprise, and your overstrained nerves now depict before
+you all sorts of frightful forms. That is all."
+
+"No, no, Jane; these thoughts have ever been with me. They have attended
+me ever since the king selected me for his wife."
+
+"And why, then, did you not refuse him?" asked Lady Jane. "Why did you
+not say 'no' to the king's suit?"
+
+"Why did I not do it, ask you? Ah, Jane, are you such a stranger at
+this court as not to know, then, that one must either fulfil the king's
+behests or die? My God, they envy me! They call me the greatest and
+most potent woman of England. They know not that I am poorer and more
+powerless than the beggar of the street, who at least has the power to
+refuse whom she will. I could not refuse. I must either die or accept
+the royal hand which was extended to me; and I would not die yet, I have
+still so many claims on life, and it has hitherto made good so few of
+them! Ah, my poor, hapless existence! what has it been, but an endless
+chain of renunciations and deprivations, of leafless flowers and
+dissolving views? It is true, I have never learned to know what is
+usually called misfortune. But is there a greater misfortune than not to
+be happy; than to sigh through a life without wish or hope; to wear away
+the endless, weary days of an existence without delight, yet surrounded
+with luxury and splendor?"
+
+"You were not unfortunate, and yet you are an orphan, fatherless and
+motherless?"
+
+"I lost my mother so early that I scarcely knew her. And when my father
+died I could hardly consider it other than a blessing, for he had never
+shown himself a father, but always only as a harsh, tyrannical master to
+me."
+
+"But you were married?"
+
+"Married!" said Catharine, with a melancholy smile. "That is to say,
+my father sold me to a gouty old man, on whose couch I spent a few
+comfortless, awfully wearisome years, till Lord Neville made me a rich
+widow. But what did my independence avail me, when I had bound myself in
+new fetters? Hitherto I had been the slave of my father, of my husband;
+now I was the slave of my wealth. I ceased to be a sick-nurse to become
+steward of my estate. Ah! this was the most tedious period of my life.
+And yet I owe to it my only real happiness, for at that period I became
+acquainted with you, my Jane, and my heart, which had never yet learned
+to know a tenderer feeling, flew to you with all the impetuosity of a
+first passion. Believe me, my Jane, when this long-missing nephew of my
+husband came and snatched away from me his hereditary estate, and, as
+the lord, took possession of it, then the thought that I must leave
+you and your father, the neighboring proprietor, was my only grief. Men
+commiserated me on account of my lost property. I thanked God that He
+had relieved me of this load, and I started for London, that I might at
+last live and feel, that I might learn to know real happiness or real
+misery."
+
+"And what did you find?"
+
+"Misery, Jane, for I am queen."
+
+"Is that your sole unhappiness?"
+
+"My only one, but it is great enough, for it condemns me to eternal
+anxiety, to eternal dissimulation. It condemns me to feign a love which
+I do not feel, to endure caresses which make me shudder, because they
+are an inheritance from five unfortunate women. Jane, Jane, do you
+comprehend what it is to be obliged to embrace a man who has murdered
+three wives and put away two? to be obliged to kiss this king whose lips
+open just as readily to utter vows of love as sentences of death? Ah,
+Jane, I speak, I live, and still I suffer all the agonies of death! They
+call me a queen, and yet I tremble for my life every hour, and conceal
+my anxiety and fear beneath the appearance of happiness! My God, I am
+five-and-twenty, and my heart is still the heart of a child; it does not
+yet know itself, and now it is doomed never to learn to know itself; for
+I am Henry's wife, and to love another is, in other words, to wish to
+mount the scaffold. The scaffold! Look, Jane. When the king approached
+me and confessed his love and offered me his hand, suddenly there rose
+before me a fearful picture. It was no more the king whom I saw before
+me, but the hangman; and it seemed to me that I saw three corpses lying
+at his feet, and with a loud scream I sank senseless before him. When
+I revived, the king was holding me in his arms. The shock of this
+unexpected good fortune, he thought, had made me faint. He kissed me
+and called me his bride; he thought not for a moment that I could refuse
+him. And I--despise me, Jane--I was such a dastard, that I could not
+summon up courage for a downright refusal. Yes, I was so craven also, as
+to be unwilling to die. Ah, my God, it appeared to me that life at that
+moment beckoned to me with thousands of joys, thousands of charms, which
+I had never known, and for which my soul thirsted as for the manna in
+the wilderness. I would live, live at any cost. I would gain myself a
+respite, so that I might once more share happiness, love, and enjoyment.
+Look, Jane, men call me ambitious. They say I have given my hand to
+Henry because he is king. Ah, they know not how I shuddered at this
+royal crown. They know not that in anguish of heart I besought the king
+not to bestow his hand upon me, and thereby rouse all the ladies of his
+kingdom as foes against me. They know not that I confessed that I loved
+him, merely that I might be able to add that I was ready, out of love to
+him, to sacrifice my own happiness to his, and so conjured him to choose
+a consort worthy of himself, from the hereditary princesses of Europe.
+[Footnote: "La vie d'Elizabeth, Reine d'Angleterre, traduite de
+l'Italien de Monsieur Gregoire Leti," vol. ii. Amsterdam, 1694] But
+Henry rejected my sacrifice. He wished to make a queen, in order to
+possess a wife, who may be his own property--whose blood, as her lord
+and master, he can shed. So I am queen. I have accepted my lot, and
+henceforth my existence will be a ceaseless struggle and wrestling with
+death. I will at least sell my life as dearly as possible; and the maxim
+which Cranmer has given me shall hereafter be my guide on the thorny
+path of life."
+
+"And how runs this maxim?" asked Jane.
+
+"Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves," replied Catharine, with a
+languid smile, as she dropped her head upon her breast and surrendered
+herself to her painful and foreboding reflections.
+
+Lady Jane stood opposite to her, and gazed with cruel composure upon the
+painfully convulsed countenance and at times violently trembling form of
+the young queen for whom all England that day kept festival, and who yet
+was sitting before her so wretched and full of sorrow.
+
+Suddenly Catharine raised her head. Her countenance had now assumed an
+entirely different expression. It was now firm, resolute, and dauntless.
+With a slight inclination of the head she extended her hand to Lady
+Jane, and drew her friend more closely to her.
+
+"I thank you, Jane," said she, as she imprinted a kiss upon her
+forehead--"I thank you! You have done my heart good and relieved it
+of its oppressive load of secret anguish. He who can give his grief
+utterance, is already half cured of it. I thank you, then, Jane!
+Henceforth, you will find me calm and cheerful. The woman has wept
+before you, but the queen is aware that she has a task to accomplish
+as difficult as it is noble, and I give you my word for it, she will
+accomplish it. The new light which has risen on the world shall no more
+be dimmed by blood and tears, and no more in this unhappy land shall men
+of sense and piety be condemned as insurgents and traitors! This is the
+task which God has set me, and I swear that I will accomplish it! Will
+you help me in this, too, Jane?"
+
+Lady Jane responded faintly in a few words, which Catharine did not
+understand, and as she looked up to her, she noticed, with astonishment,
+the corpse-like pallor which had suddenly overspread the countenance of
+her maid of honor.
+
+Catharine gave a start, and fixed on her face a surprised and searching
+look.
+
+Lady Jane cast down her eyes before that searching and flashing glance.
+Her fanaticism had for the moment got the better of her, and much as she
+was wont at other times to hide her thoughts and feelings, it had, at
+that moment, carried her away and betrayed her to the keen eye of her
+friend.
+
+"It is now a long while since we saw each other," said Catharine, sadly.
+"Three years! It is a long time for a young girl's heart! And you were
+those three years with your father in Dublin, at that rigidly popish
+court. I did not consider that! But however much your opinions may have
+changed, your heart, I know, still remains the same, and you will ever
+be the proud, high-minded Jane of former days, who could never stoop to
+tell a lie--no, not even if this lie would procure her profit and glory.
+I ask you then, Jane, what is your religion? Do you believe in the Pope
+of Rome, and the Church of Rome as the only channel of salvation? or do
+you follow the new teaching which Luther and Calvin have promulgated?"
+
+Lady Jane smiled. "Would I have risked appearing before you, if I still
+reckoned myself of the Roman Catholic Church? Catharine Parr is hailed
+by the Protestants of England as the new patroness of the persecuted
+doctrine, and already the Romish priests hurl their anathemas against
+you, and execrate you and your dangerous presence here. And you ask me,
+whether I am an adherent of that church which maligns and damns you?
+You ask me whether I believe in the pope, who has laid the king under
+an interdict--the king, who is not only my lord and master, but also the
+husband of my precious and noble Catharine? Oh, queen, you love me not
+when you can address such a question to me."
+
+And as if overcome by painful emotion, Lady Jane sank down at
+Catharine's feet, and hid her head in the folds of the queen's robe.
+
+Catharine bent down to raise her and take her to her heart. Suddenly
+she started, and a deathly paleness overspread her face. "The king,"
+whispered she, "the king is coming!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.
+
+
+Catharine was not deceived. The doors were opened, and on the threshold
+appeared the lord marshal, with his golden mace.
+
+"His majesty the king!" whispered he, in his grave, solemn manner, which
+filled Catharine with secret dread, as though he were pronouncing the
+sentence of death over her.
+
+But she forced a smile and advanced to the door to receive the king. Now
+was heard a thunder-like rumble, and over the smoothly carpeted floor
+of the anteroom came rolling on the king's house equipage. This house
+equipage consisted of a large chair, resting on castors, which was
+moved by men in the place of horses, and to which they had, with artful
+flattery, given the form of a triumphal car of the old victorious Roman
+Caesars, in order to afford the king, as he rolled through the halls,
+the pleasant illusion that he was holding a triumphal procession, and
+that it was not the burden of his heavy limbs which fastened him to
+his imperial car. King Henry gave ready credence to the flattery of his
+truckle-chair and his courtiers, and as he rolled along in it through
+the saloons glittering with gold, and through halls adorned with
+Venetian mirrors, which reflected his form a thousandfold, he liked
+to lull himself into the dream of being a triumphing hero, and wholly
+forgot that it was not his deeds, but his fat, that had helped him to
+his triumphal car.
+
+For that monstrous mass which filled up the colossal chair, that
+mountain of purple-clad flesh, that clumsy, almost shapeless mass, that
+was Henry the Eighth, king of merry England. But thae mass had a head--a
+head full of dark and wrathful thoughts, a heart full of bloodthirsty
+and cruel lusts. The colossal body was indeed, by its physical weight,
+fastened to the chair. Yet his mind never rested, but he hovered, with
+the talons and flashing eye of the bird of prey, over his people, ever
+ready to pounce upon some innocent dove, to drink her blood, and tear
+out her heart, that he might lay it, all palpitating, as an offering on
+the altar of his sanguinary god.
+
+The king's sedan now stopped, and Catharine hastened forward with
+smiling face, to assist her royal husband in alighting.
+
+Henry greeted her with a gracious nod, and rejected the proffered aid of
+the attendant pages.
+
+"Away," said he, "away! My Catharine alone shall extend me her hand, and
+give me a welcome to the bridal chamber. Go, we feel to-day as young and
+strong as in our best and happiest days, and the young queen shall see
+that it is no decrepit graybeard, tottering with age, who woos her, but
+a strong man rejuvenated by love. Think not, Kate, that I use my car
+because of weakness. No, it was only my longing for you which made me
+wish to be with you the sooner."
+
+He kissed her with a smile, and, lightly leaning on her arm, alighted
+from his car.
+
+"Away with the equipage, and with all of you!" said he. "We wish to be
+alone with this beautiful young wife, whom the lord bishops have to-day
+made our own."
+
+At a signal from his hand, the brilliant cortege withdrew, and Catharine
+was alone with the king.
+
+Her heart beat so wildly that it made her lips tremble, and her bosom
+swell high.
+
+Henry saw it, and smiled; but it was a cold, cruel smile, and Catharine
+grew pale before it.
+
+"He has only the smile of a tyrant," said she to herself. "With this
+same smile, by which he would now give expression to his love, he
+yesterday, perhaps, signed a death-warrant, or will, to-morrow, witness
+an execution."
+
+"Do you love me, Kate?" suddenly said the king, who had till now
+observed her in silence and thoughtfulness. "Say, Kate, do you love me?"
+
+He looked steadily into her eyes, as though he would read her soul to
+the very bottom.
+
+Catharine sustained his look, and did not drop her eyes. She felt that
+this was the decisive moment which determined her whole future; and this
+conviction restored to her all her self-possession and energy.
+
+She was now no longer the shy, timid girl, but the resolute, proud
+woman, who was ready to wrestle with fate for greatness and glory.
+
+"Do you love me, Kate?" repeated the king; and his brow already began to
+darken.
+
+"I know not," said Catharine, with a smile, which enchanted the king,
+for there was quite as much graceful coquetry as bashfulness on her
+charming face.
+
+"You know not?" replied Henry, astonished. "Now, by the Mother of God,
+it is the first time in my life that a woman has ever been bold enough
+to return me such an answer! You are a bold woman, Kate, to hazard it,
+and I praise you for it. I love bravery, because it is something I so
+rarely see. They all tremble before me, Kate--all! They know that I am
+not intimidated by blood, and in the might of my royalty I subscribe a
+death-warrant with the same calmness of soul as a love-letter."
+
+"Oh, you are a great king," murmured Catharine. Henry did not notice
+her. He was wholly buried in one of those self-contemplations to which
+he so willingly surrendered himself, and which generally had for their
+subject his own greatness and superbility.
+
+"Yes," continued he, and his eyes, which, in spite of his corpulency
+and his extremely fleshy face, were yet large and wide open, shone more
+brightly. "Yes, they all tremble before me, for they know that I am
+a righteous and powerful king, who spares not his own blood, if it is
+necessary to punish and expiate crime, and with inexorable hand punishes
+the sinner, though he were the nearest to the throne. Take heed to
+yourself, therefore, Kate, take heed to yourself. You behold in me the
+avenger of God, and the judge of men. The king wears the crimson, not
+because it is beautiful and glossy, but because it is red like blood,
+and because it is the king's highest prerogative to shed the blood of
+his delinquent subjects, and thereby expiate human crime. Thus only do
+I conceive of royalty, and thus only will I carry it out till the end
+of my days. Not the right to pardon, but the right to punish, is that
+whereby the ruler manifests himself before the lower classes of mankind.
+God's thunder should be on his lips, and the king's wrath should descend
+like lightning on the head of the guilty."
+
+"But God is not only wrathful, but also merciful and forgiving," said
+Catharine, as she lightly and shyly leaned her head on the king's
+shoulder.
+
+"Just that is the prerogative of God above kings; that He can, as it
+pleases Him, show mercy and grace, where we can only condemn and punish.
+There must be something in which God is superior to kings, and greater
+than they. But how, Kate, you tremble, and the lovely smile has vanished
+from your countenance! Be not afraid of me, Kate! Be always frank with
+me, and without deceit; then I shall always love you, and iniquity will
+then have no power over you. And now, Kate, tell me, and explain to me.
+You do not know that you love me?"
+
+"No, I do not know, your majesty. And how should I be able to recognize,
+and know, and designate by name what is strange to me, and what I have
+never before felt?"
+
+"How, you have never loved, Kate?" asked the king with a joyful
+expression.
+
+"Never. My father maltreated me, so that I could feel for him nothing
+but dread and terror."
+
+"And your husband, child? That man who was my predecessor in the
+possession of you. Did you not love your husband either?"
+
+"My husband?" asked she abstractedly. "It is true, my father sold me to
+Lord Neville, and as the priest had joined our hands, men called him
+my husband. But he very well knew that I did not love him, nor did he
+require my love. He needed a nurse, not a wife. He had given me his name
+as a father gives his to a daughter; and I was his daughter, a true,
+faithful, and obedient daughter, who joyfully fulfilled her duty and
+tended him till his death."
+
+"And after his death, child? Years have elapsed since then, Kate. Tell
+me, and I conjure you, tell me the truth, the simple, plain truth! After
+the death of your husband, then even, did you never love?"
+
+He gazed with visible anxiety, with breathless expectation, deep into
+her eyes; but she did not drop them.
+
+"Sire," said she, with a charming smile, "till a few weeks past, I
+have often mourned over myself; and it seemed to me that I must, in the
+desperation of my singular and cold nature, lay open my breast, in order
+to search there for the heart, which, senseless and cold, had never
+betrayed its existence by its stronger beating. Oh, sire, I was full of
+trouble about myself; and in my foolish rashness, I accused Heaven of
+having robbed me of the noblest feeling and the fairest privilege of any
+woman--the capacity of loving."
+
+"Till the past few weeks, did you say, Kate?" asked the king, breathless
+with emotion.
+
+"Yes, sire, until the day on which you, for the first time, graciously
+afforded me the happiness of speaking with me."
+
+The king uttered a low cry, and drew Catharine, with impetuous
+vehemence, into his arms.
+
+"And since, tell me now, you dear little dove, since then, does your
+heart throb?"
+
+"Yes, sire, it throbs, oh, it often throbs to bursting! When I hear your
+voice, when I behold your countenance, it is as if a cold tremor rilled
+through my whole being, and drove all my blood to the heart. It is as
+though my heart anticipated your approach before my eyes discern you.
+For even before you draw near me, I feel a peculiar trembling of the
+heart, and the breath is stifled in my bosom; then I always know that
+you are coming, and that your presence will relieve this peculiar
+tension of my being. When you are not by me I think of you, and when I
+sleep I dream of you. Tell me, sire, you who know every thing, tell me,
+know you now whether I love you?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you love me," cried Henry, to whom this strange and joyous
+surprise had imparted youthful vivacity and warmth. "Yes, Kate, you
+love me; and if I may trust your dear confession, I am your first love.
+Repeat it yet again; you were nothing but a daughter to Lord Neville?"
+
+"Nothing more, sire!"
+
+"And after him have you had no love?"
+
+"None, sire!"
+
+"And can it be that so happy a marvel has come to pass? and that I have
+made, not a widow, but a young maiden, my queen?"
+
+As he now gazed at her with warm, passionate, tender looks, Catharine
+cast down her eyes, and a deep blush covered her sweet face.
+
+"Ah, a woman's bashful blushes, what an exquisite sight!" cried the
+king, and while he wildly pressed Catharine to his bosom, he continued:
+"Oh, are we not foolish and short-sighted men, all of us, yes, even we
+kings? In order that I might not be, perhaps, forced to send my
+sixth wife also to the scaffold, I chose, in trembling dread of the
+deceitfulness of your sex, a widow for my queen, and this widow with
+a blessed confession, mocks at the new law of the wise Parliament, and
+makes good to me what she never promised." [Footnote: After Catharine
+Howard's infidelity and incontinency had been proved, and she had atoned
+for them by her death, Parliament enacted a law "that if the king or his
+successors should intend to marry any woman whom they took to be a clean
+and pure maid--if she, not being so, did not declare the same to the
+king, it should be high treason: and all who knew it; and did not reveal
+it, were guilty of misprision of treason."--"Burnet's History of the
+Reformation of the Church of England." London, 1681 (vol. i, p. 313)]
+
+"Come, Kate, give me a kiss. You have opened before me to-day a happy,
+blissful future, and prepared for me a great and unexpected pleasure.
+I thank you for it, Kate, and the Mother of God be my witness, I will
+never forget it."
+
+And drawing a rich diamond ring from his own finger, and putting it upon
+Catharine's, he continued: "Be this ring a remembrancer of this hour,
+and when you hereafter present it to me, with a request, I will grant
+that request, Kate!"
+
+He kissed her forehead, and was about to press her more closely in his
+arms, when suddenly from without was heard the dull roll of drums, and
+the ringing of bells.
+
+The king started a moment and released Catharine from his arms. He
+listened; the roll of drums continued, and now and then was heard in the
+distance, that peculiar thundering and yet sullen sound, which so much
+resembles the roar and rush of the sea, and which can be produced only
+by a large and excited mob.
+
+The king, with a fierce curse, pushed open the glass door leading to the
+balcony, and walked out.
+
+Catharine gazed after him with a strange, half-timid, half-scornful
+look. "I have not at least told him that I love him," muttered she. "He
+has construed my words as it suited his vanity. No matter. I will not
+die on the scaffold!"
+
+With a resolute step, and firm, energetic air, she followed the king to
+the balcony. The roll of drums was kept up, and from all the steeples
+the bells were pealing. The night was dark and calm. All London seemed
+to slumber, and the dark houses around about stood up out of the
+universal darkness like huge coffins.
+
+Suddenly the horizon began to grow bright, and on the sky appeared
+a streak of fiery red, which, blazing up higher and higher, soon
+illuminated the entire horizon with a crimson glow, and even shed its
+glaring fiery beams over the balcony on which stood the royal pair.
+Still the bells clanged and clamored; and blended with their peals was
+heard now and then, in the distance, a piercing shriek and a clamor as
+of thousands and thousands of confusedly mingled voices.
+
+Suddenly the king turned to Catharine, and his countenance, which was
+just then overspread by the fire-light as with a blood-red veil, had now
+assumed an expression of savage, demoniacal delight.
+
+"Ah," said he, "I know what it is. You had wholly bewildered me, and
+stolen away my attention, you little enchantress. I had for a moment
+ceased to be a king, because I wished to be entirely your lover. But
+now I bethink me again of my avenging sovereignty! It is the fagot-piles
+about the stake which flame so merrily yonder. And that yelling and
+clamor indicate that my merry people are enjoying with all their soul
+the comedy which I have had played before them to-day, for the honor of
+God, and my unimpeachable royal dignity."
+
+"The stake!" cried Catharine, trembling. "Your majesty does not mean
+thereby to say that right yonder, men are to die a cruel, painful
+death--that the same hour in which their king pronounces himself happy
+and content, some of his subjects are to be condemned to dreadful
+torture, to a horrible destruction! Oh, no! my king will not overcloud
+his queen's wedding-day with so dark a veil of death. He will not wish
+to dim my happiness so cruelly."
+
+The king laughed. "No, I will not darken it, but light it up with bright
+names," said he; and as, with outstretched arm, he pointed over to the
+glaring heavens, he continued: "There are our wedding-torches, my Kate,
+and the most sacred and beautiful which I could find, for they burn to
+the honor of God and of the king. [Footnote: "Life of King Henry the
+Eighth, founded on Authentic and Original Documents." By Patrick Fraser
+Tytler. (Edinburgh, 1887, p. 440.)] And the heavenward flaring flames
+which carries up the souls of the heretics will give to my God joyous
+intelligence of His most faithful and obedient son, who, even on the
+day of his happiness, forgets not his kingly duty, but ever remains the
+avenging and destroying minister of his God."
+
+He looked frightful as he thus spoke. His countenance, lit up by the
+fire, had a fierce, threatening expression; his eyes blazed; and a cold,
+cruel smile played about his thin, firmly-pressed lips.
+
+"Oh, he knows no pity!" murmured Catharine to herself, as in a paroxysm
+of anguish she stared at the king, who, in fanatical enthusiasm, was
+looking over toward the fire, into which, at his command, they were
+perhaps hurling to a cruel, torturing death, some poor wretch, to the
+honor of God and the king. "No, he knows no pity and no mercy."
+
+Now Henry turned to her, and laying his extended hand softly on the back
+of her slender neck, he spanned it with his fingers, and whispered in
+her ear tender words and vows of love.
+
+Catharine trembled. This caress of the king, however harmless in itself,
+had in it for her something dismal and dreadful. It was the involuntary,
+instinctive touch of the headsman, who examines the neck of his victim,
+and searches on it for the place where he will make the stroke. Thus had
+Anne Boleyn once put her tender white hands about her slender neck,
+and said to the headsman, brought over from Calais specially for her
+execution: "I pray you strike me well and surely! I have, indeed, but a
+slim little neck." [Footnote: Tytler, p. 382] Thus had the king clutched
+his hand about the neck of Catharine Howard, his fifth wife when
+certain of her infidelity, he had thrust her from himself with fierce
+execrations, when she would have clung to him. The dark marks of that
+grip were still visible upon her neck when she laid it on the block.
+[Footnote: Leti, vol. i, p. 193]
+
+And this dreadful twining of his fingers Catharine must now endure as
+a caress; at which she must smile, which she must receive with all the
+appearance of delight.
+
+While he spanned her neck, he whispered in her ear words of tenderness,
+and bent his face close to her cheeks.
+
+But Catharine heeded not his passionate whispers. She saw nothing save
+the blood-red handwriting of fire upon the sky. She heard nothing save
+the shrieks of the wretched victims.
+
+"Mercy, mercy!" faltered she. "Oh, let this day be a day of festivity
+for all your subjects! Be merciful, and if you would have me really
+believe that you love me, grant this first request which I make of you.
+Grant me the lives of these wretched ones. Mercy, sire, mercy!"
+
+And as if the queen's supplication had found an echo, suddenly was heard
+from the chamber a wailing, despairing voice, repeating loudly and in
+tones of anguish: "Mercy, your majesty, mercy!" The king turned round
+impetuously, and his face assumed a dark, wrathful expression. He
+fastened his searching eyes on Catharine, as though he would read in her
+looks whether she knew who had dared to interrupt their conversation.
+
+But Catharine's countenance expressed unconcealed astonishment. "Mercy,
+mercy!" repeated the voice from the interior of the chamber.
+
+The king uttered an angry exclamation, and hastily withdrew from the
+balcony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. KING BY THE WRATH OF GOD.
+
+
+"Who dares interrupt us?" cried the king, as with headlong step he
+returned to the chamber--"who dares speak of mercy?"
+
+"I dare!" said a young lady, who, pale, with distorted features, in
+frightful agitation, now hastened to the king and prostrated herself
+before him. "Anne Askew!" cried Catharine, amazed. "Anne, what want you
+here?"
+
+"I want mercy, mercy for those wretched ones, who are suffering yonder,"
+cried the young maiden, pointing with an expression of horror to the
+reddened sky. "I want mercy for the king himself, who is so cruel as
+to send the noblest and the best of his subjects to the slaughter like
+miserable brutes!"
+
+"Oh, sire, have compassion on this poor child!" besought Catharine,
+turning to Henry, "compassion on her impassioned excitement and
+her youthful ardor! She is as yet unaccustomed to these frightful
+scenes--she knows not yet that it is the sad duty of kings to be
+constrained to punish, where they might prefer to pardon!"
+
+Henry smiled; but the look which he cast on the kneeling girl made
+Catharine tremble. There was a death-warrant in that look!
+
+"Anne Askew, if I mistake not, is your second maid of honor?" asked the
+king; "and it was at your express wish that she received that place?"
+
+"Yes sire."
+
+"You knew her, then?"
+
+"No, sire! I saw her a few days ago for the first time. But she had
+already won my heart at our first meeting, and I feel that I shall love
+her. Exercise forbearance, then, your majesty!"
+
+But the king was still thoughtful, and Catharine's answers did not yet
+satisfy him.
+
+"Why, then, do you interest yourself for this young lady, if you did not
+know her?"
+
+"She has been so warmly recommended to me."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+Catharine hesitated a moment; she felt that she had, perhaps, in her
+zeal, gone too far, and that it was imprudent to tell the king the
+truth. But the king's keen, penetrating look was resting on her, and she
+recollected that he had, the first thing that evening, so urgently and
+solemnly conjured her to always tell him the truth. Besides, it was no
+secret at court who the protector of this young maiden was, and who had
+been the means of her obtaining the place of maid of honor to the queen,
+a place which so many wealthy and distinguished families had solicited
+for their daughters.
+
+"Who recommended this lady to you?" repeated the king, and already his
+ill-humor began to redden his face, and make his voice tremble.
+
+"Archbishop Cranmer did so, sire," said Catharine as she raised her eyes
+to the king, and looked at him with a smile surpassingly charming.
+
+At that moment was heard without, more loudly, the roll of drums, which
+nevertheless was partially drowned by piercing shrieks and horrible
+cries of distress. The blaze of the fire shot up higher, and now was
+seen the bright flame, which with murderous rage licked the sky above.
+
+Anne Askew, who had kept respectful silence during the conversation of
+the royal pair, now felt herself completely overcome by this horrible
+sight, and bereft of the last remnant of self-possession.
+
+"My God, my God!" said she, quivering from the internal tremor, and
+stretching her hands beseechingly toward the king, "do you not hear that
+frightful wail of the wretched? Sire, by the thought of your own dying
+hour, I conjure you have compassion on these miserable beings! Let them
+not, at least, be thrown alive into the flames. Spare them this last
+frightful torture."
+
+King Henry cast a wrathful look on the kneeling girl; then strode
+past her to the door, which led into the adjoining hall, in which the
+courtiers were waiting for their king.
+
+He beckoned to the two bishops, Cranmer and Gardiner, to come nearer,
+and ordered the servants to throw the hall doors wide open.
+
+The scene now afforded an animated and singular spectacle, and this
+chamber, just before so quiet, was suddenly changed to the theatre of
+a great drama, which was perhaps to end tragically. In the queen's
+bedchamber, a small room, but furnished with the utmost luxury and
+splendor, the principal characters of this scene were congregated. In
+the middle of the space stood the king in his robes, embroidered with
+gold and sparkling with jewels, which were irradiated by the bright
+light of the chandelier. Near him was seen the young queen, whose
+beautiful and lovely face was turned in anxious expectation toward
+the king, in whose stern and rigid features she sought to read the
+development of this scene.
+
+Not far from her still knelt the young maiden, hiding in her hands her
+face drenched in tears; while farther away, in the background, were the
+two bishops observing with grave, cool tranquillity the group before
+them. Through the open hall doors were descried the expectant and
+curious countenances of the courtiers standing with their heads crowded
+close together in the space before the doors; and opposite to them,
+through the open door leading to the balcony, was seen the fiery,
+blazing sky, and heard the clanging of the bells and the rolling of the
+drama, the piercing shrieks and the yells of the people.
+
+A deep silence ensued, and when the king spoke, the tone of his voice
+was so hard and cold, that an involuntary shudder ran through all
+present.
+
+"My Lord Bishops of Winchester and Canterbury," said the king, "we have
+called you that you may, by the might of your prayers and the wisdom of
+your words, rid this young girl here from the devil, who, without doubt,
+has the mastery over her, since she dares charge her king and master
+with cruelty and injustice."
+
+The two bishops drew nearer to the kneeling girl; each laid a hand
+upon her shoulder, and bent over her, but the one with an expression of
+countenance wholly different from that of the other.
+
+Cranmer's look was gentle and serious, and at the same time a
+compassionate and encouraging smile played about his thin lips.
+
+Gardiner's features on the contrary bore the expression of cruel,
+cold-hearted irony; and the smile which rested on his thick, protruding
+lips was the joyful and merciless smile of a priest ready to sacrifice a
+victim to his idol.
+
+"Courage, my daughter, courage and prudence!" whispered Cranmer.
+
+"God, who blesses the righteous and punishes and destroys sinners, be
+with thee and with us all!" said Gardiner.
+
+But Anne Askew recoiled with a shudder from the touch of his hand, and
+with an impetuous movement pushed it away from her shoulder.
+
+"Touch me not; you are the hangman of those poor people whom they are
+putting to death down yonder," said she impetuously; and as she turned
+to the king and extended her hands imploringly toward him, she cried:
+
+"Mercy, King Henry, mercy!"
+
+"Mercy!" repeated the king, "mercy, and for whom? Who are they that they
+are putting to death down there? Tell me, forsooth, my lord bishops, who
+are they that are led to the stake to-day? Who are the condemned?"
+
+"They are heretics, who devote themselves to this new false doctrine
+which has come over to us from Germany, and who dare refuse to recognize
+the spiritual supremacy of our lord and king," said Bishop Gardiner.
+
+"They are Roman Catholics, who regard the Pope of Rome as the chief
+shepherd of the Church of Christ, and will regard nobody but him as
+their lord," said Bishop Cranmer.
+
+"Ah, behold this young maiden accuses us of injustice," cried the king;
+"and yet, you say that not heretics alone are executed down there,
+but also Romanists. It appears to me then that we have justly and
+impartially, as always, punished only criminals and given over the
+guilty to justice."
+
+"Oh, had you seen what I have seen," said Anne Askew, shuddering, "then
+would you collect all your vital energies for a single cry, for a single
+word--mercy! and that word would you shout out loud enough to reach yon
+frightful place of torture and horror."
+
+"What saw you, then?" asked the king, smiling. Anne Askew had stood up,
+and her tall, slender form now lifted itself, like a lily, between the
+sombre forms of the bishops. Her eye was fixed and glaring; her noble
+and delicate features bore the expression of horror and dread.
+
+"I saw," said she, "a woman whom they were leading to execution. Not a
+criminal, but a noble lady, whose proud and lofty heart never harbored
+a thought of treason or disloyalty, but who, true to her faith and her
+convictions, would not forswear the God whom she served. As she passed
+through the crowd, it seemed as if a halo encompassed her head, and
+covered her white hair with silvery rays; all bowed before her, and the
+hardest natures wept over the unfortunate woman who had lived more than
+seventy years, and yet was not allowed to die in her bed, but was to
+be slaughtered to the glory of God and of the king. But she smiled, and
+graciously saluting the weeping and sobbing multitude, she advanced to
+the scaffold as if she were ascending a throne to receive the homage of
+her people. Two years of imprisonment had blanched her cheek, but had
+not been able to destroy the fire of her eye, or the strength of her
+mind, and seventy years had not bowed her neck or broken her spirit.
+Proud and firm, she mounted the steps of the scaffold, and once more
+saluted the people and cried aloud, 'I will pray to God for you.' But as
+the headsman approached and demanded that she should allow her hands to
+be bound, and that she should kneel in order to lay her head upon the
+block, she refused, and angrily pushed him away. 'Only traitors and
+criminals lay their head on the block!' exclaimed she, with a loud,
+thundering voice. 'There is no occasion for me to do so, and I will not
+submit to your bloody laws as long as there is a breath in me. Take,
+then, my life, if you can.'
+
+"And now began a scene which filled the hearts of the lookers-on with
+fear and horror. The countess flew like a hunted beast round and
+round the scaffold. Her white hair streamed in the wind; her black
+grave-clothes rustled around her like a dark cloud, and behind her,
+with uplifted axe, came the headsman, in his fiery red dress; he, ever
+endeavoring to strike her with the falling axe, but she, ever trying,
+by moving her head to and fro, to evade the descending stroke. But at
+length her resistance became weaker; the blows of the axe reached her,
+and stained her white hair, hanging loose about her shoulders, with
+crimson streaks. With a heart-rending cry, she fell fainting. Near her,
+exhausted also, sank down the headsman, bathed in sweat. This horrible
+wild chase had lamed his arm and broken his strength. Panting and
+breathless, he was not able to drag this fainting, bleeding woman to the
+block, or to lift up the axe to separate her noble head from the body.
+[Footnote: Tytler, p. 430] The crowd shrieked with distress and horror,
+imploring and begging for mercy, and even the lord chief justice could
+not refrain from tears, and he ordered the cruel work to be suspended
+until the countess and the headsman should have regained strength; for
+a living, not a dying person was to be executed: thus said the law. They
+made a pallet for the countess on the scaffold and endeavored to restore
+her; invigorating wine was supplied to the headsman, to renew his
+strength for the work of death; and the crowd turned to the stakes which
+were prepared on both sides of the scaffold, and at which four other
+martyrs were to be burnt. But I flew here like a hunted doe, and now,
+king, I lie at your feet. There is still time. Pardon, king, pardon for
+the Countess of Somerset, the last of the Plantagenets."
+
+"Pardon, sire, pardon!" repeated Catharine Parr, weeping and trembling,
+as she clung to her husband's side. "Pardon!" repeated Archbishop
+Cranmer; and a few of the courtiers re-echoed it in a timid and anxious
+whisper.
+
+The king's large, brilliant eyes glanced around the whole assembly, with
+a quick, penetrating look. "And you, my Lord Bishop Gardiner," asked he,
+in a cold, sarcastic tone, "will you also ask for mercy, like all these
+weak-hearted souls here?"
+
+"The Lord our God is a jealous God," said Gardiner, solemnly, "and it
+is written that God will punish the sinner unto the third and fourth
+generation."
+
+"And what is written shall stand true!" exclaimed the king, in a voice
+of thunder. "No mercy for evil-doers, no pity for criminals. The axe
+must fall upon the head of the guilty, the flames shall consume the
+bodies of criminals."
+
+"Sire, think of your high vocation!" exclaimed Anne Askew, in a tone of
+enthusiasm. "Reflect what a glorious name you have assumed to yourself
+in this land. You call yourself the head of the Church, and you want to
+rule and govern upon earth in God's stead. Exercise mercy, then, for you
+entitle yourself king by the grace of God."
+
+"No, I do not call myself king by God's grace; I call myself king by
+God's wrath!" exclaimed Henry, as he raised his arm menacingly. "It is
+my duty to send sinners to God; may He have mercy on them there above,
+if He will! I am the punishing judge, and I judge mercilessly, according
+to the law, without compassion. Let those whom I have condemned appeal
+to God, and may He have mercy upon them. I cannot do it, nor will I.
+Kings are here to punish, and they are like to God, not in His love, but
+in His avenging wrath."
+
+"Woe, then, woe to you and to all of us!" exclaimed Anne Askew. "Woe to
+you, King Henry, if what you now say is the truth! Then are they right,
+those men who are bound to yonder stakes, when they brand you with the
+name of tyrant; then is the Bishop of Rome right when he upbraids you
+as an apostate and degenerate son, and hurls his anathemas against you!
+Then you know not God, who is love and mercy; then you are no disciple
+of the Saviour, who has said, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse
+you.' Woe to you, King Henry, if matters are really so bad with you;
+if--"
+
+"Silence, unhappy woman, silence!" exclaimed Catharine; and as she
+vehemently pushed away the furious girl she grasped the king's hand, and
+pressed it to her lips. "Sire," whispered she, with intense earnestness,
+"Sire, you told me just now that you loved me. Prove it by pardoning
+this maiden, and having consideration for her impassioned excitement.
+Prove it by allowing me to lead Anne Askew to her room and enjoin
+silence upon her."
+
+But at this moment the king was wholly inaccessible to any other
+feelings than those of anger and delight in blood.
+
+He indignantly repelled Catharine, and without moving his sharp,
+penetrating look from the young maiden, he said in a quick, hollow tone:
+"Let her alone; let her speak; let no one dare to interrupt her!"
+
+Catharine, trembling with anxiety and inwardly hurt at the harsh manner
+of the king, retired with a sigh to the embrasure of one of the windows.
+
+Anne Askew had not noticed what was going on about her. She remained
+in that state of exaltation which cares for no consequences and which
+trembles before no danger. She would at this moment have gone to the
+stake with cheerful alacrity, and she almost longed for this blessed
+martyrdom.
+
+"Speak, Anne Askew, speak!" commanded the king. "Tell me, do you know
+what the countess, for whose pardon you are beseeching me, has done?
+Know you why those four men were sent to the stake?"
+
+"I do know, King Henry, by the wrath of God," said the maiden, with
+burning passionateness. "I know why you have sent the noble countess to
+the slaughter-house, and why you will exercise no mercy toward her. She
+is of noble, of royal blood, and Cardinal Pole is her son. You would
+punish the son through the mother, and because you cannot throttle the
+cardinal, you murder his mother."
+
+"Oh, you are a very knowing child!" cried the king, with an inhuman,
+ironical laugh. "You know my most secret thoughts and my most hidden
+feelings. Without doubt you are a good papist, since the death of the
+popish countess fills you with such heart-rending grief. Then you must
+confess, at the least, that it is right to burn the four heretics!"
+
+"Heretics!" exclaimed Anne, enthusiastically, "call you heretics those
+noble men who go gladly and boldly to death for their convictions
+and their faith? King Henry! King Henry! Woe to you if these men are
+condemned as heretics! They alone are the faithful, they are the true
+servants of God. They have freed themselves from human supremacy, and as
+you would not recognize the pope, so they will not recognize you as head
+of the Church! God alone, they say, is Lord of the Church and Master
+of their consciences, and who can be presumptuous enough to call them
+criminals?"
+
+"I!" exclaimed Henry the Eighth, in a powerful tone. "I dare do it. I
+say that they are heretics, and that I will destroy them, will tread
+them all beneath my feet, all of them, all who think as they do! I say
+that I will shed the blood of these criminals, and prepare for them
+torments at which human nature will shudder and quake. God will manifest
+Himself by me in fire and blood! He has put the sword into my hand, and
+I will wield it for His glory. Like St. George, I will tread the dragon
+of heresy beneath my feet!"
+
+And haughtily raising his crimsoned face and rolling his great bloodshot
+eyes wildly around the circle, he continued: "Hear this all of you who
+are here assembled; no mercy for heretics, no pardon for papists. It is
+I, I alone, whom the Lord our God has chosen and blessed as His hangman
+and executioner! I am the high-priest of His Church, and he who dares
+deny me, denies God; and he who is so presumptuous as to do reverence
+to any other head of the Church, is a priest of Baal and kneels to an
+idolatrous image. Kneel down all of you before me, and reverence in me
+God, whose earthly representative I am, and who reveals Himself through
+me in His fearful and exalted majesty. Kneel down, for I am sole head of
+the Church and high-priest of our God!"
+
+And as if at one blow all knees bent; all those haughty cavaliers, those
+ladies sparkling with jewels and gold, even the two bishops and the
+queen fell upon the ground.
+
+The king gazed for a moment on this sight, and, with radiant looks and
+a smile of triumph, his eyes ran over this assembly, consisting of the
+noblest of his kingdom, humbled before him.
+
+Suddenly they were fastened on Anne Askew.
+
+She alone had not bent her knee, but stood in the midst of the kneelers,
+proud and upright as the king himself. A dark cloud passed over the
+king's countenance.
+
+"You obey not my command?" asked he.
+
+She shook her curly head and fixed on him a steady, piercing look. "No,"
+said she, "like those over yonder whose last death-groan we even now
+hear, like them, I say: To God alone is honor due, and He alone is Lord
+of His Church! If you wish me to bend my knee before you as my king, I
+will do it, but I bow not to you as the head of the holy Church!"
+
+A murmur of surprise flew through the assembly, and every eye was turned
+with fear and amazement on this bold young girl, who confronted the king
+with a countenance smiling and glowing with enthusiasm.
+
+At a sign from Henry the kneelers arose and awaited in breathless
+silence the terrible scene that was coming.
+
+A pause ensued. King Henry himself was struggling for breath, and needed
+a moment to collect himself.
+
+Not as though wrath and passion had deprived him of speech. He was
+neither wrathful nor passionate, and it was only joy that obstructed his
+breathing--the joy of having again found a victim with which he might
+satisfy his desire for blood, on whose agony he might feast his eyes,
+whose dying sigh he might greedily inhale.
+
+The king was never more cheerful than when he had signed a
+death-warrant. For then he was in full enjoyment of his greatness
+as lord over the lives and deaths of millions of other men, and this
+feeling made him proud and happy, and fully conscious of his exalted
+position.
+
+Hence, as he now turned to Anne Askew, his countenance was calm and
+serene, and his voice friendly, almost tender.
+
+"Anne Askew," said he, "do you know that the words you have now spoken
+make you guilty of high treason?"
+
+"I know it, sire."
+
+"And you know what punishment awaits traitors?"
+
+"Death, I know it."
+
+"Death by fire!" said the king with perfect calmness and composure.
+A hollow murmur ran through the assembly. Only one voice dared give
+utterance to the word mercy.
+
+It was Catharine, the king's consort, who spoke this one word. She
+stepped forward, and was about to rush to the king and once more implore
+his mercy and pity. But she felt herself gently held back. Archbishop
+Cranmer stood near her, regarding her with a serious and beseeching
+look.
+
+"Compose yourself, compose yourself," murmured he. "You cannot save her;
+she is lost. Think of yourself, and of the pure and holy religion
+whose protectress you are. Preserve yourself for your Church and your
+companions in the faith!"
+
+"And must she die?" asked Catharine, whose eyes filled with tears as she
+looked toward the poor young child, who was confronting the king with
+such a beautiful and innocent smile.
+
+"Perhaps we may still save her, but this is not the moment for it. Any
+opposition now would only irritate the king the more, and he might
+cause the girl to be instantly thrown into the flames of the fires still
+burning yonder! So let us be silent."
+
+"Yes, silence," murmured Catharine, with a shudder, as she withdrew
+again to the embrasure of the window.
+
+"Death by fire awaits you, Anne Askew!" repeated the king. "No mercy for
+the traitress who vilifies and scoffs at her king!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. THE RIVALS.
+
+
+At the very moment when the king was pronouncing, in a voice almost
+exultant, Anne Askew's sentence of death, one of the king's cavaliers
+appeared on the threshold of the royal chamber and advanced toward the
+king.
+
+He was a young man of noble and imposing appearance, whose lofty bearing
+contrasted strangely with the humble and submissive attitude of the
+rest of the courtiers. His tall, slim form was clad in a coat of mail
+glittering with gold; over his shoulders hung a velvet mantle decorated
+with a princely crown; and his head, covered with dark ringlets, was
+adorned with a cap embroidered with gold, from which a long white
+ostrich-feather drooped to his shoulder. His oval face presented
+the full type of aristocratic beauty; his cheeks were of a clear,
+transparent paleness; about his slightly pouting mouth played a smile,
+half contemptuous and half languid; the high, arched brow and delicately
+chiselled aquiline nose gave to his face an expression at once bold and
+thoughtful. The eyes alone were not in harmony with his face; they were
+neither languid like the mouth, nor pensive like the brow. All the
+fire and all the bold and wanton passion of youth shot from those dark,
+flashing eyes. When he looked down, he might have been taken for a
+completely worn-out, misanthropic aristocrat; but when he raised those
+ever-flashing and sparkling eyes, then was seen the young man full
+of dashing courage and ambitious desires, of passionate warmth and
+measureless pride.
+
+He approached the king, as already stated, and as he bent his knee
+before him, he said in a full, pleasant voice:
+
+"Mercy, sire, mercy!"
+
+The king stepped back in astonishment, and turned upon the bold speaker
+a look almost of amazement.
+
+"Thomas Seymour!" said he. "Thomas, you have returned, then, and your
+first act is again an indiscretion and a piece of foolhardy rashness?"
+
+The young man smiled. "I have returned," said he, "that is to say, I
+have had a sea-fight with the Scots and taken from them four men-of-war.
+With these I hastened hither to present them to you, my king and lord,
+as a wedding-gift, and just as I entered the anteroom I heard your voice
+pronouncing a sentence of death. Was it not natural, then, that I, who
+bring you tidings of a victory, should have the heart to utter a
+prayer for mercy, for which, as it seems, none of these noble and proud
+cavaliers could summon up courage?"
+
+"Ah!" said the king, evidently relieved and fetching a deep breath,
+"then you knew not at all for whom and for what you were imploring
+pardon?"
+
+"Yet!" said the young man, and his bold glance ran with an expression of
+contempt over the whole assembly--"yet, I saw at once who the condemned
+must be, for I saw this young maiden forsaken by all as if stricken
+by the plague, standing alone in the midst of this exalted and brave
+company. And you well know, my noble king, that at court one recognizes
+the condemned and those fallen into disgrace by this, that every one
+flies from them, and nobody has the courage to touch such a leper even
+with the tip of his finger!"
+
+King Henry smiled. "Thomas Seymour, Earl of Sudley, you are now, as
+ever, imprudent and hasty," said he. "You beg for mercy without once
+knowing whether she for whom you beg it is worthy of mercy."
+
+"But I see that she is a woman," said the intrepid young earl. "And a
+woman is always worthy of mercy, and it becomes every knight to come
+forward as her defender, were it but to pay homage to her sex, so fair
+and so frail, and yet so noble and mighty. Therefore I beg mercy for
+this young maiden!"
+
+Catharine had listened to the young earl with throbbing heart and
+flushed cheeks. It was the first time that she had seen him, and yet she
+felt for him a warm sympathy, an almost tender anxiety.
+
+"He will plunge himself into ruin," murmured she; "he will not save
+Anne, but will make himself unhappy. My God, my God, have a little
+compassion and pity on my anguish!"
+
+She now fixed her anxious gaze on the king, firmly resolved to rush
+to the help of the earl, who had so nobly and magnanimously interested
+himself in an innocent woman, should the wrath of her husband threaten
+him also. But, to her surprise, Henry's face was perfectly serene and
+contented.
+
+Like the wild beast, that, following its instinct, seeks its bloody prey
+only so long as it is hungry, so King Henry felt satiated for the day.
+Yonder glared the fires about the stake, at which four heretics were
+burned; there stood the scaffold on which the Countess of Somerset had
+just been executed; and now, within this hour, he had already found
+another new victim for death. Moreover, Thomas Seymour had always been
+his favorite. His audacity, his liveliness, his energy, had always
+inspired the king with respect; and then, again, he so much resembled
+his sister, the beautiful Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife.
+
+"I cannot grant you this favor, Thomas," said the king. "Justice must
+not be hindered in her course, and where she has passed sentence, mercy
+must not give her the lie; and it was the justice of your king which
+pronounced sentence at that moment. You were guilty, therefore, of a
+double wrong, for you not only besought mercy, but you also brought an
+accusation against my cavaliers. Do you really believe that, were this
+maiden's cause a just one, no knight would have been found for her?"
+
+"Yes, I really believe it," cried the earl, with a laugh. "The sun of
+your favor had turned away from this poor girl, and in such a case your
+courtiers no longer see the figure wrapped in darkness."
+
+"You are mistaken, my lord; I have seen it," suddenly said another
+voice, and a second cavalier advanced from the anteroom into the
+chamber. He approached the king, and, as he bent his knee before him, he
+said, in a loud, steady voice: "Sire, I also beg mercy for Anne Askew!"
+
+At this moment was heard from that side of the room where the ladies
+stood, a low cry, and the pale, affrighted face of Lady Jane Douglas was
+for a moment raised above the heads of the other ladies. No one noticed
+it. All eyes were directed toward the group in the middle of the room:
+all looked with eager attention upon the king and these two young men,
+who dared protect one whom he had sentenced.
+
+"Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey!" exclaimed the king; and now an
+expression of wrath passed over his countenance. "How! you, too,
+dare intercede for this girl? You, then, grudge Thomas Seymour the
+pre-eminence of being the most discreet man at my court?"
+
+"I will not allow him, sire, to think that he is the bravest," replied
+the young man, as he fixed on Thomas Seymour a look of haughty defiance,
+which the other answered by a cold, disdainful smile.
+
+"Oh," said he, with a shrug of his shoulders, "I willingly allow you, my
+dear Earl of Surrey, to tread behind me, at your convenience, the path,
+the safety of which I first tested at the peril of my life. You saw that
+I had not, as yet, lost either my head or my life in this reckless under
+taking, and that has given you courage to follow my example. That is a
+new proof of your prudent valor, my Honorable Earl of Surrey, and I must
+praise you for it."
+
+A hot flush suffused the noble face of the earl, his eyes shot
+lightning, and, trembling with rage, he laid his hand on his sword.
+"Praise from Thomas Seymour is--"
+
+"Silence!" interposed the king, imperatively. "It must not be said that
+two of the noblest cavaliers of my court have turned the day, which
+should be one of festivity to all of you, into a day of contention. I
+command you, therefore, to be reconciled. Shake hands, my lords, and let
+your reconciliation be sincere. I, the king command it!"
+
+The young men gazed at each other with looks of hatred and smothered
+rage, and their eyes spoke the insulting and defiant words which their
+lips durst no longer utter. The king had ordered, and, however great
+and powerful they might be, the king was to be obeyed. They,
+therefore, extended their hands to each other, and muttered a few low,
+unintelligible words, which might be, perhaps, a mutual apology, but
+which neither of them understood.
+
+"And now, sire," said the Earl of Surrey, "now I venture to reiterate my
+prayer. Mercy, your majesty, mercy for Anne Askew!"
+
+"And you, Thomas Seymour, do you also renew your petition?"
+
+"No, I withdraw it. Earl Surrey protects her; I, therefore, retire, for
+without doubt she is a criminal; your majesty says so, and, therefore,
+it is so. It would ill become a Seymour to protect a person who sinned
+against the king."
+
+This new indirect attack on Earl Surrey seemed to make on all present a
+deep but very varied impression. Here, faces were seen to turn pale,
+and there, to light up with a malicious smile; here, compressed
+lips muttered words of threatening, there, a mouth opened to express
+approbation and agreement.
+
+The king's brow was clouded and troubled; the arrow which Earl Sudley
+had shot with so skilful a hand had hit. The king, ever suspicious and
+distrustful, felt so much the more disquieted as he saw that the greater
+part of his cavaliers evidently reckoned themselves friends of Henry
+Howard, and that the number of Seymour's adherents was but trifling.
+
+"These Howards are dangerous, and I will watch them carefully," said the
+king to himself; and for the first time his eye rested with a dark and
+hostile look on Henry Howard's noble countenance.
+
+But Thomas Seymour, who wished only to make a thrust at his old enemy,
+had at the same time decided the fate of poor Anne Askew. It was now
+almost an impossibility to speak in her behalf, and to implore pardon
+for her was to become a partaker of her crime. Thomas Seymour had
+abandoned her, because, as traitress to her king, she had rendered
+herself unworthy of his protection. Who now would be so presumptuous as
+to still protect the traitress?
+
+Henry Howard did it; he reiterated his supplication for Anne Askew's
+pardon. But the king's countenance grew darker and darker, and the
+courtiers watched with dread the coming of the moment when his wrath
+would dash in pieces the poor Earl of Surrey.
+
+In the row of ladies also, here and there, a pale face was visible, and
+many a beautiful and beaming eye was dimmed with tears at the sight of
+this gallant and handsome cavalier, who was hazarding even his life for
+a woman.
+
+"He is lost!" murmured Lady Jane Douglas; and, completely crushed
+and lifeless, she leaned for a moment against the wall. But she soon
+recovered herself, and her eye beamed with bold resolution. "I will try
+and save him!" she said to herself; and, with firm step, she advanced
+from the ladies' ranks, and approached the king.
+
+A murmur of applause ran through the company, and all fares brightened
+and all eyes were bent approvingly on Lady Jane. They knew that she
+was the queen's friend, and an adherent of the new doctrine; it was,
+therefore, very marked and significant when she supported the Earl of
+Surrey in his magnanimous effort.
+
+Lady Jane bowed her beautiful and haughty head before the king, and
+said, in her clear, silvery voice: "Sire, in the name of all the women,
+I also beseech you to pardon Anne Askew, because she is a woman. Lord
+Surrey has done so because a true knight can never be false to himself
+and his ever high and sacred obligation: to be the protector of those
+who are helpless and in peril is enough for him. A real gentleman asks
+not whether a woman is worthy of his protection; he grants it to
+her, simply because she is a woman, and needs his help. And while I,
+therefore, in the name of all the women, thank the Earl of Surrey for
+the assistance that he has been desirous to render to a woman, I unite
+my prayer with his, because it shall not be said that we women are
+always cowardly and timid, and never venture to hasten to the help of
+the distressed. I, therefore, ask mercy, sire, mercy for Anne Askew!"
+
+"And I," said the queen, as she again approached the king, "I add my
+prayers to hers, sire. To-day is the feast of love, my festival, sire!
+To-day, then, let love and mercy prevail."
+
+She looked at the king with so charming a smile, her eyes had an
+expression so radiant and happy, that the king could not withstand her.
+
+He was, therefore, in the depths of his heart, ready to let the royal
+clemency prevail for this time; but he wanted a pretext for this, some
+way of bringing it about. He had solemnly vowed to pardon no heretic,
+and he might not break his word merely because the queen prayed for
+mercy.
+
+"Well, then," said he, after a pause, "I will comply with your request.
+I will pardon Anne Askew, provided she will retract, and solemnly abjure
+all that she has said. Are you satisfied with that, Catharine?"
+
+"I am satisfied," said she, sadly.
+
+"And you, Lady Jane Douglas, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey?"
+
+"We are satisfied."
+
+All eyes were now turned again upon Anne Askew, who, although every
+one was occupied by her concerns, had been entirely overlooked and left
+unnoticed.
+
+Nor had she taken any more notice of the company than they of her. She
+had scarcely observed what was going on about her. She stood leaning
+against the open door leading to the balcony, and gazed at the flaming
+horizon. Her soul was with those pious martyrs, for whom she was
+sending up her heart-felt prayers to God, and whom she, in her feverish
+exaltation, envied their death of torture. Entirely borne away from the
+present, she had heard neither the petitions of those who protected her,
+nor the king's reply.
+
+A hand laid upon her shoulder roused her from her reverie.
+
+It was Catharine, the young queen, who stood near her.
+
+"Anne Askew," said she, in a hurried whisper, "if your life is dear to
+you, comply with the king's demand."
+
+She seized the young girl's hand, and led her to the king.
+
+"Sire," said she, in a full voice, "forgive the exalted and impassioned
+agony of a poor girl, who has now, for the first time, been witness of
+an execution, and whose mind has been so much impressed by it that she
+is scarcely conscious of the mad and criminal words that she has
+uttered before you! Pardon her, then, your majesty, for she is prepared
+cheerfully to retract."
+
+A cry of amazement burst from Anne's lips, and her eyes flashed with
+anger, as she dashed the queen's hand away from her.
+
+"I retract!" exclaimed she, with a contemptuous smile. "Never, my lady,
+never! No! as sure as I hope for God to be gracious to me in my last
+hour, I retract not! It is true, it was agony and horror that made me
+speak; but what I have spoken is yet, nevertheless, the truth. Horror
+caused me to speak, and forced me to show my soul undisguised. No, I
+retract not! I tell you, they who have been executed over yonder are
+holy martyrs, who have ascended to God, there to enter an accusation
+against their royal hangman. Ay, they are holy, for eternal truth had
+illumined their souls, and it beamed about their faces bright as the
+flames of the fagots into which the murderous hand of an unrighteous
+judge had cast them. Ah, I must retract! I, forsooth, am to do as did
+Shaxton, the miserable and unfaithful servant of his God, who, from
+fear of earthly death, denied the eternal truth, and in blaspheming
+pusillanimity perjured himself concerning the holy doctrine. [Footnote:
+Burnet, vol. i, p. 341] King Henry, I say unto you, beware of
+dissemblers and perjurers; beware of your own haughty and arrogant
+thoughts. The blood of martyrs cries to Heaven against you, and the time
+will come when God will be as merciless to you as you have been to the
+noblest of your subjects! You deliver them over to the murderous flames,
+because they will not believe what the priests of Baal preach; because
+they will not believe in the real transubstantiation of the chalice;
+because they deny that the natural body of Christ is, after the
+sacrament, contained in the sacrament, no matter whether the priest be
+a good or a bad man. [Footnote: Ibid.] You give them over to the
+executioner, because they serve the truth, and are faithful followers of
+the Lord their God!"
+
+"And you share the views of these people whom you call martyrs?" asked
+the king, as Anne Askew now paused for a moment and struggled for
+breath.
+
+"Yes, I share them!"
+
+"You deny, then, the truth of the six articles?"
+
+"I deny them!"
+
+"You do not see in me the head of the Church?"
+
+"God only is Head and Lord of the Church!"
+
+A pause followed--a fearful, awful pause.
+
+Every one felt that for this poor young girl there was no hope, no
+possible escape; that her doom was irrevocably sealed.
+
+There was a smile on the king's countenance.
+
+The courtiers knew that smile, and feared it yet more than the king's
+raging wrath.
+
+When the king thus smiled, he had taken his resolve. Then there was with
+him no possible vacillation or hesitation, but the sentence of death was
+resolved on, and his bloodthirsty soul rejoiced over a new victim.
+
+"My Lord Bishop of Winchester," said the king, at length, "come hither."
+
+Gardiner drew near and placed himself by Anne Askew, who gazed at him
+with angry, contemptuous looks.
+
+"In the name of the law I command you to arrest this heretic, and hand
+her over to the spiritual court," continued the king. "She is damned and
+lost. She shall be punished as she deserves!"
+
+Gardiner laid his hand on Anne Askew's shoulder. "In the name of the law
+of God, I arrest you!" said he, solemnly.
+
+Not a word more was spoken. The lord chief justice had silently followed
+a sign from Gardiner, and touching Anne Askew with his staff, ordered
+the soldiers to conduct her thence.
+
+With a smile, Anne Askew offered them her hand, and surrounded by the
+soldiers and followed by the Bishop of Winchester and the lord chief
+justice, walked erect and proudly out of the room.
+
+The courtiers had divided and opened a passage for Anne and her
+attendants. Now their ranks closed again, as the sea closes and flows
+calmly on when it has just received a corpse. To them all Anne Askew was
+already a corpse, as one buried. The waves had swept over her and all
+was again serene and bright.
+
+The king extended his hand to his young wife, and, bending down,
+whispered in her ear a few words, which nobody understood, but which
+made the young queen tremble and blush.
+
+The king, who observed this, laughed and impressed a kiss on her
+forehead. Then he turned to his court; "Now, good-night, my lords and
+gentlemen," said he, with a gracious inclination of the head. "The feast
+is at an end, and we need rest."
+
+"Forget not the Princess Elizabeth," whispered Archbishop Cranmer, as he
+took leave of Catharine, and pressed to his lips her proffered hand.
+
+"I will not forget her," murmured Catharine, and, with throbbing heart
+and trembling with inward dread, she saw them all retire, and leave her
+alone with the king.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE INTERCESSION.
+
+
+"And now, Kate," said the king, when all had withdrawn, and he was again
+alone with her, "now let us forget everything, save that we love each
+other."
+
+He embraced her and with ardor pressed her to his breast. Wearied to
+death, she bowed her head on his shoulder and lay there like a shattered
+rose, completely broken, completely passive.
+
+"You give me no kiss, Kate?" said Henry, with a smile. "Are you then yet
+angry with me that I did not comply with your first request? But what
+would you have me do, child? How, indeed, shall I keep the crimson of my
+royal mantle always fresh and bright, unless I continually dye it anew
+in the blood of criminals? Only he who punishes and destroys is truly
+a king, and trembling mankind will acknowledge him as such. The
+tender-hearted and gracious king it despises, and his pitiful weakness
+it laughs to scorn. Bah! Humanity is such a wretched, miserable thing,
+that it only respects and acknowledges him who makes it tremble. And
+people are such contemptible, foolish children, that they have respect
+only for him who makes them feel the lash daily, and every now and then
+whips a few of them to death. Look at me, Kate: where is there a king
+who has reigned longer and more happily than I? whom the people love
+more and obey better than me? This arises from the fact that I have
+already signed more than two hundred death-warrants, [Footnote: Tytler,
+p. 428. Leti, vol. i, p. 187.] and because every one believes that,
+if he does not obey me, I will without delay send his head after the
+others!"
+
+"Oh, you say you love me," murmured Catharine, "and you speak only of
+blood and death while you are with me."
+
+The king laughed. "You are right, Kate," said he, "and yet, believe me,
+there are other thoughts slumbering in the depths of my heart, and
+could you look down into it, you would not accuse me of coldness and
+unkindness. I love you truly, my dear, virgin bride, and, to prove it,
+you shall now ask a favor of me. Yes, Kate, make me a request, and,
+whatever it may be, I pledge you my royal word, it shall be granted you.
+Now, Kate, think, what will please you? Will you have brilliants, or a
+castle by the sea, or, perhaps, a yacht? Would you like fine horses, or
+it may be some one has offended you, and you would like his head? If so,
+tell me, Kate, and you shall have his head; a wink from me, and it
+drops at your feet. For I am almighty and all-powerful, and no one is
+so innocent and pure, that my will cannot find in him a crime which will
+cost him his life. Speak, then, Kate; what would you have? What will
+gladden your heart?"
+
+Catharine smiled in spite of her secret fear and horror. "Sire," said
+she, "you have given me so many brilliants, that I can shine and glitter
+with them, as night does with her stars. If you give me a castle by the
+sea, that is, at the same time, banishing me from Whitehall and your
+presence; I wish, therefore, for no castle of my own. I wish only to
+dwell with you in your castles, and my king's abode shall be my only
+residence."
+
+"Beautifully and wisely spoken," said the king; "I will remember these
+words if ever your enemies endeavor to send you to a dwelling and a
+castle other than that which your king occupies. The Tower is also a
+castle, Kate, but I give you my royal word you shall never occupy that
+castle. You want no treasures and no castles? It is, then, somebody's
+head that you demand of me?"
+
+"Yes, sire, it is the head of some one!"
+
+"Ah, I guessed it, then," said the king with a laugh. "Now speak,
+my little bloodthirsty queen, whose head will you have? Who shall be
+brought to the block?"
+
+"Sire, it is true I ask you for the head of a person," said Catharine,
+in a tender, earnest tone, "but I wish not that head to fall, but to be
+lifted up. I beg you for a human life--not to destroy it, but, on the
+contrary, to adorn it with happiness and joy. I wish to drag no one to
+prison, but to restore to one, dearly beloved, the freedom, happiness,
+and splendid position which belong to her. Sire, you have permitted me
+to ask a favor. Now, then, I beg you to call the Princess Elizabeth to
+court. Let her reside with us at Whitehall. Allow her to be ever near
+me, and share my happiness and glory. Sire, only yesterday the Princess
+Elizabeth was far above me in rank and position, but since your
+all-powerful might and grace have to-day elevated me above all other
+women, I may now love the Princess Elizabeth as my sister and dearest
+friend. Grant me this, my king! Let Elizabeth come to us at Whitehall,
+and enjoy at our court the honor which is her due." [Footnote: Leti,
+vol. i. p. 147. Tytler. p. 410.]
+
+The king did not reply immediately; but in his quiet and smiling air
+one could read that his young consort's request had not angered him.
+Something like an emotion flitted across his face, and his eyes were
+for a moment dimmed with tears. Perhaps just then a pale, soul-harrowing
+phantom passed before his mind, and a glance at the past showed him the
+beautiful and unfortunate mother [Footnote: Ann Boleyn] of Elizabeth,
+whom he had sentenced to a cruel death at the hands of the public
+executioner, and whose last word nevertheless was a blessing and a
+message of love for him.
+
+He passionately seized Catharine's hand and pressed it to his lips. "I
+thank you! You are unselfish and generous. That is a very rare quality,
+and I shall always highly esteem you for it. But you are also brave and
+courageous, for you have dared what nobody before you has dared; you
+have twice on the same evening interceded for one condemned and one
+fallen into disgrace. The fortunate, and those favored by me, have
+always had many friends, but I have never yet seen that the unfortunate
+and the exiled have also found friends. You are different from these
+miserable, cringing courtiers; different from this deceitful and
+trembling crowd, that with chattering teeth fall down and worship me
+as their god and lord; different from these pitiful, good-for-nothing
+mortals, who call themselves my people, and who allow me to yoke them
+up, because they are like the ox, which is obedient and serviceable,
+only because he is so stupid as not to know his own might and strength.
+Ah, believe me, Kate, I would be a milder and more merciful king, if the
+people were not such an utterly stupid and contemptible thing; a dog,
+which is so much the more submissive and gentle the more you maltreat
+him. You, Kate, you are different, and I am glad of it. You know, I have
+forever banished Elizabeth from my court and from my heart, and still
+you intercede for her. That is noble of you, and I love you for it, and
+grant you your request. And that you may see how I love and trust you,
+I will now reveal to you a secret: I have long since wished to have
+Elizabeth with me, but I was ashamed, even to myself, of this weakness.
+I have long yearned once again to look into my daughter's large deep
+eyes, to be a kind and tender father to her, and make some amends to her
+for the wrong I perhaps may have done to her mother. For sometimes, in
+sleepless nights, Anne's beautiful face comes up before me and gazes at
+me with mournful, mild look, and my whole heart shudders before it.
+But I could not confess this to anybody, for then they might say that I
+repented what I had done. A king must be infallible, like God himself,
+and never, through regret or desire to compensate, confess that he is a
+weak, erring mortal, like others. You see why I repressed my longing and
+parental tenderness, which was suspected by no one, and appeared to be
+a heartless father, because nobody would help me and make it easy for
+me to be a tender father. Ah, these courtiers! They are so stupid, that
+they can understand only just what is echoed in our words; but what
+our heart says, and longs for, of that they know nothing. But you know,
+Kate; you are an acute woman, and a high-minded one besides. Come, Kate,
+a thankful father gives you this kiss, and this, ay, this, your husband
+gives you, my beautiful, charming queen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. HENRY THE EIGHTH AND HIS WIVES.
+
+
+The calm of night had now succeeded to the tempest of the day, and after
+so much bustle, festivity, and rejoicing, deep quiet now reigned in the
+palace of Whitehall, and throughout London. The happy subjects of King
+Henry might, without danger, remain for a few hours at least in their
+houses, and behind closed shutters and bolted doors, either slumber and
+dream, or give themselves to their devotional exercises, on account of
+which they had that day, perhaps, been denounced as malefactors. They
+might, for a few hours, resign themselves to the sweet, blissful dream
+of being freemen untrammelled in belief and thought. For King Henry
+slept, and likewise Gardiner and the lord chancellor had closed their
+watchful, prying, devout, murderous eyes, and reposed awhile from the
+Christian employment of ferreting out heretics.
+
+And like the king, the entire households of both their majesties were
+also asleep and resting from the festivities of the royal wedding-day,
+which, in pomp and splendor, by far surpassed the five preceding
+marriages.
+
+It appeared, however, as though not all the court officials were taking
+rest, and following the example of the king. For in a chamber, not far
+from that of the royal pair, one could perceive, from the bright beams
+streaming from the windows, in spite of the heavy damask curtains which
+veiled them, that the lights were not yet extinguished; and he who
+looked more closely would have observed that now and then a human shadow
+was portrayed upon the curtain.
+
+So the occupant of this chamber had not yet gone to rest, and harassing
+must have been the thoughts which cause him to move so restlessly to and
+fro.
+
+This chamber was occupied by Lady Jane Douglas, first maid of honor to
+the queen. The powerful influence of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, had
+seconded Catharine's wish to have near her the dear friend of her youth,
+and, without suspecting it, the queen had given a helping hand to
+bring nearer to their accomplishment the schemes which the hypocritical
+Gardiner was directing against her.
+
+For Catharine knew not what changes had taken place in the character of
+her friend in the four years in which she had not seen her. She did not
+suspect how fatal her sojourn in the strongly Romish city of Dublin had
+been to the easily impressible mind of her early playmate, and how much
+it had transformed her whole being. Lady Jane, once so sprightly and
+gay, had become a bigoted Romanist, who, with fanatical zeal, believed
+that she was serving God when she served the Church, and paid unreserved
+obedience to her priests.
+
+Lady Jane Douglas had therefore--thanks to her fanaticism and the
+teachings of the priests--become a complete dissembler. She could smile,
+while in her heart she secretly brooded over hatred and revenge. She
+could kiss the lips of those whose destruction she had perhaps just
+sworn. She could preserve a harmless, innocent air, while she observed
+everything, and took notice of every breath, every smile, every movement
+of the eyelashes.
+
+Hence it was very important for Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, to bring
+his "friend" of the queen to court, and make of this disciple of Loyola
+an ally and friend.
+
+Lady Jane Douglas was alone; and, pacing up and down her room, she
+thought over the events of the day.
+
+Now, that no one was observing her, she had laid aside that gentle,
+serious mien, which one was wont to see about her at other times; her
+countenance betrayed in rapid changes all the various sad and cheerful,
+tempestuous and tender feelings which agitated her.
+
+She who had hitherto had only one aim before her eyes, to serve the
+Church, and to consecrate her whole life to this service; she whose
+heart had been hitherto open only to ambition and devotion, she felt
+to-day wholly new and never-suspected feelings springing up within her.
+A new thought had entered into her life, the woman was awakened in her,
+and beat violently at that heart which devotion had overlaid with a hard
+coating.
+
+She had tried to collect herself in prayer, and to fill her soul so
+entirely with the idea of God and her Church, that no earthly thought
+or desire could find place therein. But ever and again arose before her
+mind's eye the noble countenance of Henry Howard, ever and again she
+fancied that she heard his earnest, melodious voice, which made her
+heart shake and tremble like a magical incantation. She had at first
+struggled against these sweet fancies, which forced upon her such
+strange and undreamed-of thoughts; but at length the woman in her got
+the better of the fanatical Romanist, and, dropping into a seat, she
+surrendered herself to her dreams and fancies.
+
+"Has he recognized me?" asked she of herself. "Does he still remember
+that a year ago we saw each other daily at the king's court in Dublin?"
+
+"But no," added she mournfully, "he knows nothing of it. He had then
+eyes and sense only for his young wife. Ah, and she was beautiful and
+lovely as one of the Graces. But I, am not I also beautiful? and
+have not the noblest cavaliers paid me homage, and sighed for me in
+unavailing love? How comes it, then, that where I would please, there
+I am always overlooked? How comes it, that the only two men, for whose
+notice I ever cared, have never shown any preference for me? I felt that
+I loved Henry Howard, but this love was a sin, for the Earl of Surrey
+was married. I therefore tore my heart from him by violence, and gave
+it to God, because the only man whom I could love did not return my
+affection. But even God and devotion are not able to entirely fill a
+woman's heart. In my breast there was still room for ambition; and since
+I could not be a happy wife, I would at least be a powerful queen. Oh,
+everything was so well devised, so nicely arranged! Gardiner had already
+spoken of me to the king, and inclined him to his plan; and while I
+was hastening at his call from Duma, hither, this little Catharine Parr
+comes between and snatches him from me, and overturns all our schemes.
+I will never forgive her. I will find a way to revenge myself. I will
+force her to leave this place, which belongs to me, and if there is no
+other way for it, she must go the way of the scaffold, as did Catharine
+Howard. I will be Queen of England, I will--"
+
+She suddenly interrupted her soliloquy, and listened. She thought she
+heard a slight knock at the door. She was not mistaken; this knock was
+now repeated, and indeed with a peculiar, significant stroke.
+
+"It is my father!" said Lady Jane, and, as she resumed again her grave
+and quiet air, she proceeded to open the door.
+
+"Ah, you expected me, then?" said Lord Archibald Douglas, kissing his
+daughter's forehead.
+
+"Yes, I expected you, my father," replied Lady Jane with a smile. "I
+knew that you would come to communicate to me your experiences and
+observations during the day, and to give me directions for the future."
+
+The earl seated himself on the ottoman, and drew his daughter down by
+him.
+
+"No one can overhear us, can they?"
+
+"Nobody, my father! My women are sleeping in the fourth chamber from
+here, and I have myself fastened the intervening doors. The anteroom
+through which you came is, as you know, entirely empty, and nobody can
+conceal himself there. It remains, then, only to fasten the door leading
+thence into the corridor, in order to be secure from interruption."
+
+She hastened into the anteroom to fasten the door.
+
+"Now, my father, we are secure from listeners," said she, as she
+returned and resumed her place on the ottoman.
+
+"And the walls, my child? know you whether or no the walls are safe?
+You look at me with an expression of doubt and surprise! My God, what a
+harmless and innocent little maiden you still are! Have I not constantly
+reiterated the great and wise lesson, 'Doubt everything and mistrust
+everything, even what you see.' He who will make his fortune at court,
+must first of all mistrust everybody, and consider everybody his enemy,
+whom he is to flatter, because he can do him harm, and whom he is to hug
+and kiss, until in some happy embrace he can either plunge a dagger
+into his breast wholly unobserved, or pour poison into his mouth. Trust
+neither men nor walls, Jane, for I tell you, however smooth and innocent
+both may appear, still there may be found an ambuscade behind the
+smooth exterior. But I will for the present believe that these walls are
+innocent, and conceal no listeners. I will believe it, because I
+know this room. Those were fine and charming days in which I became
+acquainted with it. Then I was yet young and handsome, and King Henry's
+sister was not yet married to the King of Scotland, and we loved each
+other so dearly. Ah, I could relate to you wonderful stories of those
+happy days. I could--"
+
+"But, my dear father," interrupted Lady Jane, secretly trembling at the
+terrible prospect of being forced to listen yet again to the story of
+his youthful love, which she had already heard times without number,
+"but, my dear father, doubtless you have not come hither so late at
+night in order to relate to me what I--forgive me, my lord--what I
+long since knew. You will rather communicate to me what your keen and
+unerring glance has discovered here."
+
+"It is true," said Lord Douglas, sadly. "I now sometimes become
+loquacious--a sure sign that I am growing old. I have, by no means, come
+here to speak of the past, but of the present. Let us, then, speak of
+it. Ah, I have to-day perceived much, seen much, observed much, and the
+result of my observations is, you will be King Henry's seventh wife."
+
+"Impossible, my lord!" exclaimed Lady Jane, whose countenance, in spite
+of her will, assumed an expression of delight.
+
+Her father remarked it. "My child," said he, "I observe that you have
+not yet your features entirely under your control. You aimed just now,
+for example, to play the coy and humble, and yet your face had the
+expression of proud satisfaction. But this by the way! The principal
+thing is, you will be King Henry's seventh wife! But in order to become
+so, there is need for great heedfulness, a complete knowledge of
+present relations, constant observation of all persons, impenetrable
+dissimulation, and lastly, above all things, a very intimate and
+profound knowledge of the king, of the history of his reign, and of his
+character. Do you possess this knowledge? Know you what it is to wish
+to become King Henry's seventh wife, and how you must begin in order to
+attain this? Have you studied Henry's character?"
+
+"A little, perhaps, but certainly not sufficiently. For, as you know, my
+lord, worldly matters have lain upon my heart less than the holy Church,
+to whose service I have consecrated myself, and to which I would have
+presented my whole being, my whole soul, my whole heart, as a sacrifice,
+had not you yourself determined otherwise concerning me. Ah, my father,
+had I been allowed to follow my inclination, I would have retired into a
+convent in Scotland in order to spend my life in quiet contemplation and
+pious penances, and close my soul and ear to every profane sound. But
+my wishes have not been regarded; and, by the mouth of His venerable and
+holy priests, God has commanded me to remain in the world, and take upon
+myself the yoke of greatness and regal splendor. If I then struggle
+and strive to become queen, this is done, not because the vain pomp and
+glory allure me, but solely because through me the Church, out of which
+is no salvation, may find a fulcrum to operate on this weak and fickle
+king, and because I am to bring him back again to the only true faith."
+
+"Very well played!" cried her father, who had stared her steadily in the
+face while she was speaking. "On my word, very well played. Everything
+was in perfect harmony, the gesticulation, the play of the eyes, and the
+voice. My daughter, I withdraw my censure. You have perfect control over
+yourself. But let us speak of King Henry. We will now subject him to a
+thorough analysis, and no fibre of his heart, no atom of his brain
+shall remain unnoticed by us. We will observe him in his domestic, his
+political, and his religious life, and get a perfectly clear view of
+every peculiarity of his character, in order that we may deal with him
+accordingly. Let us, then, speak first of his wives. Their lives and
+deaths afford you excellent finger-posts; for I do not deny that it is
+an extremely difficult and dangerous undertaking to be Henry's
+consort. There is needed for it much personal courage and very great
+self-control. Know you which, of all his wives, possessed these in
+the highest degree? It was his first consort, Catharine of Aragon! By
+Heaven, she was a sensible woman, and born a queen! Henry, avaricious as
+he was, would gladly have given the best jewel in his crown, if he could
+have detected but a shadow, the slightest trace of unfaithfulness in
+her. But there was absolutely no means of sending this woman to the
+scaffold, and at that time he was as yet too cowardly and too virtuous
+to put her out of the way by poison. He, therefore, endured her long,
+until she was an old woman with gray hairs, and disagreeable for his
+eyes to look upon. So after he had been married to her seventeen
+years, the good, pious king was all at once seized with a conscientious
+scruple, and because he had read in the Bible, 'Thou shalt not marry
+thy sister,' dreadful pangs of conscience came upon the noble and crafty
+monarch. He fell upon his knees and beat his breast, and cried: 'I
+have committed a great sin; for I have married my brother's wife, and
+consequently my sister. But I will make amends for it. I will dissolve
+this adulterous marriage!'--Do you know, child, why he would dissolve
+it?"
+
+"Because he loved Anne Boleyn!" said Jane, with a smile.
+
+"Perfectly correct! Catharine had grown old, and Henry was still a young
+man, and his blood shot through his veins like streams of fire. Hut he
+was yet somewhat virtuous and timid, and the main peculiarity of his
+character was as yet undeveloped. He was not yet bloodthirsty, that is
+to say, he had not yet licked blood. But you will see how with each new
+queen his desire for blood increased, till at length it has now become a
+wasting disease. Had he then had the system of lies that he now has, he
+would somehow have bribed a slanderer, who would have declared that
+he was Catharine's lover. But he was yet so innocent; he wanted yet to
+gratify his darling lusts in a perfectly legal way. So Anne Boleyn must
+become his queen, that he might love her. And in order to attain this,
+he threw down the glove to the whole world, became an enemy to the
+pope, and set himself in open opposition to the holy head of the Church.
+Because the Holy Father would not dissolve his marriage, King Henry
+became an apostate and atheist. He constituted himself head of his
+Church, and, by virtue of his authority as such, he declared his
+marriage with Catharine of Aragon null and void. He said that he had
+not in his heart given his consent to this marriage, and that it had
+not consequently been properly consummated.[Footnote: Burnet, vol. i, p.
+37.] It is true, Catharine had in the Princess Mary a living witness of
+the consummation of her marriage, but what did the enamored and selfish
+king care about that? Princess Mary was declared a bastard, and the
+queen was now to be nothing more than the widow of the Prince of Wales.
+It was strictly forbidden to longer give the title and to show the honor
+due to a queen, to the woman who for seventeen years had been Queen of
+England, and had been treated and honored as such. No one was permitted
+to call her anything but the Princess of Wales; and that nothing might
+disturb the good people or the noble queen herself in this illusion,
+Catharine was banished from the court and exiled to a castle, which
+she had once occupied as consort of Arthur, Prince of Wales. And Henry
+likewise allowed her only the attendance and pension which the law
+appoints to the widow of the Prince of Wales.[Footnote: Burnet, vol. i,
+p. 120.]
+
+"I have ever held this to be one of the most prudent and subtle acts
+of our exalted king, and in the whole history of this divorce the king
+conducted himself with admirable consistency and resolution. But this
+is to say, he was excited by opposition. Mark this, then, my child, for
+this is the reason why I have spoken to you of these things so much at
+length. Mark this, then: King Henry is every way entirely unable to bear
+contradiction, or to be subjected to restraint. If you wish to win him
+to any purpose, you must try to draw him from it; you must surround
+it with difficulties and hinderances. Therefore show yourself coy and
+indifferent; that will excite him. Do not court his looks; then will he
+seek to encounter yours. And when finally he loves you, dwell so long on
+your virtue and your conscience, that at length Henry, in order to quiet
+your conscience, will send this troublesome Catharine Parr to the block,
+or do as he did with Catharine of Aragon, and declare that he did not
+mentally give his consent to this marriage, and therefore Catharine
+is no queen, but only Lord Neville's widow. Ah, since he made himself
+high-priest of his Church, there is no impediment for him in matters of
+this kind, for only God is mightier than he.
+
+"The beautiful Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, proved this. I have
+seen her often, and I tell you, Jane, she was of wondrous beauty.
+Whoever looked upon her, could not but love her, and he whom she smiled
+upon felt himself fascinated and glorified. When she had borne to the
+king the Princess Elizabeth, I heard him say, that he had attained the
+summit of his happiness, the goal of his wishes, for the queen had borne
+him a daughter, and so there was a regular and legitimate successor to
+his throne. But this happiness lasted only a brief time.
+
+"The king conceived one day that Anne Boleyn was not, as he had hitherto
+believed, the most beautiful woman in the world; but that there were
+women still more beautiful at his court, who therefore had a stronger
+vocation to become Queen of England. He had seen Jane Seymour, and she
+without doubt was handsomer than Anne Boleyn, for she was not as yet the
+king's consort, and there was an obstacle to his possession of her--the
+Queen Anne Boleyn. This obstacle must be got out of the way.
+
+"Henry, by virtue of his plentitude of power, might again have been
+divorced from his wife, but he did not like to repeat himself, he wished
+to be always original; and no one was to be allowed to say that his
+divorces were only the cloak of his capricious lewdness.
+
+"He had divorced Catharine of Aragon on account of conscientious
+scruples; therefore, some other means must be devised for Anne Boleyn.
+
+"The shortest way to be rid of her was the scaffold. Why should not Anne
+travel that road, since so many had gone it before her? for a new
+force had entered into the king's life: the tiger had licked blood! His
+instinct was aroused, and he recoiled no more from those crimson rills
+which flowed in the veins of his subjects.
+
+"He had given Lady Anne Boleyn the crimson mantle of royalty, why then
+should she not give him her crimson blood? For this there was wanted
+only a pretext, and this was soon found. Lady Rochfort was Jane
+Seymour's aunt, and she found some men, of whom she asserted that they
+had been lovers of the fair Anne Boleyn. She, as the queen's first lady
+of the bed-chamber, could of course give the most minute particulars
+concerning the matter, and the king believed her. He believed her,
+though these four pretended lovers of the queen, who were executed for
+their crime, all, with the exception of a single one, asseverated that
+Anne Boleyn was innocent, and that they had never been in her presence.
+The only one who accused the queen of illicit intercourse with him was
+James Smeaton, a musician. [Footnote: Tytler.] But he had been promised
+his life for this confession. However, it was not thought advisable to
+keep this promise, for fear that, when confronted with the queen, he
+might not have the strength to sustain his assertion. But not to be
+altogether unthankful to him for so useful a confession, they showed him
+the favor of not executing him with the axe, but the more agreeable and
+easier death of hanging was vouchsafed to him.[Footnote: Burnet, vol. i,
+p. 205.]
+
+"So the fair and lovely Anne Boleyn must lay her head upon the block.
+The day on which this took place, the king had ordered a great hunt, and
+early that morning we rode out to Epping Forest. The king was at first
+unusually cheerful and humorous, and he commanded me to ride near him,
+and tell him something from the chronique scandaleuse of our court. He
+laughed at my spiteful remarks, and the worse I calumniated, the merrier
+was the king. Finally, we halted; the king had talked and laughed so
+much that he had at last become hungry. So he encamped under an oak,
+and, in the midst of his suite and his dogs, he took a breakfast, which
+pleased him very much, although he had now become a little quieter
+and more silent, and sometimes turned his face toward the direction of
+London with visible restlessness and anxiety. But suddenly was heard
+from that direction the dull sound of a cannon. We all knew that this
+was the signal which was to make known to the king that Anne Boleyn's
+head had fallen. We knew it, and a shudder ran through our whole frames.
+The king alone smiled, and as he arose and took his weapon from my hand,
+he said, with cheerful face, 'It is done, the business is finished.
+Unleash the dogs, and let us follow the boar.' [Footnote: The king's
+very words. Tytler, p. 383. The oak under which this took place is
+still pointed out in Epping Forest, and in fact is not less remarkable
+as the oak of Charles II.]
+
+"That," said Lord Douglas, sadly, "that was King Henry's funeral
+discourse over his charming and innocent wife."
+
+"Do you regret her, my father?" asked Lady Jane, with surprise. "But
+Anne Boleyn was, it seems to me, an enemy of our Church, and an adherent
+of the accursed new doctrine."
+
+Her father shrugged his shoulders almost contemptuously. That did not
+prevent Lady Anne from being one of the fairest and loveliest women of
+Old England. And, besides, much as she inclined to the new doctrine,
+she did us essential good service, for she it was who bore the blame
+of Thomas More's death. Since he had not approved her marriage with the
+king, she hated him, as the king hated him because he would not take the
+oath of supremacy. Henry, however, would have spared him, for, at that
+time, he still possessed some respect for learning and virtue, and
+Thomas More was so renowned a scholar that the king held him in
+reverence. But Anne Boleyn demanded his death, and so Thomas More must
+be executed. Oh, believe me, Jane, that was an important and sad hour
+for all England, the hour when Thomas More laid his head upon the block.
+We only, we gay people in the palace of Whitehall, we were cheerful
+and merry. We were dancing a new kind of dance, the music of which was
+written by the king himself, for you know the king is not merely an
+author, but also a composer, and as he now writes pious books, so he
+then composed dances. [Footnote: Granger's "Biographical History of
+England," vol. I, p. 137. of Tytler, p. 354.] That evening, after we
+had danced till we were tired, we played cards. Just as I had won a few
+guineas from the king, the lieutenant of the Tower came with the tidings
+that the execution was over, and gave us a description of the last
+moments of the great scholar. The king threw down his cards, and,
+turning an angry look on Anne Boleyn, said, in an agitated voice, 'You
+are to blame for the death of this man!' Then he arose and withdrew to
+his apartments, while no one was permitted to follow him, not even the
+queen. [Footnote: Tytler, p. 354] You see, then, that Anne Boleyn had
+a claim on our gratitude, for the death of Thomas More delivered Old
+England from another great peril. Melanchthon and Bucer, and with them
+several of the greatest pulpit orators of Germany, had set out to come
+to London, and, as delegates of the Germanic Protestant princes, to
+nominate the king as head of their alliance. But the terrible news of
+the execution of their friend frightened them back, and caused them to
+return when half-way here. [Footnote: Tytler, p. 357. Leti, vol. I, p.
+180. Granger, vol. I, p. 119.]
+
+"Peace, then, to the ashes of unhappy Anne Boleyn! However, she was
+avenged too, avenged on her successor and rival, for whose sake she was
+made to mount the scaffold--avenged on Jane Seymour."
+
+"But she was the king's beloved wife," said Jane, "and when she died the
+king mourned for her two years."
+
+"He mourned!" exclaimed Lord Douglas, contemptuously. "He has mourned
+for all his wives. Even for Anne Boleyn he put on mourning, and in his
+white mourning apparel, the day after Anne's execution, he led Jane
+Seymour to the marriage altar! This outward mourning, what does it
+signify? Anne Boleyn also mourned for Catharine of Aragon, whom she had
+pushed from the throne. For eight weeks she was seen in yellow mourning
+on account of Henry's first wife; but Anne Boleyn was a shrewd woman,
+and she knew very well that the yellow mourning dress was exceedingly
+becoming to her."
+
+"But the king's mourning was not merely external," said Lady Jane.
+"He mourned really, for it was two years before he resolved on a new
+marriage."
+
+Earl Douglas laughed. "But he cheered himself during these two years
+of widowhood with a very beautiful mistress, the French Marchioness
+de Montreuil, and he would have married her had not the prudent beauty
+preferred returning to France, because she found it altogether too
+dangerous to become Henry's consort. For it is not to be denied, a
+baleful star hovers over Henry's queens, and none of them has descended
+from the throne in a natural way."
+
+"Yet, father, Jane Seymour did so in a very natural way; she died in
+childbed."
+
+"Well, yes, in childbed. And yet by no natural death, for she could have
+been saved. But Henry did not wish to save her. His love had already
+grown cool, and when the physicians asked him whether they should save
+the mother or the child, he replied, 'Save the child, and let the mother
+die. I can get wives enough.' [Footnote: Burnet.] Ah, my daughter, I
+hope you may not die such a natural death as Jane Seymour did, for whom,
+as you say, the king mourned two years. But after that period, something
+new, something altogether extraordinary happened to the king. He fell
+in love with a picture, and because, in his proud self-conceit, he was
+convinced that the fine picture which Holbein had made of him, was not
+at all flattered, but entirely true to nature, it did not occur to him
+that Holbein's likeness of the Princess Anne of Cleves might be somewhat
+flattered, and not altogether faithful. So the king fell in love with
+a picture, and sent ambassadors to Germany to bring the original of
+the portrait to England as his bride. He himself went to meet her at
+Rochester, where she was to land. Ah, my child, I have witnessed many
+queer and droll things in my eventful life, but the scene at Rochester,
+however, is among my most spicy recollections. The king was as
+enthusiastic as a poet, and deep in love as a youth of twenty, and so
+began our romantic wedding-trip, on which Henry disguised himself and
+took part in it, assuming the name of my cousin. As the king's master of
+horse, I was honored with the commission of carrying to the young queen
+the greeting of her ardent husband, and begging her to receive the
+knight, who would deliver to her a present from the king. She granted my
+request with a grin which made visible a frightful row of yellow teeth.
+I opened the door, and invited the king to enter. Ah, you ought to
+have witnessed that scene! It is the only farcical passage in the bloody
+tragedy of Henry's married life. You should have seen with what hasty
+impatience the king rushed in, then suddenly, at the sight of her,
+staggered back and stared at the princess. Slowly retiring, he silently
+thrust into my hand the rich present that he had brought, while at the
+same time he threw a look of flaming wrath on Lord Cromwell, who had
+brought him the portrait of the princess and won him to this marriage.
+The romantic, ardent lover vanished with this look at his beloved. He
+approached the princess again--this time not as a cavalier, but, with
+harsh and hasty words, he told her he was the king himself. He bade her
+welcome in a few words, and gave her a cold, formal embrace. He then
+hastily took my hand and drew me out of the room, beckoning the rest
+to follow him. And when at length we were out of the atmosphere of this
+poor ugly princess, and far enough away from her, the king, with
+angry countenance, said to Cromwell: 'Call you that a beauty? She is a
+Flanders mare, but no princess.' [Footnote: Burnet, p. 174. Tytler,
+p. 417.] Anne's ugliness was surely given her of God, that by it, the
+Church, in which alone is salvation, might be delivered from the great
+danger which threatened it. For had Anne of Cleves, the sister, niece,
+granddaughter and aunt of all the Protestant princes of Germany, been
+beautiful, incalculable danger would have threatened our church. The
+king could not overcome his repugnance, and again his conscience, which
+always appeared to be most tender and scrupulous, when it was farthest
+from it and most regardless, must come to his aid.
+
+"The king declared that he had been only in appearance, not in his
+innermost conscience, disposed to this marriage, from which he now
+shrank back, because it would be, properly speaking, nothing more than
+perfidy, perjury, and bigamy. For Anne's father had once betrothed her
+to the son of the Duke of Lorraine, and had solemnly pledged him his
+word to give her as a wife to the young duke as soon as she was of age;
+rings had been exchanged and the marriage contract already drawn up.
+Anne of Cleves, therefore, was virtually already married, and Henry,
+with his tender conscience, could not make one already married his wife.
+[Footnote: Burnet.] He made her, therefore, his sister, and gave her
+the palace at Richmond for a residence, in case she wished to remain
+in England. She accepted it; her blood, which crept coldly and quietly
+through her veins, did not rise at the thought of being despised and
+repudiated. She accepted it, and remained in England.
+
+"She was rejected because she was ugly; and now the king selected
+Catharine Howard for his fifth consort, because she was pretty. Of this
+marriage I know but little to tell you, for, at that time, I had already
+gone to Dublin as minister, whither you soon followed me. Catharine was
+very beautiful, and the king's heart, now growing old, once more flamed
+high with youthful love. He loved her more warmly than any other of
+his wives. He was so happy in her that, kneeling down publicly in the
+church, with a loud voice he thanked God for the happiness which his
+beautiful young queen afforded him. But this did not last long. Even
+while the king was extolling it, his happiness had reached its highest
+point, and the next day he was dashed down into the abyss. I speak
+without poetical exaggeration, my child. The day before, he thanked God
+for his happiness, and the next morning Catharine Howard was
+already imprisoned and accused, as an unfaithful wife, a shameless
+strumpet.[Footnote: Tytler, p. 432.] More than seven lovers had preceded
+her royal spouse, and some of them had accompanied her even on the
+progress through Yorkshire, which she made with the king her husband.
+This time it was no pretence, for he had not yet had time to fall in
+love with another woman, and Catharine well knew how to enchain him and
+ever to kindle new flames within him. But just because he loved her, he
+could not forgive her for having deceived him. In love there is so much
+cruelty and hatred; and Henry, who but yesterday lay at her feet, burned
+to-day with rage and jealousy, as yesterday with love and rapture. In
+his rage, however, he still loved her, and when he held in his hand
+indubitable proof of her guilt, he wept like a child. But since he could
+no longer be her lover, he would be her hangman; since she had spotted
+the crimson of his royal mantle, he would dye it afresh with her own
+crimson blood. And he did so. Catharine Howard was forced to lay her
+beautiful head upon the block, as Anne Boleyn had done before her; and
+Anne's death was now once more avenged. Lady Rochfort had been Anne
+Boleyn's accuser, and her testimony had brought that queen to the
+scaffold; but now she was convicted of being Catharine Howard's
+assistant and confidante in her love adventures, and with Catharine,
+Lady Rochfort also ascended the scaffold.
+
+"Ah, the king needed a long time to recover from this blow. He searched
+two years for a pure, uncontaminated virgin, who might become his queen
+without danger of the scaffold. But he found none; so he took then Lord
+Neville's widow, Catharine Parr. But you know, my child, that
+Catharine is an unlucky name for Henry's queens. The first Catharine he
+repudiated, the second he beheaded. What will he do with the third?"
+
+Lady Jane smiled. "Catharine does not love him," said she, "and I
+believe she would willingly consent, like Anne of Cleves, to become his
+sister, instead of his wife."
+
+"Catharine does not love the king?" inquired Lord Douglas, in breathless
+suspense. "She loves another, then!"
+
+"No, my father! Her heart is yet like a sheet of white paper: no single
+name is yet inscribed there."
+
+"Then we must write a name there, and this name must drive her to the
+scaffold, or into banishment," said her father impetuously. "It is your
+business, my child, to take a steel graver, and in some way write a name
+in Catharine's heart so deep and indelibly, that the king may some day
+read it there."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
+
+
+Both now kept silent for a long time. Lord Douglas had leaned back on
+the ottoman, and, respiring heavily, seemed to breathe a little from the
+exertion of his long discourse. But while he rested, his large, piercing
+eyes were constantly turned to Jane, who, leaning back on the cushion,
+was staring thoughtfully into the empty air, and seemed to be entirely
+forgetful of her father's presence.
+
+A cunning smile played for a moment over the countenance of the earl as
+he observed her, but it quickly disappeared, and now deep folds of care
+gathered on his brow. As he saw that Lady Jane was plunging deeper and
+deeper into reverie, he at length laid his hand on her shoulder and
+hastily asked, "What are you thinking of, Jane?"
+
+She gave a sudden start, and looked at the earl with an embarrassed air.
+
+"I am thinking of all that you have been saying to me, my father,"
+replied she, calmly. "I am considering what benefit to our object I can
+draw from it."
+
+Lord Douglas shook his head, and smiled incredulously. At length he said
+solemnly: "Take care, Jane, take care that your heart does not deceive
+your head. If we would reach our aim here, you must, above all things,
+maintain a cool heart and a cool head. Do you still possess both, Jane?"
+
+In confusion she cast down her eyes before his penetrating look. Lord
+Douglas noticed it, and a passionate word was already on his lips. But
+he kept it back. As a prudent diplomat, he knew that it is often more
+politic to destroy a thing by ignoring it, than to enter into an open
+contest with it. The feelings are like the dragons' teeth of Theseus.
+If you contend with them, they always grow again anew, and with renewed
+energy, out of the soil. Lord Douglas, therefore, was very careful not
+to notice his daughter's confusion. "Pardon me, my daughter, if, in my
+zeal and my tender care for you, I go too far. I know that your dear and
+beautiful head is cool enough to wear a crown. I know that in your heart
+dwell only ambition and religion. Let us, then, further consider what we
+have to do in order to attain our end.
+
+"We have spoken of Henry as a husband, of Henry as a man; and I hope
+you have drawn some useful lessons from the fate of his wives. You have
+learned that it is necessary to possess all the good and all the bad
+qualities of woman in order to control this stiff-necked and tyrannical,
+this lustful and bigoted, this vain and sensual man, whom the wrath of
+God has made King of England. You must, before all things, be perfect
+master of the difficult art of coquetry. You must become a female
+Proteus--today a Messalina, to-morrow a nun; to-day one of the
+_literati_, to-morrow a playful child; you must ever seek to surprise
+the king, to keep him on the stretch, to enliven him. You must never
+give way to the dangerous feeling of security, for in fact King Henry's
+wife is never safe. The axe always hangs over her head, and you must
+ever consider your husband as only a fickle lover, whom you must every
+day captivate anew."
+
+"You speak as though I were already queen," said Lady Jane, smiling;
+"and yet I cannot but think that, in order to come to that, many
+difficulties are to be overcome, which may indeed perhaps be
+insuperable."
+
+"Insuperable!" exclaimed her father with a shrug of the shoulders. "With
+the aid of the holy Church, no hinderance is insuperable. Only, we must
+be perfectly acquainted with our end and our means. Do not despise,
+then, to sound the character of this king ever and again, and be certain
+you will always find in him some new hidden recess, some surprising
+peculiarity. We have spoken of him as a husband and the father of a
+family, but of his religious and political standing I have as yet told
+you nothing. And yet that, my child, is the principal point in his whole
+character.
+
+"In the first place, then, Jane, I will tell you a secret. The king, who
+has constituted himself high-priest of his Church--whom the pope once
+called 'the Knight of the Truth and the Faith'--the king has at the
+bottom of his heart no religion. He is a wavering reed, which the wind
+turns this way to-day, and that way to-morrow. He knows not his own
+will, and, coquetting with both parties, to-day he is a heretic, in
+order to exhibit himself as a strong, unprejudiced, enlightened man;
+to-morrow a Catholic, in order to show himself an obedient and humble
+servant of God, who seeks and finds his happiness only in love and
+piety. But for both confessions of faith he possesses at heart
+a profound indifference; and had the pope at that time placed no
+difficulties in his way, had he consented to his divorce from Catharine,
+Henry would have always remained a very good and active servant of
+the Catholic Church. But they were imprudent enough to irritate him by
+contradiction; they stimulated his vanity and pride to resistance; and
+so Henry became a church reformer, not from conviction, but out of pure
+love of opposition. And that, my child, you must never forget, for, by
+means of this lever, you may very well convert him again to a devout,
+dutiful, and obedient servant of our holy Church. He has renounced the
+pope, and usurped the supremacy of the Church, but he cannot summon up
+courage to carry out his work and throw himself wholly into the arms
+of the Reformation. However much he has opposed the person of the pope,
+still he has always remained devoted to the Church, although perhaps he
+does not know it himself. He is no Catholic, and he hears mass; he has
+broken up the monasteries, and yet forbids priests to marry; he has the
+Lord's supper administered under both kinds, and believes in the real
+transubstantiation of the wine into the Redeemer's holy blood. He
+destroys the convents, and yet commands that vows of chastity, spoken by
+man or woman, must be faithfully kept; and lastly, auricular confession
+is still a necessary constituent of his Church. And these he calls his
+six articles, [Footnote: Burnet, vol. I, p. 259. Tytler, p. 402.
+Mioti, vol. I, p. 134.] and the foundation of his English Church. Poor,
+short-sighted and vain man! He knows not that he has done all this, only
+because he wanted to be the pope himself, and he is nothing more than an
+anti-pope of the Holy Father at Rome, whom he, in his blasphemous pride,
+dares call 'the Bishop of Rome.'"
+
+"But, for this audacity," said Jane, with looks of burning rage, "the
+anathema has struck him and laid a curse upon his head, and given him up
+to the hatred, contempt, and scorn of his own subjects. Therefore,
+the Holy Father has justly named him 'the apostate and lost son,
+the blaspheming usurper of the holy Church.' Therefore, the pope has
+declared his crown forfeited, and promised it to him who will vanquish
+him by force of arms. Therefore, the pope has forbidden any of his
+subjects to obey him, and respect and recognize him as king."
+
+"And yet he remains King of England, and his subjects still obey him in
+slavish submission," exclaimed Earl Douglas, shrugging his shoulders.
+"It is very unwise to go so far in threats, for one should never
+threaten with punishment which he is not likewise able to really
+execute. This Romish interdict has rather been an advantage to the
+king, than done him harm, for it has forced the king into haughtier
+opposition, and proved to his subjects that a man may royally be under
+an interdict, and yet in prosperity and the full enjoyment of life."
+
+"The pope's excommunication has not hurt the king at all; his throne
+has not felt the slightest jar from it, but the apostasy of the king has
+deprived the Holy See at Rome of a very perceptible support; therefore
+we must bring the faithless king back to the holy Church, for she needs
+him. And this, my daughter, is the work that God and the will of His
+holy representative have placed in your hands. A noble, glorious, and at
+the same time profitable work, for it makes you a queen! But I repeat,
+be cautious, never irritate the king by contradiction. Without their
+knowing it, we must lead the wavering where salvation awaits them.
+For, as we have said, he is a waverer; and in the haughty pride of his
+royalty, he has the presumption to wish to stand above all parties,
+and to be himself able to found a new Church, a Church which is neither
+Catholic nor Protestant, but Ms Church; to which, in the six articles,
+the so-called 'Bloody Statute' he has given its laws.
+
+"He will not be Protestant nor Catholic, and, in order to show his
+impartiality, he is an equally terrible persecutor of both parties. So
+that it has come to pass that we must say, 'In England, Catholics are
+hanged, and those not stich are burned.' [Footnote: Leti, vol. I, p.
+144. f Tytler, p. 38.] It gives the king pleasure to hold with steady
+and cruel hand the balance between the two parties, and on the same day
+that he has a papist incarcerated, because he has disputed the king's
+supremacy, he has one of the reformed put upon the rack, because he has
+denied the real transubstantiation of the wine, or perhaps has disputed
+concerning the necessity of auricular confession. Indeed, during the
+last session of Parliament, five men were hanged because they disputed
+the supremacy, and five others burned because they professed
+the reformed views! And this evening, Jane--this, the king's
+wedding-night--by the special order of the king, who wanted to show his
+impartiality as head of the church, Catholics and Protestants have been
+coupled together like dogs, and hurried to the stake, the Catholics
+being condemned (as traitors, and the others as heretics!)
+
+"Oh," said Jane, shuddering and turning pale, "I will not be Queen of
+England. I have a horror of this cruel, savage king, whose heart is
+wholly without compassion or love."
+
+Her father laughed. "Do you not then know, child, how you can make the
+hyena gentle, and the tiger tame? You throw them again and again a fresh
+prey, which they may devour, and since they love blood so dearly, you
+constantly give them blood to drink, so that they may never thirst for
+it. The king's only steady and unchanging peculiarity is his cruelty and
+delight in blood; one then must always have some food ready for these,
+then he will ever be a very affectionate and gracious king and husband.
+
+"And there is no lack of objects for this bloodthirstiness. There are
+so many men and women at his court, and when he is precisely in a
+bloodthirsty humor, it is all the same to Henry whose blood he drinks.
+He has shed the blood of his wives and relatives; he has executed those
+whom he called his most confidential friends; he has sent the noblest
+men of his kingdom to the scaffold.
+
+"Thomas More knew him very well, and in a few striking words he summed
+up the whole of the king's character. Ah, it seems to me that I see now
+the quiet and gentle face of this wise man, as I saw him standing in
+yonder bay-window, and near him the king, his arms around the neck of
+High-Chancellor More, and listening to his discourse with a kind of
+reverential devotion. And when the king had gone, I walked up to Thomas
+More and congratulated him on the high and world-renowned favor in which
+he stood with the king. 'The king really loves you,' said I. 'Yes,'
+replied he, with his quiet, sad smile, 'yes, the king truly loves me.
+But that would not for one moment hinder him from giving my head for
+a valuable diamond, a beautiful woman, or a hand's breadth of land
+in France.' [Footnote: Leti, vol. i, p 194.] He was right, and for a
+beautiful woman, the head of this sage had to fall, of whom the most
+Christian emperor and king, Charles V., said: 'Had I been the master
+of such a servant, of whose ability and greatness we have had so much
+experience for many years; had I possessed an adviser so wise and
+earnest as Thomas More was, I would rather have lost the best city of my
+realm, than so worthy a servant and counsellor.' [Footnote: Tytler, p.
+354.]
+
+"No, Jane, be that your first and most sacred rule, never to trust
+the king, and never reckon on the duration of his affection and the
+manifestations of his favor. For, in the perfidy of his heart, it often
+pleases him to load with tokens of his favor those whose destruction he
+has already resolved upon, to adorn and decorate with orders and jewels
+to-day those whom to-morrow he is going to put to death. It flatters his
+self-complacency, like the lion, to play a little with the puppy he
+is about to devour. Thus did he with Cromwell, for many years his
+counsellor and friend, who had committed no other crime than that of
+having first exhibited to the king the portrait of the ugly Anne of
+Cleves, whom Holbein had turned into a beauty. But the king took good
+care not to be angry with Cromwell, or to reproach him for it. Much
+more--in recognition of his great services, he raised him to the earldom
+of Essex, decorated him with the Order of the Garter and appointed him
+lord chamberlain; and then, when Cromwell felt perfectly secure and
+proudly basked in the sunshine of royal favor, then all at once the king
+had him arrested and dragged to the tower, in order to accuse him of
+high treason. [Footnote: Ibid, p. 423.] And so Cromwell was executed,
+because Anne of Cleves did not please the king, and because Hans Holbein
+had flattered her picture.
+
+"But now we have had enough of the past, Jane. Now let us speak of the
+present and of the future, my daughter. Let us now first of all devise
+the means to overthrow this woman who stands in our way. When she is
+once overthrown, it will not be very difficult for us to put you in her
+place. For you are now here, near the king. The great mistake in our
+earlier efforts was, that we were not present and could work only
+through go-betweens and confidants. The king did not see you, and since
+the unlucky affair with Anne of Cleves he mistrusts likenesses; I very
+well knew that, for I, my child, confide in no one, not even in the most
+faithful and noblest friends. I rely upon nobody but ourselves. Had we
+been here, you would now be Queen of England instead of Catharine
+Parr. But, to our misfortune, I was still the favorite of the Regent
+of Scotland, and as such, I could not venture to approach Henry. It was
+necessary that I should fall into disgrace there, in order to be again
+sure of the king's favor here.
+
+"So I fell into disgrace and fled with you hither. Now, then, here
+we are, and let the fight begin. And you have to-day already taken an
+important step toward our end. You have attracted the notice of the
+king, and established yourself still more securely in the favor of
+Catharine. I confess, Jane, I am charmed with your prudent conduct.
+You have this day won the hearts of all parties, and it was wonderfully
+shrewd in you to come to the aid of the Earl of Surrey, as you at the
+same time won to you the heretical party, to which Anne Askew belongs.
+Oh, it was indeed, Jane, a stroke of policy that you made. For the
+Howard family is the most powerful and greatest at court, and Henry,
+Earl of Surrey, is one of its noblest representatives. Therefore we have
+now already a powerful party at court, which has in view only the
+high and holy aim of securing a victory for the holy Church, and which
+quietly and silently works only for this--to again reconcile the king
+to the pope. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, like his father, the Duke of
+Norfolk, is a good Catholic, as his niece Catharine Howard was; only
+she, besides God and the Church, was a little too fond of the images of
+God--fine-looking men. It was this that gave the victory to the other
+party, and forced the Catholic to succumb to the heretical party at
+court. Yes, for the moment, Cranmer with Catharine has got the better of
+us, but soon Gardiner with Jane Douglas will overcome the heretics, and
+send them to the scaffold. That is our plan, and, God permitting, we
+will carry it out."
+
+"But it will be a difficult undertaking," said Lady Jane, with a sigh.
+"The queen is a pure, transparent soul; she has a shrewd head and a
+clear glance. She is, moreover, guileless in her thoughts, and recoils
+with true maidenly timidity from every sin."
+
+"We must cure her of this timidity, and that is your task, Jane. You
+must despoil her of these strict notions about virtue. With flattering
+voice you must ensnare her heart, and entice it to sin."
+
+"Oh, that is an infernal plot!" said Lady Jane, turning pale. "That,
+my father, would be a crime, for that would be not only destroying her
+earthly happiness, but also imperilling her soul. I must entice her to a
+crime; that is your dishonorable demand! But I will not obey you! It is
+true, I hate her, for she stands in the way of my ambition. It is true
+I will destroy her, for she wears the crown which I wish to possess;
+but never will I be so base as to pour into her very heart the poison
+by which she shall fall. Let her seek the poison for herself; I will not
+hold back her hand; I will not warn her. Let her seek the ways of sin
+herself: I will not tell her that she has erred; but I will, from afar,
+dog her, and watch each step, and listen for every word and sigh, and
+when she has committed a crime, then I will betray her, and deliver her
+up to her judges. That is what I can and will do. I will be the demon to
+drive her from paradise in God's name, but not the serpent to entice her
+in the devil's name to sin."
+
+She paused, and, panting for breath, sunk back upon the cushion; but
+her father's hand was laid upon her shoulder with a convulsive grip, and
+pale with rage and with eyes flashing with anger, he stared at her.
+
+A cry of terror burst from Lady Jane. She, who never had seen her father
+but smiling and full of kindness, scarcely recognized that countenance,
+distorted with rage. She could scarcely convince herself that this man,
+with eyes darting fire, scowling eyebrows and lips quivering with rage,
+was really her father.
+
+"You will not?" exclaimed he, with a hollow, threatening voice. "You
+dare rebel against the holy commands of the Church? Have you, then,
+forgotten what you promised to the Holy Fathers, whose pupil you are?
+Have you forgotten that the brothers and sisters of the Holy League are
+permitted to have no other will than that of their masters! Have you
+forgotten the sublime vow which you made to our master, Ignatius Loyola?
+Answer me, unfaithful and disobedient daughter of the Church! Repeat to
+me the oath which you took when he received you into the holy Society of
+the Disciples of Jesus! Repeat your oath, I say!"
+
+As if constrained by an invisible power, Jane had arisen, and now stood,
+her hands folded across her breast, submissive and trembling before her
+father, whose erect, proud, and wrathful form towered above her.
+
+"I have sworn," said she, "to subject my own thought, and will, my life,
+and endeavors, obediently to the will of the Holy Father. I have sworn
+to be a blind tool in the hands of my masters, and to do only what they
+command and enjoin. I have vowed to serve the holy Church, in which
+alone is salvation, in every way and with all the means at my command;
+and I will despise none of these means, consider none trifling, disdain
+none, provided it leads to the end. For the end sanctifies the means,
+and nothing is a sin which is done for the honor of God and the Church!"
+
+"Ad majorem Dei gloriam!" said her father, devoutly folding his hands.
+"And you know what awaits you, if you violate your oath?"
+
+"Earthly disgrace and eternal destruction await me. The curse of all my
+brethren and sisters awaits me--eternal damnation and punishment. With
+thousands of torments and tortures of the rack, will the Holy Fathers
+put me to death; and as they kill my body and throw it as food to
+the beasts of prey, they will curse my soul and deliver it over to
+purgatory."
+
+"And what awaits you if you remain faithful to your oath, and obey the
+commands given you?"
+
+"Honor and glory on earth, besides eternal blessedness in heaven."
+
+"Then you will be a queen on earth and a queen in heaven. You know,
+then, the sacred laws of the society, and you remember your oath?"
+
+"I remember it."
+
+"And you know that the holy Loyola, before he left us, gave the Society
+of Jesus, in England, a master and general, whom all the brethren and
+sisters must serve and submit to, to whom they owe blind obedience and
+service without questioning?"
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And you know, likewise, by what sign the associates may recognize the
+general?"
+
+"By Loyola's ring, which he wears on the forefinger of his right hand."
+
+"Behold here this ring!" said the earl, drawing his hand out of his
+doublet.
+
+Lady Jane uttered a cry, and sank almost senseless at his feet.
+
+Lord Douglas, smiling graciously, raised her in his arms. "You see,
+Jane, I am not merely your father, but your master also. And you will
+obey me, will you not?"
+
+"I will obey!" said she, almost inaudibly, as she kissed the hand with
+the fatal ring.
+
+"You will be to Catharine Parr, as you have expressed it, the serpent,
+that seduces her to sin?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"You will beguile her into sin, and entice her to indulge a love which
+must lead her to destruction?"
+
+"I will do it, my father."
+
+"I will now tell you whom she is to love, and who is to be the
+instrument of destruction. You will so manage the queen that she will
+love Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey."
+
+Jane uttered a scream, and clung to the back of a chair to keep from
+falling.
+
+Her father observed her with penetrating, angry looks. "What means this
+outcry? Why does this choice surprise you?" asked he.
+
+Lady Jane had already gained her self-possession. "It surprised me,"
+said she, "because the earl is betrothed."
+
+A singular smile played about the earl's lips. "It is not the first
+time," said he, "that even a man already married has become dangerous
+to a woman's heart, and often the very impossibility of possession adds
+fuel to the flames of love. Woman's heart is ever so full of selfishness
+and contradiction."
+
+Lady Jane cast down her eyes, and made no reply. She felt that the
+piercing and penetrating look of her father was resting on her face. She
+knew that, just then, he was reading her soul, although she did not look
+at him.
+
+"Then you no longer refuse?" asked he, at length. "You will inspire the
+young queen with love for the Earl of Surrey?"
+
+"I will endeavor to do it, my father."
+
+"If you try, with a real and energetic determination to succeed, you
+will prevail. For, as you said, the queen's heart is still free; it is,
+then, like a fruitful soil, which is only waiting for some one to sow
+the seed in it, to bring forth flowers and fruit. Catharine Parr does
+not love the king; you will, then, teach her to love Henry Howard."
+
+"Yet, my father," said Lady Jane, with a sarcastic smile, "to bring
+about this result, one must, before all things, be acquainted with a
+magic spell, through the might of which the earl will first glow with
+love for Catharine. For the queen has a proud soul, and she will never
+so forget her dignity as to love a man who is not inflamed with an
+ardent passion for her. But the earl has not only a bride, but, as it is
+said, a mistress also."
+
+"Ah! you consider it, then, perfectly unworthy of a woman to love a man
+who does not adore her?" asked the earl, in a significant tone. "I am
+rejoiced to hear this from my daughter, and thus to be certain that she
+will not fall in love with the Earl of Surrey, who is everywhere else
+called 'the lady-killer.' And if you have informed yourself in so
+surprising a manner as to the earl's private relations, you have done
+so, without doubt, only because your sagacious and subtle head has
+already guessed what commission I would give you with respect to the
+earl. Besides, my daughter, you are in error: and if a certain high,
+but not on that account the less very unfortunate lady, should happen
+to really love the Earl of Surrey, her lot will, perhaps, be the common
+one--to practise resignation."
+
+An expression of joyful surprise passed over the countenance of Lady
+Jane, while her father thus spoke; but it was forced to instantly give
+way to a deathly paleness, as the earl added: "Henry Howard is destined
+for Catharine Parr, and you are to help her to love so hotly this proud,
+handsome earl, who is a faithful servant of the Church, wherein alone is
+salvation, that she will forget all considerations and all dangers."
+
+Lady Jane ventured one more objection. She caught eagerly at her
+father's words, to seek still for some way of escape.
+
+"You call the earl a faithful servant of our Church," said she, "and yet
+you would implicate him also in your dangerous plot? You have not, then,
+my father, considered that it is just as pernicious to love the queen as
+to be loved by her? And, without doubt, if love for the Earl of Surrey
+bring the queen to the scaffold, the head of the earl will fall at the
+same time, no matter whether he return her love or not."
+
+The earl shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"When the question is about the weal of the Church and our holy
+religion, the danger which, thereby, it may be, threatens one of our
+number, must not frighten us back. Holy sacrifices must be always
+offered to a holy cause. Well and good, then, let the earl's head fall,
+provided the only saving Church gains new vigor from this blood of
+martyrs. But see, Jane, the morning already begins to dawn, and I must
+hasten to leave you, lest these courtiers, ever given to slandering, may
+in some way or other take the father for a lover, and cast suspicion on
+the immaculate virtue of my Jane. Farewell, then, my daughter! We both,
+now, know our rôles, and will take care to play them with success. You
+are the friend and confidante of the queen, and I the harmless courtier,
+who tries, now and then, to gain a smile from the king by some kind and
+merry jest. That is all. Good-morning, then, Jane, and good-night. For
+you must sleep, my child, so that your cheeks may remain fresh and your
+eyes bright. The king hates pining pale-faces. Sleep, then, future Queen
+of England!"
+
+He gently kissed her forehead, and left the room with lingering step.
+
+Lady Jane stood and listened to the sound of his footsteps gradually
+dying away, when she sank on her knees, wholly crushed, utterly stunned.
+
+"My God, my God!" murmured she, while streams of tears flooded her face,
+"and I am to inspire the queen with love for the Earl of Surrey, and
+I--I love him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. LENDEMAIN.
+
+
+The great levée was over. Sitting beside the king on the throne,
+Catharine had received the congratulations of her court; and the king's
+smiling look, and the tender words which, in undertone, he now and
+then addressed to the queen, had manifested to the prudent and expert
+courtiers that the king was to-day just as much enamored of his young
+consort as he had been yesterday of his bride. Therefore, every one
+exerted himself to please the queen, and to catch every look, every
+smile, which she let fall, like sunbeams, here and there, in order to
+see for whom they were intended, so that they might, perchance, by this
+means, divine who were to be the future favorites of the queen, and be
+the first to become intimate with them.
+
+But the young queen directed her looks to no one in particular. She
+was friendly and smiling, yet one felt that this friendliness was
+constrained, this smile full of sadness. The king alone did not notice
+it. He was cheerful and happy, and it seemed to him, therefore, that
+nobody at his court could dare sigh when he, the king, was satisfied.
+
+After the grand presentation, at which all the great and noble of the
+realm had passed in formal procession before the royal pair, the king
+had, according to the court etiquette of the time, given his hand to his
+consort, led her down from the throne and conducted her to the middle
+of the hall, in order to present to her the personages in waiting at her
+court.
+
+But this walk from the throne to the centre of the hall had greatly
+fatigued the king; this promenade of thirty steps was for him a very
+unusual and troublesome performance, and the king longed to change to
+something else more agreeable. So he beckoned to the chief master of
+ceremonies, and bade him open the door leading into the dining-room.
+Then he ordered his "house equipage" to be brought up, and, seating
+himself in it with the utmost stateliness, he had the sedan kept at the
+queen's side, waiting impatiently till the presentation should at last
+conclude, and Catharine accompany him to lunch.
+
+The announcements of the maids of honor and female attendants had been
+already made, and now came the gentlemen's turn.
+
+The chief master of ceremonies read from his list the names of those
+cavaliers who were, henceforth, to be in waiting near the queen, and
+which names the king had written down with his own hand. And at each new
+appointment a slight expression of pleased astonishment flitted across
+the faces of the assembled courtiers, for it was always one of the
+youngest, handsomest, and most amiable lords whom the master of
+ceremonies had to name.
+
+Perhaps the king proposed to play a cruel game at hazard, in surrounding
+his consort with the young men of his court; he wished to plunge her
+into the midst of danger, either to let her perish there, or, by her
+avoiding danger, to be able to place the unimpeachable virtue of his
+young wife in the clearest light.
+
+The list had begun with the less important offices, and, ever ascending
+higher, they now came to positions the highest and of greatest
+consequence.
+
+Still the queen's master of horse and the chamberlain had not been
+named, and these were without doubt the most important charges at the
+queen's court. For one or the other of these officers was always very
+near the queen. When she was in the palace, the lord of the chamber
+had to remain in the anteroom, and no one could approach the queen but
+through his mediation. To him the queen had to give her orders with
+regard to the schemes and pleasures of the day. He was to contrive
+new diversions and amusements. He had the right of joining the queen's
+narrow evening circle, and to stand behind the queen's chair when the
+royal pair, at times, desired to sup without ceremony.
+
+This place of chief chamberlain was, therefore, a very important
+one; for since it confined him a large part of the day in the queen's
+presence, it was scarcely avoidable that the lord chamberlain should
+become either the confidential and attentive friend, or the malevolent
+and lurking enemy of the queen!
+
+But the place of master of horse was of no less consequence. For as soon
+as the queen left the palace, whether on foot or in a carriage, whether
+to ride in the forest or to glide down the Thames in her gilded yacht,
+the master of horse must be ever at her side, must ever attend her.
+Indeed, this service was still more exclusive, still more important.
+For, though the queen's apartments were open to the lord chamberlain,
+yet, however, he was never alone with her. The attending maids of honor
+were always present and prevented there being any têtes-à-têtes or
+intimacy between the queen and her chamberlain.
+
+But with the master of horse it was different--since many opportunities
+presented themselves, when he could approach the queen unnoticed, or at
+least speak to her without being overheard. He had to offer her his hand
+to assist her in entering her carriage; he could ride near the door of
+her coach; he accompanied her on water excursions and pleasure rides,
+and these last were so much the more important because they afforded
+him, to a certain extent, opportunity for a tête-à-tête with the queen.
+For only the master of horse was permitted to ride at her side; he even
+had precedence of the ladies of the suite, so as to be able to give the
+queen immediate assistance in case of any accident, or the stumbling of
+her horse. Therefore, no one of the suite could perceive what the queen
+said to the master of horse when he rode at her side.
+
+It was understood, therefore, how influential this place might be.
+Besides, when the queen was at Whitehall, the king was almost always
+near her; while, thanks to his daily increasing corpulency, he was not
+exactly in a condition to leave the palace otherwise than in a carriage.
+
+It was therefore very natural that the whole company at court awaited
+with eager attention and bated breath the moment when the master of
+ceremonies would name these two important personages, whose names had
+been kept so secret that nobody had yet learned them. That morning,
+just before he handed the list to the master of ceremonies, the king had
+written down these two names with his own hand.
+
+Not the court only, but also the king himself, was watching for
+these two names. For he wished to see the effect of them, and, by the
+different expression of faces, estimate the number of the friends of
+these two nominees. The young queen alone exhibited the same unconcerned
+affability; her heart only beat with uniform calmness, for she did not
+once suspect the importance of the moment.
+
+Even the voice of the master of ceremonies trembled slightly, as he
+now read, "To the place of high chamberlain to the queen, his majesty
+appoints my Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey."
+
+An approving murmur was heard, and almost all faces manifested glad
+surprise.
+
+"He has a great many friends," muttered the king. "He is dangerous,
+then!" An angry look darted from his eyes upon the young earl, who was
+now approaching the queen, to bend his knee before her and to press to
+his lips the proffered hand.
+
+Behind the queen stood Lady Jane, and as she beheld thus close before
+her the young man, so handsome, so long yearned for, and so secretly
+adored; and as she thought of her oath, she felt a violent pang, raging
+jealousy, killing hatred toward the young queen, who had, it is true,
+without suspecting it, robbed her of the loved one, and condemned her to
+the terrible torture of pandering to her.
+
+The chief master of ceremonies now read in a loud solemn voice, "To the
+place of master of horse, his majesty appoints my Lord Thomas Seymour,
+Earl of Sudley."
+
+It was very well that the king had at that moment directed his whole
+attention to his courtiers, and sought to read in their appearance the
+impression made by this nomination.
+
+Had he observed his consort, he would have seen that an expression
+of delighted surprise flitted across Catharine's countenance, and a
+charming smile played round her lips.
+
+But the king, as we have said, thought only of his court; he saw only
+that the number of those who rejoiced at Seymour's appointment did not
+come up to that of those who received Surrey's nomination with so much
+applause.
+
+Henry frowned and muttered to himself, "These Howards are too powerful.
+I will keep a watchful eye upon them."
+
+Thomas Seymour approached the queen, and, bending his knee before her,
+kissed her hand. Catharine received him with a gracious smile. "My
+lord," said she, "you will at once enter on service with me, and indeed,
+as I hope, in such manner as will be acceptable to the whole court. My
+lord, take the fleetest of your coursers, and hasten to Castle Holt,
+where the Princess Elizabeth is staying. Carry her this letter from her
+royal father, and she will follow you hither. Tell her that I long to
+embrace in her a friend and sister, and that I pray her to pardon me if
+I cannot give up to her exclusively the heart of her king and father,
+but that I also must still keep a place in the same for myself. Hasten
+to Castle Holt, my lord, and bring us Princess Elizabeth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE KING'S FOOL.
+
+
+Two years had passed away since the king's marriage, and still Catharine
+Parr had always kept in favor with her husband; still her enemies were
+foiled in their attempts to ruin her, and raise the seventh queen to the
+throne.
+
+Catharine had ever been cautious, ever discreet. She had always
+preserved a cold heart and a cool head. Each morning she had said to
+herself that this day might be her last; that some incautious word,
+some inconsiderate act, might deprive her of her crown and her life.
+For Henry's savage and cruel disposition seemed, like his corpulency,
+to increase daily, and it needed only a trifle to inflame him to the
+highest pitch of rage, rage which, each time, fell with fatal stroke on
+him who aroused it.
+
+A knowledge and consciousness of this had made the queen cautious. She
+did not wish to die yet. She still loved life so much. She loved it
+because it had as yet afforded her so little delight. She loved it
+because she had so much happiness, so much rapture and enjoyment yet to
+hope from it. She did not wish to die yet, for she was ever waiting for
+that life of which she had a foretaste only in her dreams, and which her
+palpitating and swelling heart told her was ready to awake in her, and,
+with its sunny, brilliant eyes, arouse her from the winter sleep of her
+existence.
+
+It was a bright and beautiful spring day. Catharine wanted to avail
+herself of it, to take a ride and forget for one brief hour that she was
+a queen. She wanted to enjoy the woods, the sweet May breeze, the song
+of birds, the green meadows, and to inhale in full draughts the pure
+air.
+
+She wanted to ride. Nobody suspected how much secret delight and hidden
+rapture lay in these words. No one suspected that for months she had
+been looking forward with pleasure to this ride, and scarcely dared
+to wish for it, just because it would be the fulfilment of her ardent
+wishes.
+
+She was already dressed in her riding-habit, and the little red velvet
+hat, with its long, drooping white feather, adorned her beautiful head.
+Walking up and down the room, she was waiting only for the return of the
+lord chamberlain, whom she had sent to the king to inquire whether he
+wished to speak with her before her ride.
+
+Suddenly the door opened, and a strange apparition showed itself on the
+threshold. It was a small, compact masculine figure, clad in vesture of
+crimson silk, which was trimmed in a style showy and motley enough, with
+puffs and bows of all colors, and which, just on account of its motley
+appearance, contrasted strangely enough with the man's white hair, and
+earnest and sombre face.
+
+"Ah, the king's fool," said Catharine, with a merry laugh. "Well, John,
+what is it that brings you here? Do you bring me a message from the
+king, or have you made a bold hit, and wish me to take you again under
+my protection?"
+
+"No, queen," said John Heywood, seriously, "I have made no bold hit,
+nor do I bring a message from the king. I bring nothing but myself. Ah,
+queen, I see you want to laugh, but I pray you forget for a moment that
+John Heywood is the king's fool, and that it does not become him to wear
+a serious face and indulge sad thoughts like other men."
+
+"Oh, I know that you are not merely the king's fool, but a poet also,"
+said Catharine, with a gracious smile.
+
+"Yes," said he, "I am a poet, and therefore it is altogether proper for
+me to wear this fool's cap, for poets are all fools, and it were better
+for them to be hung on the nearest tree instead of being permitted to
+run about in their crazy enthusiasm, and babble things on account
+of which people of sense despise and ridicule them. I am a poet, and
+therefore, queen, I have put on this fool's dress, which places me under
+the king's protection, and allows me to say to him all sorts of things
+which nobody else has the courage to speak out. But to-day, queen, I
+come to you neither as a fool nor as a poet, but I come to you because I
+wish to cling to your knees and kiss your feet. I come because I wish
+to tell you that you have made John Heywood forever your slave. He will
+from this time forth lie like a dog before your threshold and guard you
+from every enemy and every evil which may press upon you. Night and day
+he will be ready for your service, and know neither repose nor rest, if
+it is necessary to fulfil your command or your wish."
+
+As he thus spoke, with trembling voice and eyes dimmed with tears, he
+knelt down and bowed his head at Catharine's feet.
+
+"But what have I done to inspire you with such a feeling of
+thankfulness?" asked Catharine with astonishment. "How have I deserved
+that you, the powerful and universally dreaded favorite of the king,
+should dedicate yourself to my service?"
+
+"What have you done?" said he. "My lady, you have saved my son from the
+stake! They had condemned him--that handsome noble youth--condemned him,
+because he had spoken respectfully of Thomas More; because he said
+this great and noble man did right to die, rather than be false to his
+convictions. Ah, nowadays, it requires such a trifle to condemn a man to
+death! a couple of thoughtless words are sufficient! And this miserable,
+lick-spittle Parliament, in its dastardliness and worthlessness, always
+condemns and sentences, because it knows that the king is always thirsty
+for blood, and always wants the fires of the stake to keep him warm. So
+they had condemned my son likewise, and they would have executed him,
+but for you. But you, whom God has sent as an angel of reconciliation on
+this regal throne reeking with blood; you who daily risk your life
+and your crown to save the life of some one of those unfortunates whom
+fanaticism and thirst for blood have sentenced, and to procure their
+pardon, you have save my son also."
+
+"How! that young man who was to be burned yesterday, was your son?"
+
+"Yes, he was my son."
+
+"And you did not tell the king so? and you did not intercede for him?"
+
+"Had I done so, he would have been irretrievably lost! For you well
+know the king is so proud of his impartiality and his virtue! Oh, had
+he known that Thomas is my son he would have condemned him to death, to
+show the people that Henry the Eighth everywhere strikes the guilty
+and punishes the sinner, whatever name he may bear, and whoever may
+intercede for him. Ah, even your supplication would not have softened
+him, for the high-priest of the English Church could never have pardoned
+this young man for not being the legitimate son of his father, for not
+having the right to bear his name, because his mother was the spouse of
+another man whom Thomas must call father."
+
+"Poor Heywood! Yes, now I understand. The king would, indeed, never have
+forgiven this; and had he known it, your son would have inevitably been
+condemned to the stake."
+
+"You saved him, queen! Do you not believe now that I shall be forever
+thankful to you?"
+
+"I do believe it," said the queen, with a pleasant smile, as she
+extended her hand for him to kiss. "I believe you, and I accept your
+service."
+
+"And you will need it, queen, for a tempest is gathering over your head,
+and soon the lightning will flash and the thunders roll."
+
+"Oh, I fear not! I have strong nerves!" said Catharine, smiling. "When
+a storm comes, it is but a refreshing of nature, and I have always seen
+that after a storm the sun shines again."
+
+"You are a brave soul!" swirl John Heywood, sadly.
+
+"That is, I am conscious of no guilt!"
+
+"But your enemies will invent a crime to charge you with. 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. There is a
+conspiracy at work. Therefore, queen, be on your guard! Trust nobody,
+for foes are ever wont to conceal themselves under hypocritical faces
+and deceiving words."
+
+"If you know my enemies, name them to me!" said Catharine, impatiently.
+"Name them to me, that I may beware of them."
+
+"I have not come to accuse anybody, but to warn you. I shall, therefore,
+take good care not to point out your enemies to you; but I will name
+your friends to you."
+
+"Ah, then, I have friends, too!" whispered Catharine, with a happy
+smile.
+
+"Yes, you have friends; and, indeed, such as are ready to give their
+blood and life for you."
+
+"Oh, name them, name them to me!" exclaimed Catharine, all of a tremble
+with joyful expectation.
+
+"I name first, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury. He is your true and
+staunch friend, on whom you can build. He loves you as queen, and
+he prizes you as the associate whom God has sent him to bring to
+completion, here at the court of this most Christian and bloody king,
+the holy work of the Reformation, and to cause the light of knowledge
+to illuminate this night of superstition and priestly domination.
+Build strongly on Cranmer, for he is your surest and most invariable
+supporter, and should he sink, your fall would inevitably follow.
+Therefore, not only rely on him, but also protect him, and look upon him
+as your brother; for what you do for him, you do for yourself."
+
+"Yes, you are right," said Catharine, thoughtfully. "Cranmer is a noble
+and staunch friend; and often enough already he has protected me, in the
+king's presence, against those little pin-prickings of my enemies, which
+do not indeed kill, but which make the whole body sore and faint."
+
+"Protect him, and thus protect yourself."
+
+"Well, and the other friends?"
+
+"I have given Cranmer the precedence; but now, queen, I name myself as
+the second of your friends. If Cranmer is your staff, I will be your
+dog; and, believe me, so long as you have such a staff and so faithful
+a dog, you are safe. Cranmer will warn you of every stone that lies in
+your way, and I will bite and drive off the enemies, who, hidden behind
+the thicket, lurk in the way to fall upon you from behind."
+
+"I thank you! Really, I thank you!" said Catharine, heartily. "Well, and
+what more?"
+
+"More?" inquired Heywood with a sad smile.
+
+"Mention a few more of my friends."
+
+"Queen, it is a great deal, if one in a lifetime has found two friends
+upon whom he can rely, and whose fidelity is not guided by selfishness.
+You are perhaps the only crowned head that can boast of such friends."
+
+"I am a woman," said Catharine, thoughtfully, "and many women surround
+me and daily swear to me unchanging faithfulness and attachment. How!
+are all these unworthy the title of friends? Is even Lady Jane Douglas
+unworthy; she, whom I have called my friend these many long years, and
+whom I trust as a sister? Tell me, John Heywood, you who, as it is said,
+know everything, and search out everything that takes place at court,
+tell me, is not Lady Jane Douglas my friend?"
+
+John Heywood suddenly became serious and gloomy, and looked on the
+ground, absorbed in reflection. Then he swept his large, bright eyes all
+around the room, in a scrutinizing manner, as if he wished to convince
+himself that no listener was really concealed there, and stepping close
+up to the queen, he whispered: "Trust her not; she is a papist, and
+Gardiner is her friend."
+
+"Ah, I suspected it," whispered Catharine, sadly.
+
+"But listen, queen; give no expression to this suspicion by look, or
+words, or by the slightest indication. Lull this viper into the belief
+that you are harmless; lull her to sleep, queen. She is a venomous and
+dangerous serpent, which must not be roused, lest, before you suspect
+it, it bite you on the heel. Be always gracious, always confidential,
+always friendly toward her. Only, queen, do not tell her what you would
+not confide to Gardiner and Earl Douglas likewise. Oh, believe me, she
+is like the lion in the doge's palace at Venice. The secrets that you
+confide to her will become accusations against you before the tribunal
+of blood."
+
+Catharine shook her head with a smile. "You are too severe, John
+Heywood. It is possible that the religion which she secretly professes
+has estranged her heart from me, but she would never be capable of
+betraying me, or of leaguing herself with my foes. No, John, you are
+mistaken. It would be a crime to believe thus. My God, what a wicked
+and wretched world it must be in which we could not trust even our most
+faithful and dearest friends!"
+
+"The world is indeed wicked and wretched, and one must despair of it,
+or consider it a merry jest, with which the devil tickles our noses. For
+me, it is such a jest, and therefore, queen, I have become the king's
+fool, which at least gives me the right of spurting out upon the
+crawling brood all the venom of the contempt I feel for mankind, and of
+speaking the truth to those who have only lies, by dripping honey, ever
+on their lips. The sages and poets are the real fools of our day, and
+since I did not feel a vocation to be a king, or a priest, a hangman, or
+a lamb for sacrifice, I became a fool."
+
+"Yes, a fool, that is to say, an epigrammatist, whose biting tongue
+makes the whole court tremble."
+
+"Since I cannot, like my royal master, have these criminals executed, I
+give them a few sword-cuts with my tongue. Ah, I tell you, you will much
+need this ally. Be on your guard, queen: I heard this morning the first
+growl of the thunder, and in Lady Jane's eyes I observed the stealthy
+lightning. Trust her not. Trust no one here but your friends Cranmer and
+John Heywood."
+
+"And you say, that in all this court, among all these brilliant women,
+these brave cavaliers, the poor queen has not a single friend, not a
+soul, whom she may trust, on whom she may lean? Oh, John Heywood, think
+again, have pity on the poverty of a queen. Think again. Say, only you
+two? No friend but you?"
+
+And the queen's eyes filled with tears, which she tried in vain to
+repress.
+
+John Heywood saw it and sighed deeply. Better than the queen herself
+perhaps, he had read the depths of her heart, and knew its deep wound.
+But he also had sympathy with her pain, and wished to mitigate it a
+little.
+
+"I recollect," said he, gently and mournfully--"yes, I recollect, you
+have yet a third friend at this court."
+
+"Ah, a third friend!" exclaimed Catharine, and again her voice sounded
+cheery and joyous. "Name him to me, name him! For you see clearly I am
+burning with impatience to hear his name."
+
+John Heywood looked into Catharine's glowing countenance with a strange
+expression, at once searching and mournful, and for a moment dropped his
+head upon his breast and sighed.
+
+"Now, John, give me the name of this third friend."
+
+"Do you not know him, queen?" asked Heywood, as he again stared steadily
+in her face. "Do you not know him? It is Thomas Seymour, Earl of Sudley."
+
+There passed as it were a sunbeam over Catharine's face, and she uttered
+a low cry.
+
+John Heywood said, sadly: "Queen, the sun strikes directly in your face.
+Take care that it does not blind your bright eyes. Stand in the shade,
+your majesty, for, hark! there comes one who might report the sunshine
+in your face for a conflagration."
+
+Just then the door opened, and Lady Jane appeared on the threshold. She
+threw a quick, searching glance around the room, and an imperceptible
+smile passed over her beautiful pale face.
+
+"Your majesty," said she solemnly, "everything is ready. You can begin
+your ride when it pleases you. The Princess Elizabeth awaits you in the
+anteroom, and your master of horse already holds the stirrup of your
+steed."
+
+"And the lord chamberlain?" asked Catharine, blushing, "has he no
+message from the king to bring me?"
+
+"Ay!" said the Earl of Surrey as he entered. "His majesty bids me
+tell the queen that she may extend her ride as far as she wishes. The
+glorious weather is well worth that the Queen of England should enjoy
+it, and enter into a contest with the sun."
+
+"Oh, the king is the most gallant of cavaliers," said Catharine, with a
+happy smile. "Now come, Jane, let us ride."
+
+"Pardon me, your majesty," said Lady Jane, stepping back. "I cannot
+to-day enjoy the privilege of accompanying your majesty. Lady Anne
+Ettersville is to-day in attendance."
+
+"Another time, then, Jane! And you, Earl Douglas, you ride with us?"
+
+"The king, your majesty, has ordered me to his cabinet."
+
+"Behold now a queen abandoned by all her friends!" said Catharine
+cheerily, as with light, elastic step she passed through the hall to the
+courtyard.
+
+"Here is something going on which I must fathom!" muttered John Heywood,
+who had left the hall with the rest. "A mousetrap is set, for the cats
+remain at home, and are hungry for their prey."
+
+Lady Jane had remained behind in the hall with her father. Both had
+stepped to the window, and were silently looking down into the yard,
+where the brilliant cavalcade of the queen and her suite was moving
+about in motley confusion.
+
+Catharine had just mounted her palfrey; the noble animal, recognizing
+his mistress, neighed loudly, and, giving a snort, reared up with his
+noble burden.
+
+Princess Elizabeth, who was close to the queen, uttered a cry of alarm.
+"You will fall, queen," said she, "you ride such a wild animal."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed," said Catharine, smiling; "Hector is not wild. It is
+with him as with me. This charming May air has made us both mettlesome
+and happy. Away, then, my ladies and lords! our horses must be to-day
+swift as birds. We ride to Epping Forest."
+
+And through the open gateway dashed the cavalcade. The queen in front;
+at her right, the Princess Elizabeth; at her left, the master of horse,
+Thomas Seymour, Earl of Sudley.
+
+When the train had disappeared, father and daughter stepped back from
+the window, and looked at each other with strange, dark, and disdainful
+looks.
+
+"Well, Jane?" said Earl Douglas, at length. "She is still queen, and the
+king becomes daily more unwieldy and ailing. It is time to give him a
+seventh queen."
+
+"Soon, my father, soon."
+
+"Loves the queen Henry Howard at last?"
+
+"Yes, he loves her!" said Jane, and her pale face was now colorless as a
+winding-sheet.
+
+"I ask, whether she loves him?"
+
+"She will love him!" murmured Jane, and then suddenly mastering
+herself, she continued: "but it is not enough to make the queen in love;
+doubtless it would be still more efficient if some one could instill a
+new love into the king. Did you see, father, with what ardent looks his
+majesty yesterday watched me and the Duchess of Richmond?"
+
+"Did I see it? The whole court talked about it."
+
+"Well, now, my father, manage it so that the king may be heartily bored
+to-day, and then bring him to me. He will find the Duchess of Richmond
+with me."
+
+"Ah, a glorious thought! You will surely be Henry's seventh queen."
+
+"I will ruin Catharine Parr, for she is my rival, and I hate her!" said
+Jane, with glowing cheeks and flashing eyes. "She has been queen long
+enough, and I have bowed myself before her. Now she shall fall in the
+dust before me, and I will set my foot upon her head."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. THE RIDE.
+
+
+It was a wondrous morning. The dew still lay on the grass of the
+meadows, over which they had just ridden to reach the thicket of the
+forest, in whose trees resounded the melodious voices of blithe birds.
+Then they rode along the banks of a babbling forest stream, and spied
+the deer that came forth into the glade on the other side, as if they
+wanted, like the queen and her train, to listen to the song of the birds
+and the murmuring of the fountains. Catharine felt a nameless, blissful
+pleasure swell her bosom. She was to-day no more the queen, surrounded
+by perils and foes; no more the wife of an unloved, tyrannical husband;
+not the queen trammelled with the shackles of etiquette. She was a free,
+happy woman, who, in presageful, blissful trepidation, smiled at
+the future, and said to each minute, "Stay, stay, for thou art so
+beautiful!"
+
+It was a sweet, dreamy happiness, the happiness of that hour. With
+glad heart, Catharine would have given her crown for it, could she have
+prolonged this hour to an eternity.
+
+He was at her side--he of whom John Heywood had said, that he was among
+her most trustful and trusty friends. He was there; and even if she did
+not dare to look at him often, often to speak to him, yet she felt his
+presence, she perceived the glowing beams of his eyes, which rested on
+her with consuming fire. Nobody could observe them. For the court rode
+behind them, and before them and around them was naught but Nature
+breathing and smiling with joy, naught but heaven and God.
+
+She had forgotten however that she was not quite alone, and that
+while Thomas Seymour rode on her left, on her right was Princess
+Elizabeth--that young girl of fourteen years--that child, who, however,
+under the fire of suffering and the storms of adversity, was early
+forced to precocious bloom, and whose heart, by the tears and experience
+of her unhappy childhood, had acquired an early ripeness. Elizabeth,
+a child in years, had already all the strength and warmth of a woman's
+feelings. Elizabeth, the disowned and disinherited princess, had
+inherited her father's pride and ambition; and when she looked on the
+queen, and perceived that little crown wrought on her velvet cap in
+diamond embroidery, she felt in her bosom a sharp pang, and remembered,
+with feelings of bitter grief, that this crown was destined never
+to adorn her head, since the king, by solemn act of Parliament, had
+excluded her from the succession to the throne. [Footnote: Tytler,
+p. 340] But for a few weeks this pain had been more gentle, and less
+burning. Another feeling had silenced it. Elizabeth who was never to be
+queen or sovereign--Elizabeth might be a wife at least. Since she
+was denied a crown, they should at least allow her instead a wife's
+happiness; they should not grudge her the privilege of twining in her
+hair a crown of myrtle.
+
+She had been early taught to ever have a clear consciousness of all her
+feelings; nor had she now shrunk from reading the depths of her heart
+with steady and sure eye.
+
+She knew that she loved, and that Thomas Seymour was the man whom she
+loved.
+
+But the earl? Did he love her in return? Did he understand the child's
+heart? Had he, beneath the childish face, already recognized the
+passionate, proud woman? Had he guessed the secrets of this soul, at
+once so maidenly and chaste, and yet so passionate and energetic?
+
+Thomas Seymour never betrayed a secret, and what he had, it may be, read
+in the eyes of the princess, and what he had, perhaps, spoken to her in
+the quiet shady walks of Hampton Court, or in the long, dark corridors
+of Whitehall, was known to no one save those two. For Elizabeth had a
+strong, masculine soul; she needed no confidant to share her secrets;
+and Thomas Seymour had feared even, like the immortal hair-dresser of
+King Midas, to dig a hole and utter his secret therein; for he knew very
+well that, if the reed grew up and repeated his words, he might, for
+these words, lay his head on the block.
+
+Poor Elizabeth! She did not even suspect the earl's secret and her own
+were not, however, the same; she did not suspect that Thomas Seymour,
+if he guessed her secret, might, perhaps, avail himself of it to make
+thereof a brilliant foil for his own secret.
+
+He had, like her, ever before his eyes the diamond crown on the head of
+the young queen, and he had noticed well how old and feeble the king had
+become of late.
+
+As he now rode by the side of the two princesses, he felt his heart
+swell with a proud joy, and bold and ambitious schemes alone occupied
+his soul.
+
+The two women understood nothing of this. They were both too much
+occupied with their own thoughts; and while Catharine's eyes swept with
+beaming look the landscape far and wide, the brow of the princess was
+slightly clouded, and her sharp eye rested with a fixed and watchful
+gaze on Thomas Seymour.
+
+She had noticed the impassioned look which he had now and then fastened
+on the queen. The slight, scarcely perceptible tremor of his voice, when
+he spoke, had not escaped her.
+
+Princess Elizabeth was jealous; she felt the first torturing motions of
+that horrible disease which she had inherited from her father, and in
+the feverish paroxysms of which the king had sent two of his wives to
+the scaffold.
+
+She was jealous, but not of the queen; much more, she dreamed not that
+the queen might share and return Seymour's love. It never came into
+her mind to accuse the queen of an understanding with the earl. She
+was jealous only of the looks which he directed toward the queen; and
+because she was watching those looks, she could not at the same time
+read the eyes of her young stepmother also; she could not see the gentle
+flames which, kindled by the fire of his looks, glowed in hers.
+
+Thomas Seymour had seen them, and had he now been alone with Catharine,
+he would have thrown himself at her feet and confided to her all the
+deep and dangerous secrets that he had so long harbored in his breast;
+he would have left to her the choice of bringing him to the block, or of
+accepting the love which he consecrated to her.
+
+But there, behind them, were the spying, all-observing, all-surmising
+courtiers; there was the Princess Elizabeth, who, had he ventured to
+speak to the queen, would have conjectured from his manner the words
+which she could not understand; for love sees so clearly, and jealousy
+has such keen ears!
+
+Catharine suspected nothing of the thoughts of her companions. She alone
+was happy; she alone gave herself up with full soul to the enjoyment of
+the moment. She drew in with intense delight the pure air; she drank in
+the odor of the meadow blossoms; she listened with thirsty ear to the
+murmuring song which the wind wafted to her from the boughs of the
+trees. Her wishes extended not beyond the hour; she rested in the full
+enjoyment of the presence of her beloved. He was there--what needed she
+more to make her happy?
+
+Her wishes extended not beyond this hour. She was only conscious how
+delightful it was thus to be at her beloved's side, to breathe the same
+air, to see the same sun, the same flowers on which his eyes rested, and
+on which their glances at least might meet in kisses which were denied
+to their lips.
+
+But as they thus rode along, silent and meditative, each occupied with
+his own thoughts, there came the assistance for which Thomas Seymour had
+prayed, fluttering along in the shape of a fly.
+
+At first this fly sported and buzzed about the nose of the fiery,
+proud beast which the queen rode; and as no one noticed it, it was
+not disturbed by Hector's tossing of his mane, but crept securely and
+quietly to the top of the noble courser's head, pausing a little here
+and there, and sinking his sting into the horse's flesh, so that he
+reared and began loudly to neigh.
+
+But Catharine was a bold and dexterous rider, and the proud spirit of
+her horse only afforded her delight, and gave the master of horse an
+opportunity to praise her skill and coolness.
+
+Catharine received with a sweet smile the encomiums of her beloved.
+But the fly kept creeping on, and, impelled by a diabolic delight, now
+penetrated the horse's ear. The poor, tormented animal made a spring
+forward. This spring, instead of freeing him from his enemy, made him
+penetrate the ear still farther, and sink his sting still deeper into
+the soft fleshy part of the same.
+
+Stung by the maddening pain, the horse cast off all control, and,
+heedless of bridle and scorning the bit, dashed forward in a furious
+run--forward over the meadow swift as an arrow, resistless as the
+lightning.
+
+"On, on, to the queen's rescue!" thundered the master of horse, and with
+mad haste, away flew he also over the meadow.
+
+"To the help of the queen!" repeated Princess Elizabeth, and she
+likewise spurred her horse and hurried forward, accompanied by the whole
+suite.
+
+But what is the speed of a horse ever so swift, but yet in his senses,
+compared with the raving madness of a crazy courser, that, despising all
+subjection, and mocking at the bridle, dashes ahead, foaming with the
+sense of freedom and unrestraint, uncontrollable as the surge lashed by
+the storm!
+
+Already far behind them lay the meadows, far behind them the avenues
+leading through the woods, and over brooks and ditches, over meadows and
+wastes, Hector was dashing on.
+
+The queen still sat firmly in the saddle; her cheeks were colorless; her
+lips trembled; but her eye was still bright and clear. She had not yet
+lost her presence of mind; she was perfectly conscious of her danger.
+The din of screaming, screeching voices, which she heard at first, had
+long since died away in silence behind her. An immense solitude, the
+deep silence of the grave, was around her.
+
+Naught was heard save the panting and snorting of the horse; naught but
+the crash and clatter of his hoofs. Suddenly, however, this sound
+seemed to find an echo. It was repeated over yonder. There was the same
+snorting and panting; there was the same resounding trampling of hoofs.
+And now, oh, now, struck on Catharine's car the sound of a voice only
+too well loved, and made her scream aloud with delight and desire.
+
+But this cry frightened anew the enraged animal. For a moment, exhausted
+and panting, he had slackened in his mad race; now he sprang forward
+with renewed energy; now he flew on as if impelled by the wings of the
+wind. But ever nearer and nearer sounded the loved voice ever nearer the
+tramp of his horse.
+
+They were now upon a large plain, shut in on all sides by woods. While
+the queen's horse circled the plain in a wide circuit, Seymour's,
+obedient to the rein, sped directly across it, and was close behind the
+queen.
+
+"Only a moment more! Only hold your arms firmly around the animal's
+neck, that the shock may not hurl you off, when I lay hold of the rein!"
+shouted Seymour, and he set his spurs into his horse's flanks, so that
+he sprang forward with a wild cry.
+
+This cry roused Hector to new fury. Panting for breath, he shot forward
+with fearful leaps, now straight into the thicket of the woods.
+
+"I hear his voice no more," murmured Catharine. And at length overcome
+with anxiety and the dizzy race, and worn out with her exertions, she
+closed her eyes; her senses appeared to be about leaving her.
+
+But at this moment, a firm hand seized with iron grasp the rein of her
+horse, so that he bowed his head, shaking, trembling, and almost ashame,
+as the horse had found his lord and master.
+
+"Saved! I am saved!" faltered Catharine, and breathless, scarcely in her
+senses, she leaned her head on Seymour's shoulder.
+
+He lifted her gently from the saddle, and placed her on the soft
+moss beneath an ancient oak. Then he tied the horses to a bough, and
+Catharine, trembling and faint, sank on her knees to rest after such
+violent exertion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE DECLARATION.
+
+
+Thomas Seymour returned to Catharine. She still lay there with closed
+eyes, pale and motionless.
+
+He gazed on her long and steadily; his eyes drank in, in long draughts,
+the sight of this beautiful and noble woman, and he forgot at that
+moment that she was a queen.
+
+He was at length alone with her. At last, after two years of torture, of
+resignation, of dissimulation, God had granted him this hour, for which
+he had so long yearned, which he had so long considered unattainable.
+Now it was there, now it was his.
+
+And had the whole court, had King Henry himself, come right then, Thomas
+Seymour would not have heeded it; it would not have affrighted him. The
+blood had mounted to his head and overcome his reason. His heart, still
+agitated and beating violently from his furious ride and his anxiety for
+Catharine, allowed him to hear no other voice than that of passion.
+
+He knelt by the queen and seized her hand.
+
+Perhaps it was this touch which roused her from her unconsciousness. She
+raised her eyes and gazed around with a perplexed look.
+
+"Where am I?" breathed she in a low tone.
+
+Thomas Seymour pressed her hand to his lips. "You are with the most
+faithful and devoted of your servants, queen!"
+
+"Queen!" This word roused her from her stupor, and caused her to raise
+herself half up.
+
+"But where is my court? Where is the Princess Elizabeth? Where are all
+the eyes that heretofore watched me? Where are all the listeners and
+spies who accompany the queen?"
+
+"They are far away from here," said Seymour in a tone which betrayed
+his secret delight. "They are far away from here, and need at least an
+hour's time to come up with us. An hour, queen! are you aware what that
+is to me? An hour of freedom, after two years of imprisonment! An hour
+of happiness, after two years of daily torture, daily endurance of the
+torments of hell!"
+
+Catharine, who had at first smiled, had now become grave and sad.
+
+Her eye rested on the cap which had fallen from her head and lay near
+her on the grass.
+
+She pointed with trembling finger to the crown, and said softly,
+"Recognize you that sign, my lord?"
+
+"I recognize it, my lady; but in this hour, I no longer shrink back at
+it. There are moments in which life is at its crowning point, and when
+one heeds not the abyss that threatens close beneath. Such an hour is
+the present. I am aware that this hour makes me guilty of high treason
+and may send me to the block; but nevertheless I will not be silent.
+The fire which burns in my breast consumes me. I must at length give it
+vent. My heart, that for years has burned upon a funeral pyre, and which
+is so strong that in the midst of its agonies it has still ever felt
+a sensation of its blessedness--my heart must at length find death or
+favor. You shall hear me, queen!"
+
+"No, no," said she, almost in anguish, "I will not, I cannot hear you!
+Remember that I am Henry the Eighth's wife, and that it is dangerous to
+speak to her. Silence, then, earl, silence, and let us ride on."
+
+She would have arisen, but her own exhaustion and Lord Seymour's hand
+caused her to sink back again.
+
+"No, I will not be silent," said he. "I will not be silent until I have
+told you all that rages and glows within me. The Queen of England may
+either condemn me or pardon me, but she shall know that to me she is not
+Henry the Eighth's wife, but only the most charming and graceful, the
+noblest and loveliest woman in England. I will tell her that I never
+recollect she is my queen, or, if I do so, it is only to curse the king,
+who was presumptuous enough to set this brightly sparkling jewel in his
+bloody crown."
+
+Catharine, almost horrified, laid her hand on Seymour's lips. "Silence,
+unhappy man, silence! Know you that it is your sentence of death which
+you are now uttering? Your sentence of death, if any soul hears you?"
+
+"But no one hears me. No one save the queen, and God, who, however, is
+perhaps more compassionate and merciful than the queen. Accuse me then,
+queen; go and tell your king that Thomas Seymour is a traitor; that he
+dares love the queen. The king will send me to the scaffold, but I
+shall nevertheless deem myself happy, for I shall at least die by your
+instrumentality. Queen, if I cannot live for you, then beautiful it is
+to die for you!"
+
+Catharine listened to him wholly stupefied, wholly intoxicated. This
+was, for her, language wholly new and never heard before, at which her
+heart trembled in blissful awe, which rushed around her in enchanting
+melodies and lulled her into a sweet stupefaction. Now she herself
+even forgot that she was queen, that she was the wife of Henry, the
+bloodthirsty and the jealous. She was conscious only of this, that
+the man whom she had so long loved, was now kneeling at her side. With
+rapture she drank in his words, which struck upon her ear like exquisite
+music.
+
+Thomas Seymour continued. He told her all he had suffered. He told her
+he had often resolved to die, in order to put an end to these tortures,
+but that then a glance of her eye, a word from her lips, had given him
+strength to live, and still longer endure these tortures, which were at
+the same time so full of rapture.
+
+"But now, queen, now my strength is exhausted, and it is for you to give
+me life or death. To-morrow I will ascend the scaffold, or you shall
+permit me to live, to live for you."
+
+Catharine trembled and looked at him wellnigh astounded. He seemed so
+proud and imperative, she almost felt a fear for him, but it was the
+happy fear of a loving, meek woman before a strong, commanding man.
+
+"Know you," said she, with a charming smile, "that you almost have the
+appearance of wishing to command me to love you?"
+
+"No, queen," said he, proudly, "I cannot command you to love me, but I
+bid you tell me the truth. I bid you do this, for I am a man who has the
+right to demand the truth of a woman face to face. And I have told you,
+you are not the queen to me. You are but a beloved, an adored woman.
+This love has nothing to do with your royalty, and while I confess it to
+you, I do not think that you abase yourself when you receive it. For
+the true love of a man is ever the holiest gift that he can present to
+a woman, and if a beggar dedicates it to a queen, she must feel herself
+honored by it. Oh, queen, I am a beggar. I lie at your feet and raise
+my hands beseechingly to you; but I want not charity, I want not your
+compassion and pity, which may, perhaps, grant me an alms to lessen my
+misery. No, I want you yourself. I require all or nothing. It will not
+satisfy me that you forgive my boldness, and draw the veil of
+silence over my mad attempt. No, I wish you to speak, to pronounce my
+condemnation or a benediction on me. Oh, I know you are generous and
+compassionate, and even if you despise my love and will not return
+it, yet, it may be, you will not betray me. You will spare me, and
+be silent. But I repeat it, queen, I do not accept this offer of your
+magnanimity. You are to make me either a criminal or a god; for I am a
+criminal if you condemn my love, a god if you return it."
+
+"And do you know, earl," whispered Catharine, "that you are very cruel?
+You want me to be either an accuser or an accomplice. You leave me
+no choice but that of being either your murderess or a perjured and
+adulterous woman--a wife who forgets her plighted faith and her sacred
+duty, and defiles the crown which my husband has placed upon my head
+with stains, which Henry will wash out with my own blood and with yours
+also."
+
+"Let it be so, then," cried the earl, almost joyfully. "Let my head
+fall, no matter how or when, if you but love me; for then I shall still
+be immortal; for a moment in your arms is an eternity of bliss."
+
+"But I have already told you that not only your head, but mine also,
+is concerned in this matter. You know the king's harsh and cruel
+disposition. The mere suspicion is enough to condemn me. Ah, if he knew
+what we have just now spoken here, he would condemn me, as he condemned
+Catharine Howard, though I am not guilty as she was. Ah, I shudder at
+the thought of the block; and you, Earl Seymour, you would bring me to
+the scaffold, and yet you say you love me!"
+
+Seymour sunk his head mournfully upon his breast and sighed deeply. "You
+have pronounced my sentence, queen, and though you are too noble to tell
+me the truth, yet I have guessed it. No, you do not love me, for you see
+with keen eyes the danger that threatens you, and you fear for yourself.
+No, you love me not, else you would think of nothing save love alone.
+The dangers would animate you, and the sword which hangs over your head
+you would not see, or you would with rapture grasp its edge and say,
+'What is death to me, since I am happy! What care I for dying, since I
+have felt immortal happiness!' Ah, Catharine, you have a cold heart
+and a cool head. May God preserve them both to you; then will you pass
+through life quietly and safely; but you will yet be a poor, wretched
+woman, and when you come to die, they will place a royal crown upon your
+coffin, but love will not weep for you. Farewell, Catharine, Queen
+of England, and since you cannot love him, give Thomas Seymour, the
+traitor, your sympathy at least."
+
+He bowed low and kissed her feet, then he arose and walked with firm
+step to the tree where he had tied the horses. But now Catharine
+arose, now she flew to him, and grasping his hand, asked, trembling and
+breathless, "What are you about to do? whither are you going?"
+
+"To the king, my lady."
+
+"And what will you do there?"
+
+"I will show him a traitor who has dared love the queen. You have just
+killed my heart; he will kill only my body. That is less painful, and I
+will thank him for it."
+
+Catharine uttered a cry, and with passionate vehemence drew him back to
+the place where she had been resting.
+
+"If you do what you say, you will kill me," said she, with trembling
+lips. "Hear me, hear! The moment you mount your horse to go to the king,
+I mount mine too; but not to follow you, not to return to London, but to
+plunge with my horse down yonder precipice. Oh, fear nothing; they will
+not accuse you of my murder. They will say that I plunged down there
+with my horse, and that the raging animal caused my death."
+
+"Queen, take good heed, consider well what you say!" exclaimed Thomas
+Seymour, his countenance clearing up and his face flaming with delight.
+"Bear in mind that your words must be either a condemnation or an
+avowal. I wish death, or your love! Not the love of a queen, who thinks
+to be gracious to her subject, when for the moment she elevates him
+to herself; but the love of a woman who bows her head in meekness and
+receives her lover as at the same time her lord. Oh, Catharine, be well
+on your guard! If you come to me with the pride of a queen, if there be
+even one thought in you which tells you that you are bestowing a favor
+on a subject as you take him to your heart, then be silent and let me
+go hence. I am proud, and as nobly born as yourself, and however love
+throws me conquered at your feet, yet it shall not bow my head in
+the dust! But if you say that you love me, Catharine, for that I will
+consecrate my whole life to you. I will be your lord, but your slave
+also. There shall be in me no thought, no feeling, no wish that is not
+devoted and subservient to you. And when I say that I will be your lord,
+I mean not thereby that I will not lie forever at your feet and bow my
+head in the dust, and say to you: Tread on it, if it seem good to you,
+for I am your slave!"
+
+And speaking thus, he dropped on his knees and pressed to her feet his
+face, whose glowing and noble expression ravished Catharine's heart.
+
+She hent down to him, and gently lifting his head, looked with an
+indescribable expression of happiness and love deep into his beaming
+eyes.
+
+"Do you love me?" asked Seymour, as he put his arm softly around her
+slender waist, and arose from his kneeling attitude.
+
+"I love you!" said she, with a firm voice and a happy smile. "I love
+you, not as a queen, but as a woman; and if perchance this love bring us
+both to the scaffold, well then we shall at least die together, to meet
+again there above!"
+
+"No, think not now of dying, Catharine, think of living--of the
+beautiful, enchanting future which is beckoning to us. Think of the
+days which will soon come, and in which our love will no longer require
+secresy or a veil, but when we will manifest it to the whole world, and
+can proclaim our happiness from a full glad breast! Oh, Catharine, let
+us hope that compassionate and merciful death will loose at last the
+unnatural bonds that bind you to that old man. Then, when Henry is no
+more, then will you be mine, mine with your entire being, with your
+whole life; and instead of a proud regal crown, a crown of myrtle shall
+adorn your head! Swear that to me, Catharine; swear that you will become
+my wife, as soon as death has set you free."
+
+The queen shuddered and her cheeks grew pale. "Oh," said she with a
+sigh, "death then is our hope and perhaps the scaffold our end!"
+
+"No, Catharine, love is our hope, and happiness our end. Think of life,
+of our future! God grant my request. Swear to me here in the face of
+God, and of sacred and calm nature around us, swear to me, that from the
+day when death frees you from your husband you will be mine, my wife, my
+consort! Swear to me, that you, regardless of etiquette and unmindful
+of tyrannical custom, will be Lord Seymour's wife, before the knell for
+Henry's death has died away. We will find a priest, who may bless our
+love and sanctify the covenant that we have this day concluded for
+eternity! Swear to me, that, till that wished--for day, you will keep
+for me your truth and love, and never forget that my honor is yours
+also, that your happiness is also mine!"
+
+"I swear it!" said Catharine, solemnly. "You may depend upon me at all
+times and at all hours. Never will I be untrue to you; never will I have
+a thought that is not yours. I will love you as Thomas Seymour deserves
+to be loved, that is with a devoted and faithful heart. It will be my
+pride to subject myself to you, and with glad soul will I serve and
+follow you, as your true and obedient wife."
+
+"I accept your oath!" said Seymour, solemnly. "But in return I swear
+that I will honor and esteem you as my queen and mistress. I swear to
+you that you shall never find a more obedient subject, a more unselfish
+counsellor, a more faithful husband, a braver champion, than I will be.
+'My life for my queen, my entire heart for my beloved'; this henceforth
+shall be my motto, and may I be disowned and despised by God and by you,
+if ever I violate this oath."
+
+"Amen!" said Catharine, with a bewitching smile.
+
+Then both were silent. It was that silence which only love and happiness
+knows--that silence which is so rich in thoughts and feelings, and
+therefore so poor in words!
+
+The wind rustled whisperingly in the trees, among whose dark branches
+here and there a bird's warbling or flute-like notes resounded. The
+sun threw his emerald light over the soft velvety carpet of the ground,
+which, rising and falling in gentle, undulating lines, formed lovely
+little hollows and hillocks, on which now and then was seen here and
+there the slender and stately figure of a hart, or a roe, that, looking
+around searchingly with his bright eyes, started back frightened into
+the thicket on observing these two human figures and the group of horses
+encamped there.
+
+Suddenly this quiet was interrupted by the loud sound of the hunter's
+horn, and in the distance were heard confused cries and shouts, which
+were echoed by the dense forest and repeated in a thousand tones.
+
+With a sigh the queen raised her head from the earl's shoulder.
+
+The dream was at an end; the angel came with flaming sword to drive her
+from paradise.
+
+For she was no longer worthy of paradise. The fatal word had been
+spoken, and while it brought her love, it had perjured her.
+
+Henry's wife, his by her vow taken before the altar, had betrothed
+herself to another, and given him the love that she owed her husband.
+
+"It is passed," said he, mournfully. "These sounds call me back to my
+slavery. We must both resume our roles. I must become queen again."
+
+"But first swear to me that you will never forget this hour; that you
+will ever think upon the oaths which we have mutually sworn."
+
+She looked at him almost astounded. "My God! can truth and love be
+forgotten?"
+
+"You will remain ever true, Catharine?"
+
+She smiled. "See, now, my jealous lord, do I address such questions to
+you?"
+
+"Oh, queen, you well know that you possess the charm that binds
+forever."
+
+"Who knows?" said she dreamily, as she raised her enthusiastic look
+to heaven, and seemed to follow the bright silvery clouds which were
+sailing slowly across the blue ether.
+
+Then her eyes fell on her beloved, and laying her hand softly upon
+his shoulder, she said: "Love is like God--eternal, primeval, and ever
+present! But you must believe in it to feel its presence; you must trust
+it to be worthy of its blessing!"
+
+But the hallooing and the clangor of the horns came nearer and nearer.
+Even now was heard the barking of the dogs and the tramp of horses.
+
+The earl had untied the horses, and led Hector, who was now quiet and
+gentle as a lamb, to his mistress.
+
+"Queen," said Thomas Seymour, "two delinquents now approach you! Hector
+is my accomplice, and had it not been that the fly I now see on his
+swollen ear had made him raving, I should be the most pitiable and
+unhappy man in your kingdom, while now I am the happiest and most
+enviable."
+
+The queen made no answer, but she put both her arms around the animal's
+neck and kissed him.
+
+"Henceforth," said she, "then I will ride only Hector, and when he is
+old and unfit for service--"
+
+"He shall be tended and cared for in the stud of Countess Catharine
+Seymour!" interrupted Thomas Seymour, as he held the queen's stirrup and
+assisted her into the saddle.
+
+The two rode in silence toward the sound of the voices and horns, both
+too much occupied by their own thoughts to interrupt them by trifling
+words.
+
+"He loves me!" thought Catharine. "I am a happy, enviable woman, for
+Thomas Seymour loves me."
+
+"She loves me!" thought he, with a proud, triumphant smile. "I shall,
+therefore, one day become Regent of England."
+
+Just then they came out on the large level meadow, through which they
+had previously ridden, and over which now came, scattered here and there
+in motley confusion, the entire royal suite, Princess Elizabeth at the
+head.
+
+"One thing more!" whispered Catharine. "If you ever need a messenger to
+me, apply to John Heywood. He is a friend whom we can trust."
+
+And she sprang forward to meet the princess, to recount to her all the
+particulars of her adventure, and her happy rescue by the master of
+horse.
+
+Elizabeth, however, listened to her with glowing looks and thoughts
+distracted, and as the queen then turned to the rest of her suite, and,
+surrounded by her ladies and lords, received their congratulations, a
+slight sign from the princess called Thomas Seymour to her side.
+
+She allowed her horse to curvet some paces forward, by which she and the
+earl found themselves separated a little from the rest, and were sure of
+being overheard by no one.
+
+"My lord," said she, in a vehement, almost threatening voice, "you have
+often and in vain besought me to grant you an interview. I have denied
+you. You intimated that you had many things to say to me, for which we
+must be alone, and which must reach no listener's ear. Well, now, to-day
+I grant you an interview, and I am at last inclined to listen to you."
+
+She paused and waited for a reply. But the earl remained silent. He only
+made a deep and respectful bow, bending to the very neck of his horse.
+"Well and good; I will go to this rendezvous were it but to blind
+Elizabeth's eyes, that she may not see what she never ought to see. That
+was all."
+
+The young princess cast on him an angry look, and a dark scowl gathered
+on her brow. "You understand well how to control your joy," said she;
+"and any one to see you just now would think--"
+
+"That Thomas Seymour is discreet enough not to let even his rapture be
+read in his countenance at this dangerous court," interrupted the earl
+in a low murmur. "When, princess, may I see you and where?"
+
+"Wait for the message that John Heywood will bring you to-day,"
+whispered Elizabeth, as she sprang forward and again drew near the
+queen.
+
+"John Heywood, again!" muttered the earl. "The confidant of both, and so
+my hangman, if he wishes to be!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. "LE ROI S'ENNUIT."
+
+
+King Henry was alone in his study. He had spent a few hours in writing
+on a devout and edifying book, which he was preparing for his subjects,
+and which, in virtue of his dignity as supreme lord of the Church, he
+designed to commend to their reading instead of the Bible.
+
+He now laid down his pen, and, with infinite complacency, looked over
+the written sheets, which were to be to his people a new proof of his
+paternal love and care, and so convince them that Henry the Eighth was
+not only the noblest and most virtuous of kings, but also the wisest.
+
+But this reflection failed to make the king more cheerful to-day;
+perhaps because he had already indulged in it too frequently. To be
+alone, annoyed and disturbed him--there were in his breast so many
+secret and hidden voices, whose whispers he dreaded, and which,
+therefore, he sought to drown--there were so many recollections of
+blood, which ever and again rose before him, however often he tried to
+wash them out in fresh blood, and which the king was afraid of, though
+he assumed the appearance of never repenting, never feeling disquietude.
+
+With hasty hand he touched the gold bell standing by him, and his face
+brightened as he saw the door open immediately, and Earl Douglas make
+his appearance on the threshold.
+
+"Oh, at length!" said the lord, who had very well understood the
+expression of Henry's features; "at length, the king condescends to be
+gracious to his people."
+
+"I gracious?" asked the king, utterly astonished. "Well, how am I so?"
+
+"By your majesty's resting at length from his exertions, and giving a
+little thought to his valuable and needful health. When you remember,
+sire, that England's weal depends solely and alone on the weal of
+her king, and that you must be and remain healthy, that your people,
+likewise may be healthy."
+
+The king smiled with satisfaction. It never came into his head to doubt
+the earl's words. It seemed to him perfectly natural that the weal of
+his people depended on his person; but yet it was always a lofty and
+beautiful song, and he loved to have his courtiers repeat it.
+
+The king, as we have said, smiled, but there was something unusual in
+that smile, which did not escape the earl.
+
+"He is in the condition of a hungry anaconda," said Earl Douglas to
+himself. "He is on the watch for prey, and he will be bright and lively
+again just as soon as he has tasted a little human flesh and blood. Ah,
+luckily we are well supplied in that way. Therefore, we will render
+unto the king what is the king's. But we must be cautious and go to work
+warily."
+
+He approached the king and imprinted a kiss on his hand.
+
+"I kiss this hand," said he, "which has been to-day the fountain through
+which the wisdom of the head has been poured forth on this blessed
+paper. I kiss this paper, which will announce and explain to happy
+England God's pure and unadulterated word; but yet I say let this
+suffice for the present, my king; take rest; remember awhile that you
+are not only a sage, but also a man."
+
+"Yes and truly a weak and decrepit one!" sighed the king, as with
+difficulty he essayed to rise, and in so doing leaned so heavily and the
+earl's arm that he almost broke down under the monstrous load.
+
+"Decrepit!" said Earl Douglas, reproachfully. "Your majesty moves to-day
+with as much ease and freedom as a youth, and my arm was by no means
+needed to help you up."
+
+"Nevertheless, we are growing old!" said the king, who, from his
+weariness, was unusually sentimental and low-spirited to-day.
+
+"Old!" repeated Earl Douglas. "Old, with those eyes darting fire, and
+that lofty brow, and that face, in every feature so noble! No, your
+majesty, kings have this in common with the gods--they never grow old."
+
+"And therein they resemble parrots to a hair!" said John Heywood, who
+just then entered the room. "I own a parrot which my great-grandfather
+inherited from his great-grandfather, who was hair-dresser to Henry the
+Fourth, and which to-day still sings with the same volubility as he
+did a hundred years ago: 'Long live the king! long live this paragon of
+virtue, sweetness, beauty, and mercy! Long live the king!' He has cried
+this for hundreds of years, and he has repeated it for Henry the Fifth
+and Henry the Sixth, for Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth! And
+wonderful, the kings have changed, but the song of praise has always
+been appropriate, and has ever been only the simple truth! Just like
+yours, my Lord Douglas! Your majesty may depend upon it, he speaks the
+truth, for he is near akin to my parrot, which always calls him 'My
+cousin,' and has taught him his immortal song of praise to kings."
+
+The king laughed, while Earl Douglas cast at John Heywood a sharp,
+spiteful look.
+
+"He is an impudent imp, is he not, Douglas?" said the king.
+
+"He is a fool!" replied he, with a shrug.
+
+"Exactly, and therefore I just now told you the truth. For you know
+children and fools speak the truth. And I became a fool just on this
+account, that the king, whom you all deceive by your lies, may have
+about him some creature, besides his looking-glass, to tell him the
+truth."
+
+"Well, and what truth will you serve up for me today?"
+
+"It is already served, your majesty. So lay aside for a little your
+regal crown and your high priesthood, and conclude to be for awhile a
+carnivorous beast. It is very easy to become a king. For that, nothing
+more is necessary than to be born of a queen under a canopy. But it
+is very difficult to be a man who has a good digestion. It requires a
+healthy stomach and a light conscience. Come, King Henry, and let us
+see whether you are not merely a king, but also a man that has a good
+stomach." And with a merry laugh he took the king's other arm and led
+him with the earl into the dining-room.
+
+The king, who was an extraordinary eater, silently beckoned his suite
+to take their places at the table, after he had seated himself in his
+gilded chair. With grave and solemn air he then received from the hands
+of the master of ceremonies the ivory tablet on which was the bill of
+fare for the day. The king's dinner was a solemn and important affair. A
+multitude of post-wagons and couriers were ever on the way to bring from
+the remotest ends of the earth dainties for the royal table. The bill
+of fare, therefore, to-day, as ever, exhibited the choicest and rarest
+dishes; and always when the king found one of his favorite ones written
+down he made an assenting and approving motion of the head, which always
+lighted up the face of the master of ceremonies like a sunbeam. There
+were birds' nests brought from the East Indies by a fast-sailing vessel,
+built specially for the purpose. There were hens from Calcutta and
+truffles from Languedoc, which the poet-king, Francis the First of
+France, had the day before sent to his royal brother as a special token
+of affection. There was the sparkling wine of Champagne, and the fiery
+wine of the Island of Cyprus, which the Republic of Venice had sent to
+the king as a mark of respect. There were the heavy wines of the Rhine,
+which looked like liquid gold, and diffused the fragrance of a whole
+bouquet of flowers, and with which the Protestant princes of Northern
+Germany hoped to fuddle the king, whom they would have gladly placed
+at the head of their league. There, too, were the monstrous, gigantic
+partridge pastries, which the Duke of Burgundy had sent, and the
+glorious fruits of the south, from the Spanish coast, with which the
+Emperor Charles the Fifth supplied the King of England's table. For it
+was well known that, in order to make the King of England propitious,
+it was necessary first to satiate him; that his palate must first be
+tickled, in order to gain his head or his heart.
+
+But to-day all these things seemed insufficient to give the king the
+blissful pleasure which, at other times, was wont to be with him when he
+sat at table. He heard John Heywood's jests and biting epigrams with a
+melancholy smile, and a cloud was on his brow.
+
+To be in cheerful humor, the king absolutely needed the presence of
+ladies. He needed them as the hunter needs the roe to enjoy the pleasure
+of the chase--that pleasure which consists in killing the defenceless
+and in declaring war against the innocent and peaceful.
+
+The crafty courtier, Earl Douglas, readily divined Henry's
+dissatisfaction, and understood the secret meaning of his frowns and
+sighs. He hoped much from them, and was firmly resolved to draw some
+advantage therefrom, to the benefit of his daughter, and the harm of the
+queen.
+
+"Your majesty," said he, "I am just on the point of turning traitor, and
+accusing my king of an injustice."
+
+The king turned his flashing eyes upon him, and put his hand, sparkling
+with jewelled rings, to the golden goblet filled with Rhenish wine.
+
+"Of an injustice--me--your king?" asked he, with stammering tongue.
+
+"Yes, of an injustice, inasmuch as you are for me God's visible
+representative on earth. I would blame God if He withdrew from us for
+a day the brightness of the sun, the gorgeousness and perfume of His
+flowers, for since we children of men are accustomed to enjoy these
+glories, we have in a certain measure gained a right to them. So I
+accuse you because you have withdrawn from us the embodied flowers and
+the incarnate suns; because you have been so cruel, sire, as to send the
+queen to Epping Forest."
+
+"Not so; the queen wanted to ride," said Henry, peevishly. "The spring
+weather attracted her, and since I, alas! do not possess God's
+exalted attribute of ubiquity, I was, no doubt, obliged to come to the
+resolution of being deprived of her presence. There is no horse capable
+of carrying the King of England."
+
+"There is Pegasus, however, and in masterly manner you know how to
+manage him. But how, your majesty! the queen wanted to ride, though she
+was deprived of your presence thereby? She wanted to ride, though this
+pleasure-ride was at the same time a separation from you? Oh how cold
+and selfish are women's hearts! Were I a woman, I would never depart
+from your side, I would covert no greater happiness than to be near
+you, and to listen to that high and exalted wisdom which pours from your
+inspired lips. Were I a woman--"
+
+"Earl, I opine that your wish is perfectly fulfilled," said John Heywood
+seriously. "You make in all respects the impression of an old woman!"
+
+All laughed. But the king did not laugh; he remained serious and looked
+gloomily before him.
+
+"It is true," muttered he, "she seemed excited with joy about this
+excursion, and in her eyes shone a fire I have seldom seen there.
+There must be some peculiar circumstance connected with this ride. Who
+accompanied the queen?"
+
+"Princess Elizabeth," said John Heywood, who had heard everything, and
+saw clearly the arrow that the earl had shot at the queen. "Princess
+Elizabeth, her true and dear friend, who never leaves her side. Besides,
+her maids of honor, who, like the dragon in the fable, keep watch over
+the beautiful princess."
+
+"Who else is in the queen's company?" inquired Henry, sullenly.
+
+"The master of horse, Earl of Sudley," said Douglas, "and--"
+
+"That is an observation in the highest degree superfluous," interrupted
+John Heywood; "it is perfectly well understood by itself that the master
+of horse accompanies the queen. That is just as much his office as it is
+yours to sing the song of your cousin, my parrot."
+
+"He is right," said the king quickly. "Thomas Seymour must accompany
+her, and it is my will also. Thomas Seymour is a faithful servant, and
+this he has inherited from his sister Jane, my much loved queen, now at
+rest with God, that he is devoted to his king in steadfast affection."
+
+"The time has not yet come when one may assail the Seymours," thought
+the earl. "The king is yet attached to them; so he will feel hostile
+toward the foes of the Seymours. Let us then begin our attack on Henry
+Howard--that is to say, on the queen."
+
+"Who accompanied the queen besides?" inquired Henry the Eighth, emptying
+the golden beaker at a draught, as though he would thereby cool the
+fire which already began to blaze within him. But the fiery Rhenish wine
+instead of cooling only heated him yet more; it drove, like a tempest,
+the fire kindled in his jealous heart in bright flames to his head, and
+made his brain glow like his heart.
+
+"Who else accompanied her beside these?" asked Earl Douglas carelessly.
+"Well, I think, the lord chamberlain, Earl of Surrey."
+
+A dark scowl gathered on the king's brow. The lion had scented his prey.
+
+"The lord chamberlain is not in the queen's train!" said John Heywood
+earnestly.
+
+"No," exclaimed Earl Douglas. "The poor earl. That will make him very
+sad."
+
+"And why think you that will make him sad?" asked the king in a voice
+very like the roll of distant thunder.
+
+"Because the Earl of Surrey is accustomed to live in the sunshine of
+royal favor, sire; because he resembles that flower which always turns
+its head to the sun, and receives from it vigor, color, and brilliancy."
+
+"Let him take care that the sun does not scorch him," muttered the king.
+
+"Earl," said John Heywood, "you must put on your spectacles so that you
+can see better. This time you have confounded the sun with one of its
+satellites. Earl Surrey is far too prudent a man to be so foolish as to
+gaze at the sun, and thereby blind his eyes and parch his brain. And
+so he is satisfied to worship one of the planets that circle round the
+sun."
+
+"What does the fool intend to say by that?" asked the earl
+contemptuously.
+
+"The wise will thereby give you to understand that you have this time
+mistaken your daughter for the queen," said John Heywood, emphasizing
+sharply every word, "and that it has happened to you, as to many a great
+astrologer, you have taken a planet for a sun."
+
+Earl Douglas cast a dark, spiteful look at John Heywood, who answered it
+with one equally piercing and furious.
+
+Their eyes were firmly fixed on each other's, and in those eyes they
+both read all the hatred and all the bitterness which were working in
+the depths of their souls. Both knew that they had from that hour sworn
+to each other an enmity burning and full of danger.
+
+The king had noticed nothing of this dumb but significant scene. He was
+looking down, brooding over his gloomy thoughts, and the storm-clouds
+rolling around his brow gathered darker and darker.
+
+With an impetuous movement he arose from his seat, and this time he
+needed no helping hand to stand up. Wrath was the mighty lever that
+threw him up.
+
+The courtiers arose from their seats in silence, and nobody besides John
+Heywood observed the look of understanding which Earl Douglas exchanged
+with Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and Wriothesley, the lord
+chancellor.
+
+"Ah, why is not Cranmer here?" said John Heywood to himself. "I see the
+three tiger-cats prowling, so there must be prey to devour somewhere.
+Well, I will at any rate keep my ears open wide enough to hear their
+roaring."
+
+"The dinner is over, gentlemen!" said the king hastily; and the
+courtiers and gentlemen in waiting silently withdrew to the anteroom.
+
+Only Earl Douglas, Gardiner, and Wriothesley, remained in the hall,
+while John Heywood crept softly into the king's cabinet and concealed
+himself behind the hanging of gold brocade which covered the door
+leading from the king's study to the outer anteroom.
+
+"My lords," said the king, "follow me into my cabinet. As we are dull,
+the most advisable thing for us to do is to divert ourselves while we
+occupy ourselves with the weal of our beloved subjects, and consult
+concerning their happiness and what is conducive to their welfare.
+Follow me then, and we will hold a general consultation."
+
+"Earl Douglas, your arm!" and as the king leaned on it and walked slowly
+toward the cabinet, at the entrance of which the lord chancellor and the
+Bishop of Winchester were waiting for him, he asked in a low voice:
+"You say that Henry Howard dares ever intrude himself into the queen's
+presence?"
+
+"Sire, I did not say that; I meant only that he is constantly to be seen
+in the queen's presence."
+
+"Oh, you mean that she perhaps authorizes him to do so," said the king,
+grinding his teeth.
+
+"Sire, I hold the queen to be a noble and dutiful wife."
+
+"I should be quite inclined to lay your head at your feet if you did
+not!" said the king, in whose face the first lightning of the bursting
+cloud of wrath began to flash.
+
+"My head belongs to the king!" said Earl Douglas respectfully. "Let him
+do with it as he pleases."
+
+"But Howard--you mean, then, that Howard loves the queen?"
+
+"Yes, sire, I dare affirm that."
+
+"Now, by the Mother of God, I will tread the serpent under my feet, as
+I did his sister!" exclaimed Henry, fiercely. "The Howards are an
+ambitious, dangerous, and hypocritical race."
+
+"A race that never forgets that a daughter of their house has sat on
+your throne."
+
+"But they shall forget it," cried the king, "and I must wash these proud
+and haughty thoughts out of their brain with their own blood. They
+have not then learned, from the example of their sister, how I punish
+disloyalty. This insolent race needs another fresh example. Well, they
+shall have it. Only put the means in my hand, Douglas, only a little
+hook that I can strike into the flesh of these Howards, and I tell you,
+with that little hook I will drag them to the scaffold. Give me proof of
+the earl's criminal love, and I promise you that for this I will grant
+you what you ask."
+
+"Sire, I will give you this proof."
+
+"When?"
+
+"In four days, sire! At the great contest of the poets, which you have
+ordered to take place on the queen's birthday."
+
+"I thank you, Douglas, I thank you," said the king with an expression
+almost of joy. "In four days you will have rid me of the troublesome race
+of Howards."
+
+"But, sire, if I cannot give the proof you demand without accusing one
+other person?"
+
+The king, who was just about to pass the door of his cabinet, stood
+still, and looked steadily into the earl's eyes. "Then," said he, in a
+tone peculiarly awful, "you mean the queen? Well, if she is guilty, I
+will punish her. God has placed the sword in my hand that I may bear it
+to His honor and to the terror of mankind. If the queen has sinned, she
+will be punished. Furnish me the proof of Howard's guilt, and do not
+trouble yourself if we thereby discover the guilt of others. We shall
+not timidly shrink back, but let justice take its course."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. THE QUEEN'S FRIEND.
+
+
+Earl Douglas, Gardiner, and Wriothesley, had accompanied the king into
+his cabinet.
+
+At last the great blow was to be struck, and the plan of the three
+enemies of the queen, so long matured and well-considered, was to be at
+length put in execution. Therefore, as they followed the king, who with
+unwonted activity preceded them, they exchanged with each other one more
+look of mutual understanding.
+
+By that look Earl Douglas said, "The hour has come. Be ready!"
+
+And the looks of his friends responded, "We are ready!"
+
+John Heywood, who, hidden behind the hangings, saw and observed
+everything, could not forbear a slight shudder at the sight of these
+four men, whose dark and hard features seemed incapable of being touched
+by any ray of pity or mercy.
+
+There was first the king, that man with the Protean countenance, across
+which storm and sunshine, God and the devil traced each minute new
+lines; who could be now an inspired enthusiast, and now a bloodthirsty
+tyrant; now a sentimental wit, and anon a wanton reveler; the king, on
+whose constancy nobody, not even himself, could rely; ever ready, as it
+suited his caprice or his interest, to betray his most faithful friend,
+and to send to the scaffold to-day those whom but yesterday he had
+caressed and assured of his unchanging affection; the king, who
+considered himself privileged to indulge with impunity his low
+appetites, his revengeful impulses, his bloodthirsty inclinations; who
+was devout from vanity, because devotion afforded him an opportunity of
+identifying himself with God, and of regarding himself in some sort the
+patron of Deity.
+
+There was Earl Douglas, the crafty courtier with ever-smiling face, who
+seemed to love everybody, while in fact he hated all; who assumed the
+appearance of perfect harmlessness, and seemed to be indifferent to
+everything but pleasure, while nevertheless secretly he held in his
+hand all the strings of that great net which encompassed alike court
+and king--Earl Douglas, whom the king loved for this alone, because
+he generally gave him the title of grand and wise high-priest of the
+Church, and who was, notwithstanding this, Loyola's vicegerent, and a
+true and faithful adherent of that pope who had damned the king as a
+degenerate son and given him over to the wrath of God.
+
+Lastly, there were the two men with dark, malignant looks, with
+inflexible, stony faces, which u ere never lighted up by a smile, or
+a gleam of joy; who always condemned, always punished, and whose
+countenances never brightened save when the dying shriek of the
+condemned, or the groans of some poor wretch upon the rack, fell upon
+their ears; who were the tormentors of humanity, while they called
+themselves the ministers and servants of God.
+
+"Sire," said Gardiner, when the king had slowly taken his seat upon the
+ottoman--"sire, let us first ask the blessing of the Lord our God on
+this hour of conference. May God, who is love, but who is wrath also,
+may He enlighten and bless us!"
+
+The king devoutly folded his hands, but it was only a prayer of wrath
+that animated his soul.
+
+"Grant, O God, that I may punish Thine enemies, and everywhere dash in
+pieces the guilty!"
+
+"Amen!" said Gardiner, as he repeated with solemn earnestness the king's
+words.
+
+"Send us the thunderbolt of Thy wrath," prayed Wriothesley, "that we may
+teach the world to recognize Thy power and glory!"
+
+Earl Douglas took care not to pray aloud. What he had to request of God
+was not allowed to reach the ear of the king.
+
+"Grant, O God," prayed he in his heart, "grant that my work may prosper,
+and that this dangerous queen may ascend the scaffold, to make room for
+my daughter, who is destined to bring back into the arms of our holy
+mother, the Church--guilty and faithless king."
+
+"Now my lords," said the king, fetching a long breath, "now tell me how
+stand matters in my kingdom, and at my court?"
+
+"Badly," said Gardiner. "Unbelief again lifts up its head. It is a
+hydra. If you strike off one of its heads, two others immediately spring
+up in its place. This cursed sect of reformists and atheists multiplies
+day by day, and our prisons are no longer sufficient to contain them;
+and when we drag them to the stake, their joyful and courageous death
+always makes fresh proselytes and fresh apostates."
+
+"Yes, matters are bad," said the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley; "in vain
+have we promised pardon and forgiveness to all those who would return
+penitent and contrite; they laugh to scorn our offers of pardon, and
+prefer a death of torture to the royal clemency. What avails it that we
+have burnt to death Miles Coverdale, who had the hardihood to translate
+the Bible? His death appears to have been only the tocsin that aroused
+other fanatics, and, without our being able to divine or suspect where
+all these books come from, they have overflowed and deluged the whole
+land; and we now already have more than four translations of the Bible.
+The people read them with eagerness; and the corrupt seek of mental
+illumination and free-thinking waxes daily more powerful and more
+pernicious."
+
+"And now you, Earl Douglas?" asked the king, when the lord chancellor
+ceased. "These noble lords have told me how matters stand in my kingdom.
+You will advise me what is the aspect of things at my court."
+
+"Sire," said Earl Douglas, slowly and solemnly--for he wished each word
+to sink into the king's breast like a poisoned arrow--"sire, the people
+but follow the example which the court sets them. How can you require
+faith of the people, when under their own eyes the court turns faith to
+ridicule, and when infidels find at court aid and protection?"
+
+"You accuse, but give no names," said the king, impatiently. "Who dares
+at my court be a protector of heretics?"
+
+"Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury!" said the three men, as with one
+mouth. The signal-word was spoken, the standard of a bloody struggle set
+up.
+
+"Cranmer?" repeated the king thoughtfully. "He has, however, always
+been a faithful servant and an attentive friend to me. It was he who
+delivered me from the unholy bond with Catharine of Aragon: it was he
+too who warned me of Catharine Howard, and furnished me with proofs of
+her guilt. Of what misdemeanor do you accuse him?"
+
+"He denies the six articles," said Gardiner, whose malicious face now
+glowed with bitter hatred. "He reprobates auricular confession, and
+believes not that the voluntarily taken vows of celibacy are binding."
+
+"If he does that, then he is a traitor!" cried the king, who was fond of
+always throwing a reverence for chastity and modesty, as a kind of holy
+mantle, over his own profligate and lewd life; and whom nothing more
+embittered than to encounter another on that path of vice which he
+himself, by virtue of his royal prerogative, and his crown by the grace
+of God, could travel in perfect safety.
+
+"If he does that, then he is a traitor! My arm of vengeance will smite
+him!" repeated the king again. "It was I who gave my people the six
+articles, as a sacred and authoritative declaration of faith; and I
+will not suffer this only true and right doctrine to be assailed and
+obscured. But you are mistaken, my lords. I am acquainted with Cranmer,
+and I know that he is loyal and faithful."
+
+"And yet it is he," said Gardiner, "who confirms these heretics in their
+obduracy and stiff-neckedness. He is the cause why these lost wretches
+do not, from the fear of divine wrath at least, return to you, their
+sovereign and high-priest. For he preaches to them that God is love and
+mercy; he teaches them that Christ came into the world in order to bring
+to the world love and the forgiveness of sins, and that they alone are
+Christ's true disciples and servants who emulate His love. Do you not
+see then, sire, that this is a covert and indirect accusation against
+yourself, and that while he praises pardoning love, he at the same time
+condemns and accuses your righteous and punitory wrath?"
+
+The king did not answer immediately, but sat with his eyes fixed, grave
+and pondering. The fanatical priest had gone too far; and, without being
+aware of it, it was he himself who was that very instant accusing the
+king.
+
+Earl Douglas felt this. He read in the king's face that he was just then
+in one of those moments of contrition which sometimes came over him when
+his soul held involuntary intercourse with itself. It was necessary to
+arouse the sleeping tiger and point out to him some prey, so as to make
+him again bloodthirsty.
+
+"It would be proper if Cranmer preached only Christian love," said he.
+"Then would he be only a faithful servant of his Lord, and a follower
+of his king. But he gives to the world an abominable example of a
+disobedient and perfidious servant; he denies the truth of the six
+articles, not in words, but in deeds. You have ordered that the priests
+of the Church remain single. Now, then, the Archbishop of Canterbury is
+married!"
+
+"Married!" cried the king, his visage glowing with rage. "Ah, I will
+chastise him, this transgressor of my holy laws! A minister of the
+Church, a priest, whose whole life should be naught but an exhibition of
+holiness, an endless communion with God, and whose high calling it is
+to renounce fleshly lusts and earthly desires! And he is married! I will
+make him feel the whole weight of my royal anger! He shall learn from
+his own experience that the king's justice is inexorable, and that in
+every case he smites the head of the sinner, be he who he may!"
+
+"Your majesty is the embodiment of wisdom and justice," said Douglas,
+"and your faithful servants well know, if the royal justice is sometimes
+tardy in smiting guilty offenders, this happens not through your will,
+but through your servants who venture to stay the arm of justice."
+
+"When and where has this happened?" asked Henry; and his face flushed
+with rage and excitement. "Where is the offender whom I have not
+punished? Where in my realm lives a being who has sinned against God or
+his king, and whom I have not dashed to atoms?"
+
+"Sire," said Gardiner solemnly, "Anne Askew is yet alive."
+
+"She lives to mock at your wisdom and to scoff at your holy creed!"
+cried Wriothesley.
+
+"She lives, because Bishop Cranmer wills that she should not die," said
+Douglas, shrugging his shoulders. The king broke out into a short, dry
+laugh. "Ah, Cranmer wills not that Anne Askew die!" said he, sneering.
+"He wills not that this girl, who has so fearfully offended against her
+king, and against God, should be punished!"
+
+"Yes, she has offended fearfully, and yet two years have passed away
+since her offence," cried Gardiner--"two years which she has spent in
+deriding God and mocking the king!"
+
+"Ah," said the king, "we have still hoped to turn this young, misguided
+creature from the ways of sin and error to the path of wisdom and
+repentance. We wished for once to give our people a shining example of
+our willingness to forgive those who repent and renounce their heresy,
+and to restore them to a participation of our royal favor. Therefore it
+was that we commissioned you, my lord bishop, by virtue of your prayers
+and your forcible and convincing words, to pluck this poor child from
+the claws of the devil, who has charmed her ear."
+
+"But she is unbending," said Gardiner, grinding his teeth. "In vain have
+I depicted to her the pains of hell, which await her if she return not
+to the faith; in vain have I subjected her to every variety of torture
+and penance; in vain have I sent to her in prison other converts,
+and had them pray with her night and day incessantly; she remains
+unyielding, hard as stone, and neither the fear of punishment nor the
+prospect of freedom and happiness has the power to soften that marble
+heart."
+
+"There is one means yet untried," said Wriothesley--"a means, moreover,
+which is a more effective preacher of repentance than the most
+enthusiastic orators and the most fervent prayers, and which I have to
+thank for bringing back to God and the faith many of the most hardened
+heretics."
+
+"And this means is--"
+
+"The rack, your majesty."
+
+"Ah, the rack!" replied the king, with an involuntary shudder.
+
+"All means are good that lead to the holy end!" said Gardiner, devoutly
+folding his hands.
+
+"The soul must be saved, though the body be pierced with wounds!" cried
+Wriothesley.
+
+"The people must be convinced," said Douglas, "that the lofty spirit
+of the king spares not even those who are under the protection of
+influential and might personages. The people murmur that this time
+justice is not permitted to prevail, because Archbishop Cranmer protects
+Anne Askew, and the queen is her friend."
+
+"The queen is never the friend of a criminal!" said Henry, vehemently.
+
+"Perchance she does not consider Anne Askew a criminal," responded Karl
+Douglas, with a slight smile. "It is known, indeed, that the queen is a
+great friend of the Reformation; and the people, who dare not call her a
+heretic--the people call her 'the Protestant.'"
+
+"Is it, then, really believed that it is Catharine who protects Anne
+Askew, and keeps her from the stake?" inquired the king, thoughtfully.
+
+"It is so thought, your majesty."
+
+"They shall soon see that they are mistaken, and that Henry the Eighth
+well deserves to be called the Defender of the Faith and the Head of
+his Church!" cried the king, with burning rage. "For when have I shown
+myself so long-suffering and weak in punishing, that people believe me
+inclined to pardon and deal gently? Have I not sent to the scaffold even
+Thomas More and Cromwell, two renowned and in a certain respect noble
+and high-minded men, because they dared defy my supremacy and oppose
+the doctrine and ordinance which I commanded them to believe? Have I not
+sent to the block two of my queens--two beautiful young women, in whom
+my heart was well pleased, even when I punished them--because they
+had provoked my wrath? Who, after such brilliant examples of our
+annihilating justice, who dare accuse us of forbearance?"
+
+"But at that time, sire," said Douglas, in his soft, insinuating voice,
+"but at that time no queen as yet stood at your side who called heretics
+true believers, and favored traitors with her friendship."
+
+The king frowned, and his wrathful look encountered the friendly and
+submissive countenance of the earl. "You know I hate these covert
+attacks," said he. "If you can tax the queen with any crime, well now,
+do so. If you cannot, hold your peace!"
+
+"The queen is a noble and virtuous lady," said the earl, "only she
+sometimes permits herself to be led away by her magnanimous spirit. Or
+how, your majesty, can it possibly be with your permission that my lady
+the queen maintains a correspondence with Anne Askew?"
+
+"What say you? The queen in correspondence with Anne Askew?" cried the
+king in a voice of thunder. "That is a lie, a shameless lie, hatched up
+to ruin the queen; for it is very well known that the poor king, who has
+been so often deceived, so often imposed upon, believes himself to have
+at last found in this woman a being whom he can trust, and in whom he
+can put faith. And they grudge him that. They wish to strip him of this
+last hope also, that his heart may harden entirely to stone, and no
+emotion of pity evermore find access to him. Ah, Douglas, Douglas,
+beware of my wrath, if you cannot prove what you say!"
+
+"Sire, I can prove it! For Lady Jane herself, no longer ago than
+yesterday, was made to give up a note from Anne Askew to the queen."
+
+The king remained silent for a while, and gazed fixedly on the
+ground. His three confidants observed him with breathless, trembling
+expectation.
+
+At length the king raised his head again, and turned his gaze, which
+was now grave and steady, upon the lord chancellor. "My Lord Chancellor
+Wriothesley," said he, "I empower you to conduct Anne Askew to the
+torture-room, and try whether the torments which are prepared for the
+body are perchance able to bring this erring soul to an acknowledgment
+of her faults. My Lord Bishop Gardiner, I promise my word that I will
+give attention to your accusation against the Archbishop of Canterbury,
+and that, if it be well founded, he shall not escape punishment. My Lord
+Douglas, I will give my people and all the world proof that I am
+still God's righteous and avenging vice-gerent on earth, and that no
+consideration can restrain my wrath, no after-thought stay my arm,
+whenever it is ready to fall and smite the head of the guilty. And now,
+my lords, let us declare this session at an end. Let us breathe a little
+from these exertions, and seek some recreation for one brief hour.
+
+"My Lords Gardiner and Wriothesley, you are now at liberty. You,
+Douglas, will accompany me into the small reception-room. I want to see
+bright and laughing faces around me. Call John Heywood, and if you meet
+any ladies in the palace, of course I beg them to shed on us a little of
+that sunshine which you say is peculiarly woman's."
+
+He laughed, and, leaning on the earl's arm, left the cabinet.
+
+Gardiner and Wriothesley stood there in silence, watching the king, who
+slowly and heavily traversed the adjacent hall, and whose cheery and
+laughing voice came ringing back to them.
+
+"He is a weathercock, turning every moment from side to side," said
+Gardiner, with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders.
+
+"He calls himself God's sword of vengeance, but he is nothing more than
+a weak tool, which we bend and use at our will," muttered Wriothesley,
+with a hoarse laugh. "Poor, pitiful fool, deeming himself so mighty
+and sturdy; imagining himself a free king, ruling by his sovereign
+will alone, and yet he is but our servant and drudge! Our great work is
+approaching its end, and we shall one day triumph. Anne Askew's death is
+the sign of a new covenant, which will deliver England and trample the
+heretics like dust beneath our feet. And when at length we shall have
+put down Cranmer, and brought Catharine Parr to the scaffold, then
+will we give King Henry a queen who will reconcile him with God and the
+Church, out of which is no salvation."
+
+"Amen, so be it!" said Gardiner; and arm in arm they both left the
+cabinet.
+
+Deep stillness now reigned in that little spot, and nobody saw John
+Heywood as he now came from behind the hanging, and, completely worn out
+and faint, slipped for a moment into a chair.
+
+"Now I know, so far at least, the plan of these blood-thirsty
+tiger-cats," muttered he. "They wish to give Henry a popish queen; and
+so Cranmer must be overthrown, that, when they have deprived the queen
+of this powerful prop, they may destroy her also and tread her in the
+dust. But as God liveth, they shall not succeed in this! God is just,
+and He will at last punish these evil-doers. And supposing there is no
+God, then will we try a little with the devil himself. No, they shall
+not destroy the noble Cranmer and this beautiful, high-minded queen.
+I forbid it--I, John Heywood, the king's fool. I will see everything,
+observe everything, hear everything. They shall find me everywhere on
+their path; and when they poison the king's ear with their diabolical
+whisperings, I will heal it again with my merry deviltries. The king's
+fool will be the guardian angel of the queen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. JOHN HEYWOOD.
+
+
+After so much care and excitement, the king needed an hour of recreation
+and amusement. Since the fair young queen was seeking these far away
+in the chase, and amid the beauties of Nature, Henry must, no doubt,
+be content to seek them for himself, and in a way different from the
+queen's. His unwieldiness and his load of flesh prevented him from
+pursuing the joys of life beyond his own halls; so the lords and ladies
+of his court had to bring them hither to him, and station the flitting
+goddess of Joy, with her wings fettered, in front of the king's
+trundle-chair.
+
+The gout had that day again overcome that mighty king of earth; and a
+heavy, grotesque mass it was which sat there in the elbow-chair.
+
+But the courtiers still called him a fine-looking and fascinating man;
+and the ladies still smiled on him and said, by their sighs and by their
+looks, that they loved him; that he was ever to them the same handsome
+and captivating man that he was twenty years before, when yet young,
+fine-looking, and slim. How they smile upon him, and ogle him! How
+Lady Jane, the maiden otherwise so haughty and so chaste, does wish to
+ensnare him with her bright eyes as with a net! How bewitchingly does
+the Duchess of Richmond, that fair and voluptuous woman, laugh at the
+king's merry jests and double entendres!
+
+Poor king! whose corpulency forbids him to dance as he once had done
+with so much pleasure and so much dexterity! Poor king! whose age
+forbids him to sing as once he had done to the delight both of the court
+and himself!
+
+But there are yet, however, pleasant, precious, joyous hours, when the
+man revives some little in the king; when even youth once more again
+awakes within him, and smiles in a few dear, blessed pleasures. The king
+still has at least eyes to perceive beauty, and a heart to feel it.
+
+How beautiful Lady Jane is, this white lily with the dark, star-like
+eyes! How beautiful Lady Richmond, this full-blown red rose with the
+pearl-white teeth!
+
+And they both smile at him; and when the king swears he loves them, they
+bashfully cast down their eyes and sigh.
+
+"Do you sigh, Jane, because you love me?"
+
+"Oh, sire, you mock me. It would be a sin for me to love you, for Queen
+Catharine is living."
+
+"Yes, she is living!" muttered the king; and his brow darkened; and for
+a moment the smile disappeared from his lips.
+
+Lady Jane had committed a mistake. She had reminded the king of his wife
+when it was yet too soon to ask for her death.
+
+John Heywood read this in the countenance of his royal master, and
+resolved to take advantage of it. He wished to divert the attention of
+the king, and to draw it away from the beautiful, captivating women who
+were juggling him with their bewitching charms.
+
+"Yes, the queen lives!" said he, joyfully, "and God be praised for it!
+For how tedious and dull it would be at this court had we not our fair
+queen, who is as wise as Methuselah, and innocent and good as a new-born
+babe! Do you not, Lady Jane, say with me, God be praised that Queen
+Catharine is living?"
+
+"I say so with you!" said Jane, with ill-concealed vexation.
+
+"And you, King Henry, do you not say it too?"
+
+"Of course, fool!"
+
+"Ah, why am I not King Henry?" sighed John Heywood. "King, I envy you,
+not your crown, or your royal mantle; not your attendants or your money.
+I envy you only this, that you can say, 'God be praised that my wife is
+still alive!' while I never know but one phrase,'God have pity, my
+wife is still alive!' Ah, it is very seldom, king, that I have heard a
+married man speak otherwise! You are in that too, as in all things else,
+an exception, King Henry; and your people have never loved you more
+warmly and purely than when you say, 'I thank God that my consort is
+alive!' Believe me, you are perhaps the only man at your court who
+speaks after this manner, however ready they may be to be your parrots,
+and re-echo what the lord high-priest says."
+
+"The only man that loves his wife?" said Lady Richmond. "Behold now
+the rude babbler! Do you not believe, then, that we women deserve to be
+loved?"
+
+"I am convinced that you do not."
+
+"And for what do you take us, then?"
+
+"For cats, which God, since He had no more cat-skin, stuck into a smooth
+hide!"
+
+"Take care, John, that we do not show you our claws!" cried the duchess,
+laughing.
+
+"Do it anyhow, my lady! I will then make a cross, and ye will disappear.
+For devils, you well know, cannot endure the sight of the holy cross,
+and ye are devils."
+
+John Heywood, who was a remarkably fine singer, seized the mandolin,
+which lay near him, and began to sing.
+
+It was a song, possible only in those days, and at Henry's voluptuous
+and at the same time canting court--a song full of the most wanton
+allusions, of the most cutting jests against both monks and women; a
+song which made Henry laugh, and the ladies blush; and in which
+John Heywood had poured forth in glowing dithyrambics all his secret
+indignation against Gardiner, the sneaking hypocrite of a priest, and
+against Lady Jane, the queen's false and treacherous friend.
+
+But the ladies laughed not. They darted flashing glances at John
+Heywood; and Lady Richmond earnestly and resolutely demanded the
+punishment of the perfidious wretch who dared to defame women. The king
+laughed still harder. The rage of the ladies was so exceedingly amusing.
+
+"Sire," said the beautiful Richmond, "he has insulted not us, but
+the whole sex; and in the name of our sex, I demand revenge for the
+affront."
+
+"Yes, revenge!" cried Lady Jane, hotly.
+
+"Revenge!" repeated the rest of the ladies.
+
+"See, now, what pious and gentle-hearted doves ye are!" cried John
+Heywood.
+
+The king said, laughingly: "Well, now, you shall have your will--you
+shall chastise him."
+
+"Yes, yes, scourge me with rods, as they once scourged the Messiah,
+because He told the Pharisees the truth. See here! I am already putting
+on the crown of thorns."
+
+He took the king's velvet cap with solemn air, and put it on.
+
+"Yes, whip him, whip him!" cried the king, laughing, as he pointed to
+the gigantic vases of Chinese porcelain, containing enormous bunches
+of roses, on whose long stems arose a real forest of formidable-looking
+thorns.
+
+"Pull the large bouquets to pieces; take the roses in your hand, and
+whip him with the stems!" said the king, and his eyes glistened with
+inhuman delight, for the scene promised to be quite interesting. The
+rose-stems were long and hard, and the thorns on them pointed and sharp
+as daggers. How nicely they would pierce the flesh, and how he would
+yell and screw his face, the good-natured fool!
+
+"Yes, yes, let him take off his coat, and we will whip him!" cried the
+Duchess of Richmond; and the women, all joining in the cry, rushed like
+furies upon John Heywood, and forced him to lay aside his silk upper
+garment. Then they hurried to the vases, snatched out the bouquets, and
+with busy hands picked out the longest and stoutest stems. And loud were
+their exclamations of satisfaction, if the thorns were right and sharp,
+such as would penetrate the flesh of the offender right deeply. The
+king's laughter and shouts of approval animated them more and more,
+and made them more excited and furious. Their cheeks glowed, their eyes
+glared; they resembled Bacchantes circling the god of riotous joviality
+with their shouts of "Evoe! evoe!"
+
+"Not yet! do not strike yet!" cried the king. "You must first strengthen
+yourselves for the exertion, and fire your arms for a powerful blow!"
+
+He took the large golden beaker which stood before him and, tasting it,
+presented it to Lady Jane.
+
+"Drink, my lady, drink, that your arm may be strong!"
+
+And they all drank, and with animated smiles pressed their lips on
+the spot which the king's mouth had touched. And now their eyes had a
+brighter flame, and their cheeks a more fiery glow.
+
+A strange and exciting sight it was, to see those beautiful women
+burning with malicious joy and thirst for vengeance, who for the moment
+had laid aside all their elegant attitudes, their lofty and haughty
+airs, to transform themselves into wanton Bacchantes, bent on chastising
+the offender, who had so often and so bitterly lashed them all with his
+tongue.
+
+"Ah, I would a painter were here!" said the king. "He should paint us a
+picture of the chaste nymphs of Diana pursuing Actaeon. You are Actaeon,
+John!"
+
+"But they are not the chaste nymphs, king; no, far from it," cried
+Heywood; laughing, "and between these fair women and Diana I find no
+resemblance, but only a difference."
+
+"And in what consists the difference, John?"
+
+"Herein, sire, that Diana carried her horn at her side; but these fair
+ladies make their husbands wear their horns on the forehead!"
+
+A loud peal of laughter from the gentlemen, a yell of rage from the
+ladies, was the reply of this new epigram of John Heywood. They arranged
+themselves in two rows, and thus formed a lane through which John
+Heywood had to pass.
+
+"Come, John Heywood, come and receive your punishment;" and they raised
+their thorny rods threateningly, and flourished them with angry gestures
+high above their heads.
+
+The scene was becoming to John in all respects very piquant, for these
+rods had very sharp thorns, and only a thin linen shirt covered his
+back.
+
+With bold step, however, he approached the fatal passage through which
+he was to pass.
+
+Already he beheld the rods drawn back; and it seemed to him as if the
+thorns were even now piercing his back.
+
+He halted, and turned with a laugh to the king. "Sire, since you have
+condemned me to die by the hands of these nymphs, I claim the right of
+every condemned criminal--a last favor."
+
+"The which we grant you, John."
+
+"I demand that I may put on these fair women one condition--one
+condition on which they may whip me. Does your majesty grant me this?"
+
+"I grant it!"
+
+"And you solemnly pledge me the word of a king that this condition shall
+be faithfully kept and fulfilled?"
+
+"My solemn, kingly word for it!"
+
+"Now, then," said John Heywood, as he entered the passage, "now, then,
+my ladies, my condition is this: that one of you who has had the most
+lovers, and has oftenest decked her husband's head with horns, let her
+lay the first stroke on my back." [Footnote: Flogel's "Geschichte der
+Hofnarren," p.899]
+
+A deep silence followed. The raised arms of the fair women sank. The
+roses fell from their hands and dropped to the ground. Just before so
+bloodthirsty and revengeful, they seemed now to have become the softest
+and gentlest of beings.
+
+But could their looks have killed, their fire certainly would have
+consumed poor John Heywood, who now gazed at them with an insolent
+sneer, and advanced into the very midst of their lines.
+
+"Now, my ladies, you strike him not?" asked the king.
+
+"No, your majesty, we despise him too much even to wish to chastise
+him," said the Duchess of Richmond.
+
+"Shall your enemy who has injured you go thus unpunished?" asked the
+king. "No, no, my ladies; it shall not be said that there is a man in my
+kingdom whom I have let escape when so richly deserving punishment. We
+will, therefore, impose some other punishment on him. He calls himself
+a poet, and has often boasted that he could make his pen fly as fast
+as his tongue! Now, then, John, show us in this manner that you are no
+liar! I command you to write, for the great court festival which takes
+place in a few days, a new interlude; and one indeed, hear you, John,
+which is calculated to make the greatest growler merry, and over which
+these ladies will be forced to laugh so heartily, that they will forget
+all their ire!"
+
+"Oh," said John dolefully, "what an equivocal and lewd poem it must be
+to please these ladies and make them laugh! My king, we must, then, to
+please these dear ladies, forget a little our chastity, modesty, and
+maiden bashfulness, and speak in the spirit of the ladies--that is to
+say, as lasciviously as possible."
+
+"You are a wretch!" said Lady Jane; "a vulgar hypocritical fool."
+
+"Earl Douglas, your daughter is speaking to you," said John Heywood,
+calmly. "She flatters you much, your tender daughter."
+
+"Now then, John, you have heard my orders, and will you obey them? In
+four days will this festival begin; I give you two days more. In six
+days, then, you have to write a new interlude. And if he fails to do
+it, my ladies, you shall whip him until you bring the blood; and that
+without any condition." Just then was heard without a flourish of
+trumpets and the clatter of horse-hoofs.
+
+"The queen has returned," said John Heywood, with a countenance beaming
+with joy, as he fixed his smiling gaze full of mischievous satisfaction
+on Lady Jane.
+
+"Nothing further now remains for you to do, but dutifully to meet your
+mistress upon the great staircase, for, as you so wisely said before,
+the queen still lives."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, John Heywood ran out and rushed through
+the anteroom and down the steps to meet the queen. Lady Jane watched him
+with a dark, angry look; and as she turned slowly to the door to go and
+meet the queen, she muttered low between her closely-pressed lips: "The
+fool must die, for he is the queen's friend!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. THE CONFIDANT.
+
+
+The queen was just ascending the steps of the great public staircase,
+and she greeted John Heywood with a friendly smile.
+
+"My lady," said he aloud, "I have a few words in private to say to you,
+in the name of his majesty."
+
+"Words in private!" repeated Catharine, as she stopped upon the terrace
+of the palace. "Well, then, fall back, my lords and ladies; we wish to
+receive his majesty's mysterious message."
+
+The royal train silently and respectfully withdrew into the large
+anteroom of the palace, while the queen remained alone with John Heywood
+on the terrace.
+
+"Now, speak, John."
+
+"Queen, heed well my words, and grave them deep on your memory! A
+conspiracy is forged against you, and in a few days, at the great
+festival, it will be ripe for execution. Guard well, therefore, every
+word you utter, ay, even your very thoughts. Beware of every dangerous
+step, for you may be certain that a listener stands behind you! And
+if you need a confidant, confide in no one but me! I tell you, a great
+danger lies before you, and only by prudence and presence of mind will
+you be able to avoid it."
+
+This time the queen did not laugh at her friend's warning voice. She was
+serious; she even trembled.
+
+She had lost her proud sense of security and her serene confidence--she
+was no longer guiltless--she had a dangerous secret to keep,
+consequently she felt a dread of discovery; and she trembled not merely
+for herself, but also for him whom she loved.
+
+"And in what consists this plot?" asked she, with agitation.
+
+"I do not yet understand it; I only know that it exists. But I will
+search it out, and if your enemies lurk about you with watchful eyes,
+well, then, I will have spying eyes to observe them."
+
+"And is it I alone that they threaten?"
+
+"No, queen, your friend also."
+
+Catharine trembled. "What friend, John?"
+
+"Archbishop Cranmer."
+
+"Ah, the archbishop!" replied she, drawing a deep breath.
+
+"And is he all, John? Does their enmity pursue only me and him?"
+
+"Only you two!" said John Heywood, sadly, for he had fully understood
+the queen's sigh of relief, and he knew that she had trembled for
+another. "But remember, queen, that Cranmer's destruction would be
+likewise your own; and that as you protect the archbishop, he also will
+protect you with the king--you, queen, and your FRIENDS."
+
+Catharine gave a slight start, and the crimson on her cheek grew deeper.
+"I shall always be mindful of that, and ever be a true and real friend
+to him and to you; for you two are my only friends: is it not so?"
+
+"No, your majesty, I spoke to you of yet a third, of Thomas Seymour."
+
+"Oh, he!" cried she with a sweet smile. Then she said suddenly, and in a
+low quick voice: "You say I must trust no one here but you. Now, then,
+I will give you a proof of my confidence. Await me in the green
+summer-house at twelve o'clock to-night. You must be my attendant on a
+dangerous excursion. Have you courage, John?"
+
+"Courage to lay down my life for you, queen!"
+
+"Come, then, but bring your weapon with you."
+
+"At your command! and is that your only order for to-day?"
+
+"That is all, John! only," added she, with hesitation and a slight
+blush, "only, if you perchance meet Earl Sudley, you may say to him that
+I charged you to greet him in my name."
+
+"Oh!" sighed John Hey wood, sadly.
+
+"He has to-day saved my life, John," said she, as if excusing herself.
+"It becomes me well, then, to be grateful to him."
+
+And giving him a friendly nod, she stepped into the porch of the castle.
+
+"Now let anybody say again, that chance is not the most mischievous and
+spiteful of all devils!" muttered John Heywood. "This devil, chance,
+throws in the queen's way the very person she ought most to avoid; and
+she must be, as in duty bound, very grateful to a lover. Oh, oh, so
+he has saved her life? But who knows whether he may not be one day the
+cause of her losing it!"
+
+He dropped his head gloomily upon his breast, when suddenly he heard
+behind him a low voice calling his name; and as he turned, he saw the
+young Princess Elizabeth hastening toward him with a hurried step. She
+was at that moment very beautiful. Her eyes gleamed with the fire of
+passion; her cheeks glowed; and about her crimson lips there played a
+gentle, happy smile. She wore, according to the fashion of the time,
+a close-fitting high-necked dress, which showed off to perfection the
+delicate lines of her slender and youthful form, while the wide standing
+collar concealed the somewhat too great length of her neck, and made her
+ruddy, as yet almost childish face stand out as it were from a pedestal.
+On either side of her high, thoughtful brow, fell, in luxurious
+profusion, light flaxen curls; her head was covered with a black velvet
+cap, from which a white feather drooped to her shoulders.
+
+She was altogether a charming and lovely apparition, full of
+nobleness and grace, full of fire and energy; and yet, in spite of her
+youthfulness, not wanting in a certain grandeur and dignity. Elizabeth,
+though still almost a child, and frequently bowed and humbled by
+misfortune, yet ever remained her father's own daughter. And though
+Henry had declared her a bastard and excluded her from the succession
+to the throne, yet she bore the stamp of her royal blood in her high,
+haughty brow; in her keen, flashing eye.
+
+As she now stood before John Heywood, she was not, however, the haughty,
+imperious princess, but merely the shy, blushing maiden, who feared to
+trust her first girlish secret to another's ear, and ventured only with
+trembling hand to draw aside the veil which concealed her heart.
+
+"John Heywood," said she, "you have often told me that you loved me; and
+I know that my poor unfortunate mother trusted you, and summoned you as
+a witness of her innocence. You could not at that time save the mother,
+but will you now serve Anne Boleyn's daughter, and be her faithful
+friend?"
+
+"I will," said Heywood, solemnly, "and as true as there is a God above
+us, you shall never find me a traitor."
+
+"I believe you, John; I know that I may trust you. Listen then, I will
+now tell you my secret--a secret which no one but God knows, and the
+betrayal of which might bring me to the scaffold. Will you then swear
+to me, that you will never, under any pretext, and from any motive
+whatsoever, betray to anybody, so much as a single word of what I am now
+about to tell you? Will you swear to me, never to intrust this secret
+to any one, even on your death-bed, and not to betray it even in the
+confessional?"
+
+"Now as regards that, princess," said John, with a laugh, "you
+are perfectly safe. I never go to confession, for confession is a
+highly-spiced dish of popery on which I long since spoilt my stomach;
+and as concerns my deathbed, one cannot, under the blessed and pious
+reign of Henry the Eighth, altogether know whether he will be really a
+participant of any kind, or whether he may not make a far more speedy
+and convenient trip into eternity by the aid of the hangman."
+
+"Oh, be serious, John--do, I pray you! Let the fool's mask, under
+which you hide your sober and honest face, not hide it from me also. Be
+serious, John, and swear to me that you will keep my secret."
+
+"Well, then, I swear, princess; I swear by your mother's spirit to
+betray not a word of what you are going to tell me."
+
+"I thank you, John. Now lean this way nearer to me, lest the breeze may
+catch a single word of mine and bear it farther. John, I love!"
+
+She saw the half-surprised, half-incredulous smile which played around
+John Heywood's lips. "Oh," continued she, passionately, "you believe
+me not. You consider my fourteen years, and you think the child knows
+nothing yet of a maiden's feelings. But remember, John, that those girls
+who live under a warm sun are early ripened by his glowing rays, and are
+already wives and mothers when they should still be dreaming children.
+Well, now, I too am the daughter of a torrid zone, only mine has not
+been the sun of prosperity, and it has been sorrow and misfortune which
+have matured my heart. Believe me, John, I love! A glowing, consuming
+fire rages within me; it is at once my delight and my misery, my
+happiness and my future.
+
+"The king has robbed me of a brilliant and glorious future; let them
+not, then, grudge me a happy one, at least. Since I am never to be a
+queen, I will at least be a happy and beloved wife. If I am condemned
+to live in obscurity and lowliness, at the very least, I must not be
+prohibited from adorning this obscure and inglorious existence with
+flowers, which thrive not at the foot of the throne, and to illuminate
+it with stars more sparkling than the refulgence of the most radiant
+kingly crown."
+
+"Oh, you are mistaken about your own self!" said John Heywood,
+sorrowfully. "You choose the one only because the other is denied. You
+would love only because you cannot rule; and since your heart, which
+thirsts for fame and honor, can find no other satisfaction, you would
+quench its thirst with some other draught, and would administer love as
+an opiate to lull to rest its burning pains. Believe me, princess, you
+do not yet know yourself! You were not born to be merely a loving wife,
+and your brow is much too high and haughty to wear only a crown of
+myrtle. Therefore, consider well what you do, princess! Be not carried
+away by your father's passionate blood, which boils in your veins also.
+Think well before you act. Your foot is yet on one of the steps to the
+throne. Draw it not back voluntarily. Maintain your position; then,
+the next step brings you again one stair higher up. Do not voluntarily
+renounce your just claim, but abide in patience the coming of the day of
+retribution and justice. Only do not yourself make it impossible, that
+there may then be a full and glorious reparation. PRINCESS Elizabeth may
+yet one day be queen, provided she has not exchanged her name for one
+less glorious and noble."
+
+"John Heywood," said she, with a bewitching smile, "I have told you I
+love him."
+
+"Well, love him as much as you please, but do it in silence, and tell
+him not of it; but teach your love resignation."
+
+"John, he knows it already."
+
+"Ah, poor princess! you are still but a child, that sticks its hands in
+the fire with smiling bravery and scorches them, because it knows not
+that fire burns."
+
+"Let it burn, John, burn! and let the flames curl over my head! Better
+be consumed in fire than perish slowly and horribly with a deadly chill!
+I love him, I tell you, and he already knows it!"
+
+"Well, then, love him, but, at least, do not marry him!" cried John
+Heywood, surlily.
+
+"Marry!" cried she, with astonishment. "Marry! I had never thought of
+it."
+
+She dropped her head upon her breast, and stood there, silent and
+thoughtful.
+
+"I am much afraid I made a blunder, then!" muttered John Heywood. "I
+have suggested a new thought to her. Ah, ah, King Henry has done well in
+appointing me his fool! Just when we deem ourselves the wisest, we are
+the greatest fools!"
+
+"John," said Elizabeth, as she raised her head again and smiled to him
+in a glow of excitement, "John, you are entirely right; if we love, we
+must marry."
+
+"But I said just the contrary, princess!"
+
+"All right!" said she, resolutely. "All this belongs to the future;
+we will busy ourselves with the present. I have promised my lover an
+interview."
+
+"An interview!" cried John Heywood, in amazement. "You will not be so
+foolhardy as to keep your promise?"
+
+"John Heywood," said she, with an air of approaching solemnity, "King
+Henry's daughter will never make a promise without fulfilling it. For
+better or for worse, I will always keep my plighted word, even if the
+greatest misery and ruin were the result!"
+
+John Heywood ventured to offer no further opposition. There was at this
+moment something peculiarly lofty, proud, and truly royal in her air,
+which impressed him with awe, and before which he bowed.
+
+"I have granted him an interview because he wished it," said Elizabeth;
+"and, John, I will confess it to you, my own heart longed for it. Seek
+not, then, to shake my resolution; it is as firm as a rock. But if you
+are not willing to stand by me, say so, and I will then look about
+me for another friend, who loves me enough to impose silence on his
+thoughts."
+
+"But who, perhaps, will go and betray you. No, no, it has been once
+resolved upon, and unalterably; so no one but I must be your confidant.
+Tell me, then, what I am to do, and I will obey you."
+
+"You know, John, that my apartments are situated in yonder wing,
+overlooking the garden. Well, in my dressing-room, behind one of the
+large wall pictures, I have discovered a door leading into a lonely,
+dark corridor. From this corridor there is a passage up into yonder
+tower. It is unoccupied and deserted. Nobody ever thinks of entering
+that part of the castle, and the quiet of the grave reigns throughout
+those apartments, which nevertheless are furnished with a magnificence
+truly regal. There will I receive him."
+
+"But how shall he make his way thither?"
+
+"Oh, do not be concerned; I have thought over that many days since; and
+while I was refusing my lover the interview for which he again and again
+implored me, I was quietly preparing everything so as to be able one
+day to grant it to him. Today this object is attained, and today have
+I fulfilled his wish, voluntarily and unasked; for I saw he had no more
+courage to ask again. Listen, then. From the tower, a spiral staircase
+leads down to a small door, through which you gain entrance into the
+garden. I have a key to this door. Here it is. Once in possession of
+this key, he has nothing further to do but remain behind in the park
+this evening, instead of leaving the castle; and by means of this he
+will come to me, for I will wait for him in the tower, in the large room
+directly opposite the staircase landing. Here, take the key; give it to
+him, and repeat to him all that I have said."
+
+"Well, princess, there remains for you now only to appoint the hour at
+which you will receive him there."
+
+"The hour," said she, as she turned away her blushing face. "You
+understand, John, that it is not feasible to receive him there by day,
+because there is by day not a single moment in which I am not watched."
+
+"You will then receive him by night!" said John Heywood, sadly. "At what
+hour?"
+
+"At midnight! And now you know all; and I beg you, John, hasten and
+carry him my message; for, look, the sun is setting, and it will soon be
+night."
+
+She nodded to him with a smile, and turned to go.
+
+"Princess, you have forgotten the most important point. You have not yet
+told me his name."
+
+"My God! and you do not guess it? John Heywood, who has such sharp eyes,
+sees not that there is at this court but a single one that deserves to
+be loved by a daughter of the king!"
+
+"And the name of this single one is--"
+
+"Thomas Seymour, Earl of Sudley!" whispered Elizabeth, as she turned
+away quickly and entered the castle.
+
+"Oh, Thomas Seymour!" said John Heywood, utterly astounded. As if
+paralyzed with horror, he stood there motionless, staring up at the sky
+and repealing over and over, "Thomas Seymour! Thomas Seymour! So he is
+a sorcerer who administers a love-potion to all the women, and befools
+them with his handsome, saucy face. Thomas Seymour! The queen loves him;
+the princess loves him; and then there is this Duchess of Richmond, who
+will by all means be his wife! This much, however, is certain, he is
+a traitor who deceives both, because to both he has made the same
+confession of love. And there again is that imp, chance, which compels
+me to be the confidant of both these women. But I will be well on my
+guard against executing both my commissions to this sorcerer. Let him at
+any rate become the husband of the princess; perhaps this would be the
+surest means of freeing the queen from her unfortunate love."
+
+He was silent, and still gazed up thoughtfully at the sky. "Yes," said
+he then, quite cheerfully, "thus shall it be. I will combat the one
+love with the other. For the queen to love him, is dangerous. I will
+therefore so conduct matters that she must hate him. I will remain her
+confidant. I will receive her letters and her commissions, but I will
+burn her letters and not execute her commissions. I am not at liberty to
+tell her that the faithless Thomas Seymour is false to her, for I have
+solemnly pledged my word to the princess never to breathe her secret to
+any one; and I will and must keep my word. Smile and love, then; dream
+on thy sweet dream of love, queen; I wake for thee; I will cause the
+dark cloud resting on thee to pass by. It may, perhaps, touch thine
+heart; but thy noble and beautiful head--that at least it shall not be
+allowed to crush; that--"
+
+"Now, then, what are you staring up at the sky for, as if you read there
+a new epigram with which to make the king laugh, and the parsons rave?"
+asked a voice near him; and a hand was laid heavily on his shoulder.
+
+John Heywood did not look round at all; he remained in the same
+attitude, gazing up steadily at the sky. He had very readily recognized
+the voice of him who had addressed him; he knew very well that he who
+stood near him was no other than the bold sorcerer whom he was just then
+cursing at the bottom of his heart; no other than Thomas Seymour, Earl
+of Sudley.
+
+"Say, John, is it really an epigram?" asked Thomas Seymour again. "An
+epigram on the hypocritical, lustful, and sanctimonious priestly rabble,
+that with blasphemous hypocrisy fawn about the king, and are ever
+watchful how they can set a trap for one of us honorable and brave men?
+Is that what Heaven is now revealing to you?"
+
+"No, my lord, I am only looking at a hawk which hovers about there in
+the clouds. I saw him mount, earl, and only think of the wonder--he
+had in each talon a dove! Two doves for one hawk. Is not that too
+much--wholly contrary to law and nature?"
+
+The earl cast on him a penetrating and distrustful look. But John
+Heywood, remaining perfectly calm and unembarrassed, continued looking
+at the clouds.
+
+"How stupid such a brute is, and how much to his disadvantage will his
+very greediness be! For since he holds a dove in each claw, he will not
+be able to enjoy either of them; because he has no claw at liberty with
+which to tear them. Soon as he wishes to enjoy the one, the other will
+escape; when he grabs after that, the other flies away; and so at last
+he will have nothing at all, because he was too rapacious and wanted
+more than he could use."
+
+"And you are looking after this hawk in the skies? But you are perhaps
+mistaken, and he whom you seek is not above there at all, but here
+below, and perchance quite close to you?" asked Thomas Seymour
+significantly.
+
+But John Heywood would not understand him.
+
+"Nay," said he, "he still flies, but it will not last long. For verily
+I saw the owner of the dovecot from which the hawk has stolen the two
+doves. He had a weapon; and he, be ye sure of it--he will kill this
+hawk, because he has robbed him of his pet doves."
+
+"Enough, enough!" cried the earl, impatiently. "You would give me a
+lesson, but you must know I take no counsel from a fool, even were he
+the wisest."
+
+"In that you are right, my lord, for only fools are so foolish as
+to hearken to the voice of wisdom. Besides, each man forges his own
+fortune. And now, wise sir, I will give you a key, which you yourself
+have forged, and behind which lies your fortune. There, take this key;
+and if you at midnight slip through the garden to the tower over yonder,
+this key will open to you the door of the same, and you can then
+without hesitation mount the spiral staircase and open the door which is
+opposite the staircase. Behind that you will find the fortune which you
+have forged for yourself, sir blacksmith, and which will bid you welcome
+with warm lips and soft arms. And so commending you to God, I must
+hasten home to think over the comedy which the king has commanded me to
+write."
+
+"But you do not so much as tell me from whom this message comes?" said
+Earl Sudley, retaining him. "You invite me to a meeting and give me a
+key, and I know not who will await me there in that tower."
+
+"Oh, you do not know? There is then more than one who might await you
+there? Well, then, it is the youngest and smallest of the two doves who
+sends you the key."
+
+"Princess Elizabeth?"
+
+"You have named her, not I!" said John Heywood, as he disengaged himself
+from the earl's grasp and hurried across the courtyard to betake himself
+to his lodgings.
+
+Thomas Seymour watched him with a scowl, and then slowly directed his
+eyes to the key that Heywood had given him.
+
+"The princess then awaits me," whispered he, softly. "Ah, who can
+read it in the stars? who can know whither the crown will roll when it
+tumbles from King Henry's head? I love Catharine, but I love ambition
+still more; and if it is demanded, to ambition must I sacrifice my
+heart."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. GAMMER GUETON'S NEEDLE.
+
+
+Slowly and lost in gloomy thought, John Heywood walked toward his
+lodgings. These lodgings were situated in the second or inner court of
+the vast palace of Whitehall, in that wing of the castle which contained
+the apartments of all the higher officers of the royal household, and so
+those of the court-jesters also; for the king's fool was at that period
+a very important and respectable personage, who occupied a rank equal to
+that of a gentleman of the royal bed-chamber.
+
+John Heywood had just crossed this second courtyard, when all at once
+loud, wrangling voices, and the clear, peculiar ring of a box on the
+ear, startled him out of his meditations. He stopped and listened. His
+face, before so serious, had now reassumed its usual merry and shrewd
+expression; his large eyes again glittered with humor and mischief.
+"There again verily is my sweet, charming housekeeper, Gammer Gurton,"
+said John Heywood, laughing; "and she no doubt is quarrelling again with
+my excellent servant, that poor, long-legged, blear-eyed Hodge. Ah! ha!
+Yesterday I surprised her as she applied a kiss to him, at which he made
+as doleful a face as if a bee had stung him. To-day I hear how she is
+boxing his ears. He is perhaps now laughing at it, and thinks it is a
+rose-leaf which cools his cheek. That Hodge is such a queer bird! But we
+will at once see what there is to-day, and what farce is being performed
+now."
+
+He crept softly up-stairs, and, opening the door of his room, closed it
+again behind him quickly and gently. Gammer Gurton, who was in the room
+adjoining, had heard nothing, seen nothing; and had the heavens come
+tumbling down at that moment, she would have scarcely noticed it; for
+she had eyes and sense only for this long, lank lackey who stood before
+her shaking with fear, and staring at her out of his great bluish-white
+eyes. Her whole soul lay in her tongue; and her tongue ran as fast as
+a will-wheel, and with the force of thunder. How, then, could Gammer
+Gurton well have time and ears to hear her master, who had softly
+entered his chamber and slyly crept to the door, only half closed, which
+separated his room from that of the housekeeper? "How!" screamed Gammer
+Gurtoh, "you silly raga muffin, you wish to make me believe that it was
+the cat that ran away with my sewing-needle, as if my sewing-needle were
+a mouse and smelt of bacon, you stupid, blear-eyed fool!"
+
+"Ah, you call me a fool," cried Hodge, with a laugh, which caused his
+mouth to describe a graceful line across his face from ear to ear;
+"you call me a fool, and that is a great honor for me, for then I am a
+servant worthy of my master. And as to being blear-eyed, that must be
+caused by the simple fact that I have nothing all day long before my
+eyes but you, Gammer Gurton--you, with your face like a full moon--you,
+sailing through the room like a frigate, and with your grappling-irons,
+your hands, smashing to pieces everything except your own
+looking-glass."
+
+"You shall pay me for that, you double-faced, thread-bare lout!"
+screamed Gammer Gurton, as she rushed on Hodge with clenched fist.
+
+But John Heywood's cunning servant had anticipated this; he had already
+slipped under the large table which stood in the middle of the room.
+As the housekeeper now made a plunge to drag him out of his extemporary
+fortress, he gave her such a hearty pinch on the leg, that she sprang
+back with a scream, and sank, wholly overcome by the pain, into the
+huge, leather-covered elbow-chair which was near her workstand at the
+window.
+
+"You are a monster, Hodge," groaned she, exhausted--"a heartless,
+horrible monster. You have stolen my sewing-needle--you only. For you
+knew very well that it was my last one, and that, if I have not that, I
+must go at once to the shopkeeper to buy some needles. And that is just
+what you want, you weathercock, you. You only want me to go out, that
+you may have an opportunity to play with Tib."
+
+"Tib? Who is Tib?" asked Hodge as he stretched out his long neck
+from under the table, and stared at Gammer Gurton with well-assumed
+astonishment.
+
+"Now this otter wants me yet to tell him who Tib is!" screamed the
+exasperated dame. "Well, then, I will tell you. Tib is the cook for the
+major-domo over there--a black-eyed, false, coquettish little devil, who
+is bad and mean enough to troll away the lover of an honest and virtuous
+woman, as I am; a lover who is such a pitiful little thing that one
+would think no one but myself could find him out and see him; nor could
+I have done it had I not for forty years trained my eyes to the search,
+and for forty years looked around for the man who was at length to marry
+me, and make me a respectable mistress. Since my eyes then were at last
+steadily fixed on this phantom of man, and I found nothing there, I
+finally discovered you, you cobweb of a man!"
+
+"What! you call me a cobweb?" screamed Hodge, as he crept from under
+the table, and, drawing himself up to his full height, placed himself
+threateningly in front of Gammer Gurton's elbow-chair. "You call me a
+cobweb? Now, I swear to you that you shall henceforth never more be
+the spider that dwells in that web! For you are a garden-spider, an
+abominable, dumpy, old garden-spider, for whom a web, such as Hodge is,
+is much too fine and much too elegant. Be quiet, therefore, old spider,
+and spin your net elsewhere! You shall not live in my net, but Tib--for,
+yes, I do know Tib. She is a lovely, charming child of fourteen, as
+quick and nimble as a kid, with lips red as the coral which you wear on
+your fat pudding of a neck, with eyes which shine yet brighter than your
+nose, and with a figure so slender and graceful that she might have
+been carved out of one of your fingers. Yes, yes, I know Tib. She is an
+affectionate, good child, who would never be so hard-hearted as to
+abuse the man she loves, and could not be so mean and pitiful, even in
+thought, as to wish to marry the man she did not love. Just because he
+is a man. Yes, I know Tib, and now I will go straight to her and ask her
+if she will marry a good, honest lad, who, to be sure, is somewhat lean,
+but who doubtless will become fatter if he has any other fare than the
+meagre, abominable stuff on which Gammer Gurton feeds him; a lad who, to
+be sure, is blear-eyed, but will soon get over that disease when he no
+more sees Gammer Gurton, who acts on his eyes like a stinking onion, and
+makes them always red and running water. Good-by, old onion! I am going
+to Tib."
+
+But Gammer Gurton whirled up out of her elbow-chair like a top, and was
+upon Hodge, whom she held by the coat-tail, and brought him to a stand.
+
+"You dare go to Tib again! You dare pass that door and you shall see
+that the gentle, peaceable, and patient Gammer Gurton is changed into
+a lioness, when any one tries to tear from her that most sacred and
+dearest of treasures, her husband. For you are my husband, inasmuch as I
+have your word that you will marry me."
+
+"But I have not told you when and where I will do it, Gammer Gurton;
+and so you can wait to all eternity, for only in heaven will I be your
+husband."
+
+"That is an abominable, malicious lie!" screamed Gammer Gurton. "A
+good-for-nothing lie, say I! For did you not long ago snivel and beg
+till I was forced to promise you to make a will, and in it declare
+Hodge, my beloved husband, sole heir of all my goods and chattels, and
+bequeath to him everything I have scraped together in my virtuous and
+industrious life?"
+
+"But you did not make it--the will. You broke your word; and, therefore,
+I will do the same."
+
+"Yes, I have made it, you greyhound. I have made it; and this very day
+I was going with you to a justice of the peace and have it signed, and
+then to-morrow we would have got married."
+
+"You have made the will, you round world of love?" said Hodge tenderly,
+as with his long, withered, spindling arms he tried to clasp the
+gigantic waist of his beloved. "You have made the will and declared me
+your heir? Come, then, Gammer Gurton, come, let us go to the justice of
+the peace!"
+
+"But do you not see, then," said Gammer Gurton, with a tender, cat-like
+purr, "do you not see, then, that you rumple my frill when you hug me
+so? Let me go, then, and help me find my needle quickly, for without the
+needle we cannot go to the justice of the peace."
+
+"What, without the needle not go to the justice of the peace?"
+
+"No; for only see this hole which Gib, the cat, tore in my prettiest cap
+awhile ago, as I took the cap out of the box and laid it on the table.
+Indeed I cannot go to the justice of the peace with such a hole in my
+cap! Search then, Hodge, search, so that I can mend my cap, and go with
+you to the justice of the peace!"
+
+"Lord God, where in the world can it be, the unlucky needle? I must
+have it, I must find it, so that Gammer Gurton may take her will to the
+justice of the peace!"
+
+And in frantic desperation, Hodge searched all about on the floor for
+the lost needle, and Gammer Gurton stuck her large spectacles on her
+flaming red nose and peered about on the table. So eager was she in the
+search, that she even let her tongue rest a little, and deep silence
+reigned in the room.
+
+Suddenly this silence was broken by a voice; which seemed to come from
+the courtyard. It was a soft, sweet voice that cried: "Hodge, dear
+Hodge, are you there? Come to me in the court, only for a few minutes! I
+want to have a bit of a laugh with you!"
+
+It was as though an electric shock had passed through the room with that
+voice, and struck at the same time both Gammer Gurton and Hodge.
+
+Both startled, and discontinuing the search, stood there wholly
+immovable, as if petrified. Hodge especially, poor Hodge, was as if
+struck by lightning. His great bluish-white eyes appeared to be coming
+out of their sockets; his long arms hung down, flapping and dangling
+about like a flail; his knees, half bent, seemed already to be giving
+way in expectation of the approaching storm.
+
+This storm did not in fact make him wait long. "That is Tib!" screamed
+Gammer Gurton, springing like a lioness upon Hodge and seizing him
+by the shoulders with both her hands. "That is Tib, you thread-like,
+pitiful greyhound! Well, was I not right, now, when I called you a
+faithless, good-for-nothing scamp, that spares not innocence, and breaks
+the hearts of the women as he would a cracker, which he swallows at his
+pleasure? Was I not right, in saying that you were only watching for me
+to go out in order to go and sport with Tib?"
+
+"Hodge, my dear, darling Hodge," cried the voice beneath there, and this
+time louder and more tender than before, "Hodge, oh come, do now, come
+with me in the court, as you promised me; come and get the kiss for
+which you begged me this morning!"
+
+"I will be a damned otter, if I begged her for it, and if I understand a
+single word of what she says!" said Hodge, wholly dumfounded and quaking
+all over.
+
+"Ah, you understand not a word of what she says?" screamed Gammer
+Gurton. "Well, but I understand it. I understand that everything between
+us is past and done with, and that I have nothing more to do with you,
+you Moloch, you! I understand that I shall not go and make my will,
+to become your wife and fret myself to death over this skeleton of a
+husband, that I may leave you to chuckle as my heir. No, no, it is past.
+I am not going to the justice of the peace, and I will tear up my will!"
+
+"Oh, she is going to tear up her will!" howled Hodge; "and then I have
+tormented myself in vain; in vain have endured the horrible luck of
+being loved by this old owl! Oh, oh, she will not make her will, and
+Hodge will remain the same miserable dog he always was!"
+
+Gammer Gurton laughed scornfully. "Ah, you are aware at last what a
+pitiable wretch you are, and how much a noble and handsome person, as I
+am, lowered herself when she made up her mind to pick up such a weed and
+make him her husband."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know it!" whined Hodge; "and I pray you pick me up and take
+me, and above all things make your will!"
+
+"No, I will not take you, and I shall not make my will! It is all over
+with, I tell you; and now you can go as soon as you please to Tib, who
+has called you so lovingly. But first give me back my sewing-needle, you
+magpie, you! Give me here my sewing-needle, which you have stolen. It is
+of no use to you now, for it is not necessary for me to go out in order
+that you may go and see Tib. We have nothing more to do with each other,
+and you can go where you wish. My sewing-needle, say I--my needle, or I
+will hang you as a scarecrow in my pea-patch, to frighten the sparrows
+out of it. My sewing-needle, or--"
+
+She shook her clenched fist threateningly at Hodge, fully convinced that
+now, as always before, Hodge would retreat before this menacing weapon
+of his jealous and irritable lady-love, and seek safety under the bed or
+the table.
+
+This time, however, she was mistaken. Hodge, who saw that all was lost,
+felt that his patience was at length exhausted; and his timidity was
+now changed to the madness of despair. The lamb was transformed into
+a tiger, and with a tiger's rage he pounced upon Gammer Gurton, and,
+throwing aside her fist, he dealt her a good sound blow on the cheek.
+
+The signal was given, and the battle began. It was waged by both sides
+with equal animosity and equal vigor; only Hodge's bony hand made by far
+the most telling blows on Gammer Gurton's mass of flesh, and was always
+certain, wherever he struck, to hit some spot of this huge mass; while
+Gammer Gurton's soft hand seldom touched that thin, threadlike figure,
+which dexterously parried every blow.
+
+"Stop, you fools!" suddenly shouted a stentorian voice. "See you not,
+you goblins, that your lord and master is here? Peace, peace then,
+you devils, and do not be hammering away at one another, but love each
+other."
+
+"It is the master!" exclaimed Gammer Gurton, lowering her fist in the
+utmost contrition.
+
+"Do not turn me away, sir!" moaned Hodge; "do not dismiss me from
+your service because at last I have for once given the old hag a good
+bruising. She has deserved it a long time, and an angel himself must at
+last lose patience with her."
+
+"I turn you out of my service!" exclaimed John Heywood, as he wiped his
+eyes, wet with laughing. "No, Hodge, you are a real jewel, a mine of fun
+and merriment; and you two have, without knowing it, furnished me with
+the choicest materials for a piece which, by the king's order, I have
+to write within six days. I owe you, then, many thanks, and will show
+my gratitude forthwith. Listen well to me, my amorous and tender pair of
+turtle-doves, and mark what I have to say to you. One cannot always tell
+the wolf by his hide, for he sometimes put on a sheep's skin; and so,
+too, a man cannot always be recognized by his voice, for he sometimes
+borrows that of his neighbor. Thus, for example, I know a certain John
+Heywood, who can mimic exactly the voice of a certain little miss
+named Tib, and who knows how to warble as she herself: 'Hodge, my dear
+Hodge!'" And he repeated to them exactly, and with the same tone and
+expression, the words that the voice had previously cried.
+
+"Ah, it was you, sir?" cried Hodge, with a broad grin--"that Tib in the
+court there, that Tib about whom we have been pummelling each other?"
+
+"I was Tib, Hodge--I who was present during the whole of your quarrel,
+and found it hugely comical to send Tib's voice thundering into the
+midst of our lovers' quarrel, like a cannon-stroke! Ah, ha! Hodge, that
+was a fine bomb-shell, was it not? And as I said 'Hodge, my dear Hodge,'
+you tumbled about like a kernel of corn which a dung-beetle blows with
+his breath. No, no, my worthy and virtuous Gammer Gurton, it was not Tib
+who called the handsome Hodge, and more than that, I saw Tib, as your
+contest began, go out at the courtyard gate."
+
+"It was not Tib!" exclaimed Gammer Gurton, much moved, and happy as love
+could make her. "It was not Tib, and she was not in the court at
+all, and Hodge could not then go down to her, while I went to the
+shopkeeper's to buy needles. Oh, Hodge, Hodge, will you forgive me for
+this; will you forget the hard words which I spoke in the fury of my
+anguish, and can you love me again?"
+
+"I will try," said Hodge, gravely; "and without doubt I shall succeed,
+provided you go to-day forthwith to the justice, and make your will."
+
+"I will make my will, and to-morrow we will go to the priest; shall it
+not be so, my angel?"
+
+"Yes, we go to the priest to-morrow!" growled Hodge, as with a frightful
+grimace he scratched himself behind the ears.
+
+"And now come, my angel, and give me a kiss of reconciliation!" She
+spread her arms out, and when Houge did not come to her, but remained
+immovable, and steadfast in his position, she went to Hodge and pressed
+him tenderly to her heart.
+
+Suddenly she uttered a shriek, and let go of Hodge, She had felt a
+terrible pain in her breast. It seemed as though a small dagger had
+pierced her bosom.
+
+And there it was, the lost needle, and Hodge then was innocent and pure
+as the early dawn.
+
+He had not mischievously purloined the needle, so that Gammer Gurton
+would be compelled to leave her house in order to fetch some new needles
+from the shopkeeper's; he had not intended to go to Tib, for Tib was not
+in the court, but had gone out.
+
+"Oh Hodge, Hodge, good Hodge, you innocent dove, will you forgive me?"
+
+"Come to the justice of the peace, Gammer Gurton, and I forgive you!"
+
+They sank tenderly into each other's arms, wholly forgetful of their
+master, who still stood near them, and looked on, laughing and nodding
+his head.
+
+"Now, then, I have found the finest and most splendid materials for my
+piece," said John Heywood, as he left the loving pair and betook himself
+to his own room. "Gammer Gurton has saved me, and King Henry will not
+have the satisfaction of seeing me whipped by those most virtuous and
+most lovely ladies of his court. To work, then, straightway to work!"
+
+He seated himself at his writing-desk, and seized pen and paper.
+
+"But how!" asked he, suddenly pausing. "That is certainly a rich subject
+for a composition; but I can never in the world get an interlude out of
+it! What shall I do with it? Abandon this subject altogether, and again
+jeer at the monks and ridicule the nuns? That is antiquated and worn
+out! I will write something new, something wholly new, and something
+which will make the king so merry, that he will not sign a death-warrant
+for a whole day. Yes, yes, a merry play shall it be, and then I will
+call it boldly and fearlessly a comedy!"
+
+He seized his pen and wrote: "Gammer Gurton's Needle, a right pithy,
+pleasant, and merry comedy."
+
+And thus originated the first English comedy, by John Heywood, fool to
+King Henry the Eighth. [Footnote: This comedy was first printed in the
+year 1661, but it was represented at Christ College fully a hundred
+years previously. Who was the author of it is not known with certainty;
+but it is possible that the writer of it was John Heywood, the
+epigrammatist and court-jester.--See Dramaturgic oder Theorie und
+Geschichte der dramatischen Kunst, von Theodore Mundt, vol i, p. 809.
+Flogel's Geschichte der Hofnarren, p. 399.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. LADY JANE.
+
+
+All was quiet in the palace of Whitehall. Even the servants on guard in
+the vestibule of the king's bedchamber had been a long time slumbering,
+for the king had been snoring for several hours; and this majestical
+sound was, to the dwellers in the palace, the joyful announcement that
+for one fine night they were exempt from service, and might be free men.
+
+The queen also had long since retired to her apartments, and dismissed
+her ladies at an unusually early hour. She felt, she said, wearied by
+the chase, and much needed rest. No one, therefore, was to disturb her,
+unless the king should order it.
+
+But the king, as we have said, slept, and the queen had no reason to
+fear that her night's rest would be disturbed.
+
+Deep silence reigned in the palace. The corridors were empty and
+deserted, the apartments all silent.
+
+Suddenly a figure tripped along softly and cautiously through the long
+feebly lighted corridor. She was wrapped in a black mantle; a veil
+concealed her face.
+
+Scarcely touching the floor with her feet, she floated away, and glided
+down a little staircase. Now she stops and listens. There is nothing to
+hear; all is noiseless and still.
+
+Then, on again. Now she wings her steps. For here she is sure of not
+being heard. It is the unoccupied wing of the castle of Whitehall.
+Nobody watches her here.
+
+On, then, on, adown that corridor, descending those stairs. There she
+stops before a door leading into the summer-house. She puts her ear to
+the door, and listens. Then she claps her hands three times.
+
+The sound is reechoed from the other side.
+
+"Oh, he is there, he is there!" Forgotten now are her cares, forgotten
+her pains and tears. He is there. She has him again.
+
+She throws open the door. It is dark indeed in the chamber, but she sees
+him, for the eye of love pierces the night; and if the sees him not, yet
+she feels his presence.
+
+She rests on his heart; he presses her closely to his breast. Leaning
+on each other, they grope cautiously along through the dark, desolate
+chamber to the divan at the upper end, and there, both locked in a happy
+embrace, they sink upon the cushion.
+
+"At last I have you again! and my arms again clasp this divine form, and
+again my lips press this crimson mouth! Oh, my beloved, what an eternity
+has this separation been! Six days! Six long nights of agony! Have you
+not felt how my soul cried out for you, and was filled with trepidation;
+how I stretched my arms out into the night, and let them fall
+again disconsolate and trembling with anguish, because they clasped
+nothing--naught but the cold, vacant night breeze! Did you not hear,
+my beloved, how I cried to you with sighs and tears, how in glowing
+dithyrambics I poured forth to you my longing, my love, my rapture? But
+you, cruel you, remained ever cold, ever smiling. Your eyes were ever
+flashing in all the pride and grandeur of a Juno. The roses on your
+cheeks were not one whit the paler. No, no, you have not longed for me;
+your heart has not felt this painful, blissful anguish. You are first
+and above all things the proud, cold queen, and next, next the loving
+woman."
+
+"How unjust and hard you are, my Henry!" whispered she softly. "I have
+indeed suffered; and perhaps my pains have been more cruel and bitter
+than yours, for I--I had to let them consume me within. You could pour
+them forth, you could stretch out your arms after me, you could utter
+lamentations and sighs. You were not, like me, condemned to laugh, and
+to jest, and to listen with apparently attentive ear to all those often
+heard and constantly repeated phrases of praise and adoration from those
+about me. You were at least free to suffer. I was not. It is true I
+smiled, but amidst the pains of death. It is true my cheeks did not
+blanch, but rouge was the veil with which I covered their paleness; and
+then, Henry, in the midst of my pains and longings, I had, too, a sweet
+consolation--your letters, your poems, which fell like the dew of heaven
+upon my sick soul, and restored it to health, for new torments and new
+hopes. Oh, how I love them--those poems, in whose noble and enchanting
+language your love and our sufferings are reechoed! How my whole soul
+flew forth to meet them when I received them, and how pressed I my
+lips thousands and thousands of times on the paper which seemed to me
+redolent with your breath and your sighs! How I love that good, faithful
+Jane, the silent messenger of our love! When I behold her entering my
+chamber, with the unsullied paper in hand, she is to me the dove with
+the olive-leaf, that brings me peace and happiness, and I rush to her,
+and press her to my bosom; and give her all the kisses I would give you,
+and feel how poor and powerless I am, because I cannot repay her all the
+happiness that she brings me. Ah, Henry, how many thanks do we owe to
+poor Jane!"
+
+"Why do you call her poor, when she can be near you, always behold yon,
+always hear you?"
+
+"I call her poor, because she is unhappy. For she loves, Henry--she
+loves to desperation, to madness, and she is not loved. She is pining
+away with grief and pain, and wrings her hands in boundless woe. Have
+you not noticed how pale she is, and how her eyes become daily more
+dim?"
+
+"No, I have not seen it, for I see naught but you, and Lady Jane is to
+me a lifeless image, as are all other women. But what! You tremble; and
+your whole frame writhes in my arms, as if in a convulsion! And what is
+that? Are you weeping?"
+
+"Oh, I weep, because I am so happy. I weep, because I was thinking how
+fearful the suffering must be, to give the whole heart away, and receive
+nothing in return, naught but death! Poor Jane!"
+
+"What is she to us? We, we love each other. Come, dear one, let me kiss
+the tears from your eyes; let me drink this nectar, that it may inspire
+me, and transfigure me to a god! Weep no more--no, weep not; or, if you
+will do so, be it only in the excess of rapture, and because word and
+heart are too poor to hold all this bliss!"
+
+"Yes, yes, let us shout for joy; let us be lost in blessedness!"
+exclaimed she passionately, as with frantic violence she threw herself
+on his bosom.
+
+Both were now silent, mutely resting on each other's heart.
+
+Oh, how sweet this silence; how entrancing this noiseless, sacred night!
+How the trees without there murmur and rustle, as if they were singing a
+heavenly lullaby to the lovers! how inquisitively the pale crescent moon
+peeps through the window, as though she were seeking the twain whose
+blessed confidante she is!
+
+But happiness is so swift-winged, and time flies so fast, when love is
+their companion!
+
+Even now they must part again--now they must again say farewell. "Not
+yet, beloved, stay yet! See, the night is still dark; and hark, the
+castle clock is just striking two. No, go not yet."
+
+"I must, Henry, I must; the hours are past in which I can be happy."
+
+"Oh, you cold, proud soul! Does the head already long again for the
+crown; and can you wait no longer for the purple to again cover your
+shoulders? Come, let me kiss your shoulder; and think now, dear, that my
+crimson lips are also a purple robe."
+
+"And a purple robe for which I would gladly give my crown and my life!"
+cried she, with the utmost enthusiasm, as she folded him in her arms.
+
+"Do you love me, then? Do you really love me?"
+
+"Yes, I love you!"
+
+"Can you swear to me that you love no one except me?"
+
+"I can swear it, as true as there is a God above us, who hears my oath."
+
+"Bless you for it, you dear, you only one--oh, how shall I call
+you?--you whose name I may not utter! Oh, do you know that it is cruel
+never to name the name of the loved one? Withdraw that prohibition;
+grudge me not the painfully sweet pleasure of being able at least to
+call you by your name!"
+
+"No," said she, with a shudder; "for know you not that the sleep-walkers
+awake out of their dreams when they are called by name? I am a
+somnambulist, who, with smiling courage, moves along a dizzy height;
+call me by name, and I shall awake, and, shuddering, plunge into the
+abyss beneath. Ah, Henry, I hate my name, for it is pronounced by other
+lips than yours. For you I will not be named as other men call me.
+Baptize me, my Henry; give me another name--a name which is our secret,
+and which no one knows besides us."
+
+"I name you Geraldine; and as Geraldine I will praise and laud you
+before all the world. I will, in spite of all these spies and listeners,
+repeat again and again that I love you, and no one, not the king
+himself, shall be able to forbid me."
+
+"Hush!" said she, with a shudder, "speak not of him! Oh, I conjure you,
+my Henry, be cautious; think that you have sworn to me ever to think of
+the danger that threatens us, and will, without doubt, dash us in pieces
+if you, by only a sound, a look, or a smile, betray the sweet secret
+that unites us two. Are you still aware what you have sworn to me?"
+
+"I am aware of it! But it is an unnatural Draconian law. What! even when
+I am alone with you, shall I never be allowed to address you otherwise
+than with that reverence and restrain which is due the queen? Even when
+no one can hear us, may I, by no syllable, by none, not the slightest
+intimation, remind you of our love?"
+
+"No, no, do it not; for this castle has everywhere eyes and ears, and
+everywhere are spies and listeners behind the tapestry; behind the
+curtains; everywhere are they concealed and lurking, watching every
+feature, every smile, every word, whether it may not afford ground for
+suspicion. No, no, Henry; swear to me by our love that you will never,
+unless here in this room, address me otherwise than your queen. Swear
+to me that, beyond these walls, you will be to me only the respectful
+servant of your queen, and at the same time the proud earl and lord,
+of whom it is said that never has a woman been able to touch his heart.
+Swear to me that you will not, by a look, by a smile, by even the
+gentlest pressure of the hand, betray what beyond this room is a crime
+for both of us. Let this room be the temple of our love; but when we
+once pass its threshold, we will not profane the sweet mysteries of our
+happiness, by allowing unholy eyes to behold even a single ray of it.
+Shall it be so, my Henry?
+
+"Yes, it shall be so!" said he, with a troubled voice; "although I must
+confess that this dreadful illusion often tortures me almost to death.
+Oh, Geraldine, when I meet you elsewhere, when I observe the eye so icy
+and immovable, with which you meet my look, I feel as it were my heart
+convulsed; and I say to myself: 'This is not she, whom I love--not the
+tender, passionate woman, whom in the darkness of the night I sometimes
+lock in my arms. This is Catharine, the queen, but not my loved one. A
+woman cannot so disguise herself; art goes not so far as to falsify the
+entire nature, the innermost being and life of a person.' Oh, there have
+been hours, awful, horrible hours, when it seemed to me as though all
+this were a delusion, a mystification--as though in some way an evil
+demon assumed the queen's form by night to mock me, poor frenzied
+visionary, with a happiness that has no existence, but lives only in my
+imagination. When such thoughts come to me, I feel a frenzied fury, a
+crushing despair, and I could, regardless of my oath and even the danger
+that threatens you, rush to you, and, before all the courtly rabble and
+the king himself, ask: 'Are you really what you seem? Are you, Catharine
+Parr, King Henry's wife--nothing more, nothing else than that? Or are
+you, my beloved, the woman who is mine in her every thought, her every
+breath; who has vowed to me eternal love and unchanging truth; and whom
+I, in spite of the whole world, and the king, press to my heart as my
+own?'"
+
+"Unhappy man, if you ever venture that, you doom us both to death!"
+
+"Be it so, then! In death you will at least be mine, and no one would
+longer dare separate us, and your eyes would no longer look so cold and
+strangely upon me, as they often now do. Oh, I conjure you, gaze not
+upon me at all, if you cannot do it otherwise than with those cold,
+proud looks, that benumb my heart. Turn away your eyes, and speak to me
+with averted face."
+
+"Then, men will say that I hate you, Henry."
+
+"It is more agreeable to me for them to say you abhor me than for them
+to see that I am wholly indifferent to you; that I am to you nothing
+more than the Earl of Surrey, your lord chamberlain."
+
+"No, no, Henry. They shall see that you are more to me than merely that.
+Before the whole assembled court I will give you a token of my love.
+Will you then believe, you dear, foolish enthusiast, that I love you,
+and that it is no demon that rests here in your arms and swears that she
+loves nothing but you? Say, will you then believe me?"
+
+"I will believe you! But no, there is no need of any sign, or any
+assurance. Nay, I know it; I feel indeed the sweet reality that cuddles
+to my side, warm, and filling me with happiness; and it is only the
+excess of happiness that makes me incredulous."
+
+"I will convince you thoroughly; and you shall doubt no more, not even
+in the intoxication of happiness. Listen, then. The king, as you know,
+is about to hold a great tournament and festival of the poets, and it
+will take place in a few days. Now, then, at this fete I will publicly,
+in the presence of the king and his court, give you a rosette that I
+wear on my shoulder, and in the silver fringe of which you will find a
+note from me. Will that satisfy you, my Henry?"
+
+"And do you still question it, my dear? Do you question it, when you
+will make me proud and happy above all others of your court?"
+
+He pressed her closely to his heart and kissed her. But suddenly she
+writhed in his arms, and started up in wild alarm.
+
+"Day is breaking, day is breaking! See there! a red streak is spreading
+over the clouds. The sun is coming; day is coming, and already begins to
+dawn."
+
+He endeavored to detain her still; but she tore herself passionately
+away, and again enveloped her head in her veil.
+
+"Yes," said he, "day is breaking and it is growing light! Let me then,
+for a moment at least, see your face. My soul thirsts for it as the
+parched earth for the dew. Come, it is light here at the window. Let me
+see your eyes."
+
+She tore herself vehemently away. "No, no, you must be gone! Hark, it is
+already three o'clock. Soon everything will be astir in the castle. Did
+it not seem as if some person passed by the door here? Haste, haste, if
+you do not wish me to die of dread!" She threw his cloak over him; she
+drew his hat over his brow; then once more she threw her arms around
+his neck and pressed on his lips a burning kiss. "Farewell, my beloved!
+farewell, Henry Howard! When we see each other again to-day, you are the
+Earl of Surrey, and I, the queen--not your loved one--not the woman who
+loves you! Happiness is past, and suffering awakes anew. Farewell."
+
+She herself opened the glass door, and pushed her lover out.
+
+"Farewell, Geraldine; good-night, my dear! Day comes, and I again greet
+you as my queen, and I shall have to endure again the torture of your
+cold looks and your haughty smiles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. LOYOLA'S GENERAL.
+
+
+She rushed to the window and gazed after him till he had disappeared,
+then she uttered a deep cry of anguish, and, wholly overcome by her
+agony, she sank down on her knees weeping and wailing, wringing her
+hands, and raising them to God.
+
+But just before so happy and joyful, she was now full of woe and
+anguish; and bitter sighs of complaint came trembling from her lips.
+
+"Oh, oh," moaned she, with sobs; "what terrible agonies are these, and
+how full of despair the anguish that lacerates my breast! I have lain in
+his arms; I have received his vows of love and accepted his kisses; and
+these vows are not mine, and these kisses he gave not to me. He kissed
+me, and he loves in me only her whom I hate. He lays his hands in mine
+and utters vows of love which he dedicates to her. He thinks and feels
+for her only--her alone. What a terrible torture this is! To be loved
+under her name; under her name to receive the vows of love that yet
+belong to me only--to me alone! For he loves me, me exclusively.
+They are my lips that he kisses, my form that he embraces; to me are
+addressed his words and his letters; and it is I that reply to them. He
+loves me, me only, and yet he puts no faith in me. I am nothing to him,
+naught but a lifeless image, like other women. This he has told me; and
+I did not become frenzied; and I had the cruel energy to pass off the
+tears wrung from me by despair, for tears of rapture. Oh, detestable,
+horrible mockery of fate--to be what I am not, and not to be what I am!"
+
+And with a shrill cry of agony she tore her hair, and with her fist
+smote upon her breast, and wept and moaned aloud.
+
+She heard naught; she saw naught; she felt naught but her inexpressible
+and despairing anguish.
+
+She did not once tremble for herself; she thought not at all of
+this--that she would be lost if she were found in this place.
+
+And yet at the other side of the room a door had opened, softly and
+noiselessly, and a man had entered.
+
+He shut the door behind him and walked up to Lady Jane, who still lay
+on the floor. He stood behind her while she uttered her despairing
+lamentation. He heard every word of her quivering lips; her whole heart
+painfully convulsed and torn with grief lay unveiled before him; and she
+knew it not.
+
+Now he bent over her; and with his hand he lightly touched her shoulder.
+At this touch she gave a convulsive start, as if hit by the stroke of a
+sword, and her sobbing was immediately silenced.
+
+An awful pause ensued. The woman lay on the floor motionless,
+breathless, and near her, tall and cold as a figure of bronze, stood the
+man.
+
+"Lady Jane Douglas," said he then, sternly and solemnly, "stand up. It
+becomes not your father's daughter to be upon her knees, when it is not
+God to whom she kneels. But you are not kneeling to God, but to an idol,
+which you yourself have made, and to which you hate erected a temple in
+your heart. This idol is called 'Your own personal misfortune.' But it
+is written, 'Thou shalt have no other Gods but me.' Therefore I say to
+you once more, Lady Jane Douglas, rise from your knees, for it is not
+your God to whom you kneel."
+
+And as though these words exercised a magnetic power over her, she
+raised herself up slowly from the floor, and now stood there before her
+father, stern and cold as a statue of marble.
+
+"Cast from you the sorrows of this world, which burden you, and hinder
+you in the sacred work which God has imposed on you!" continued Earl
+Douglas in his metallic, solemn voice. "It is written, 'Come unto Me,
+all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,' saith
+our God. But you, Jane, you are to throw down your trouble at the foot
+of the throne; and your burden will become a crown that will glorify
+your head."
+
+He laid his hand on her head, but she wildly shook it off.
+
+"No," cried she, with heavy, faltering tongue, as if confused in a
+dream. "Away with this crown! I wish no crown upon which devils have
+laid a spell. I wish no royal robe that has been dyed crimson with the
+blood of my beloved."
+
+"She is still in the delirium of her anguish," muttered the earl, as
+he contemplated the pale, trembling woman who had now sunk again to
+her knees, and was staring straight before her with eyes bewildered
+and stretched wide open. But the looks of the earl remained cold and
+unmoved, and not the least compassion was aroused in him for his poor
+daughter, now penetrated with anguish.
+
+"Arise," said he, in a hard, steelly voice. "The Church, by my mouth,
+commands you to serve her as you have vowed to do; that is to say, with
+glad heart and a sense of your reliance on God; that is to say, with
+smiling lips and a serene, beaming eye, as becomes a disciple inspired
+by faith, and as you have sworn to do in the hands of our lord and
+master, Ignatius Loyola."
+
+"I cannot! I cannot!" moaned she, in a low tone. "I cannot be glad at
+heart when despair, like a wild boar, is rending my heart; I cannot
+command my eye to shine when my eyes are dimmed with tears of anguish.
+Oh, have pity, have compassion! Remember that you are my father; that I
+am your daughter--the daughter of a wife whom you loved, and who would
+find in the grave no rest if she knew how you are racking and torturing
+me. My mother, my mother, if thy spirit is near me, come and protect me.
+Let thy mild looks overshadow my head, and breathe a breath of thy love
+into the heart of this cruel father, who is ready to sacrifice his child
+on the altar of his God."
+
+"God has called me," said the earl, "and, like Abraham, I too will learn
+to obey. But I will not adorn my victim with flowers, but with a royal
+crown. I will not plunge a knife into her breast, but will put a golden
+sceptre into her hand and say: Thou art a queen before men, but before
+God be thou a faithful and obedient servant. Thou hast all to command.
+But the holy Church, to whose service thou hast consecrated thyself, and
+who will bless thee if thou art faithful, who will dash thee in pieces
+with her curse if thou darest deal treacherously, she commands thee. No,
+you are not my daughter, but the priestess of the Church, consecrated
+to her holy service. No, I have no sympathy with your tear's and this
+anguish, for I see the end of these sorrows, and I know that these tears
+will be as a diadem of pearls about your temples. Lady Jane Douglas, it
+is the saintly Loyola who sends you his commands by my mouth. Obey them,
+not because I am your father, but because I am the general to whom you
+have sworn obedience and fidelity unto your life's end."
+
+"Then kill me, my father!" said she, feebly. "Let this life end, which
+is but a torture, a protracted martyrdom. Punish me for my disobedience
+by plunging your dagger deep into my breast. Punish me, and grudge me
+not the repose of the grave."
+
+"Poor enthusiast!" said the father; "suppose you, we would be foolish
+enough to subject you to so light a punishment! No, no, if you dare, in
+insolent disobedience, rebel against my commands, your penance shall be
+a terrible one, and your punishment without end. I will not kill you,
+but him whom you love; it will be his head that falls; and you will be
+his murderess. He shall die on the scaffold and you--you shall live in
+disgrace."
+
+"Oh, horrible!" groaned Jane, as she buried her face in her hands.
+
+Her father continued: "Silly, short-sighted child, who thought she could
+play with the sword, and did not see that she herself might feel the
+stroke of this double-edged blade! You wanted to be the servant of the
+Church, that you might thereby become mistress of the world. You would
+acquire glory, but this glory must not singe your head with its fiery
+rays. Silly child! he who plays with fire will be consumed. But we
+penetrated your thoughts and the wish of which you yourself were
+unconscious. We looked into the depths of your being, and when we found
+love there, we made use of love for our own purposes and your salvation.
+What do you bewail, then, and why do you weep? Have we not allowed you
+to love? Have we not authorized you to give yourself entirely up to this
+love? Do you not call yourself Earl Surrey's wife, though you cannot
+name to me the priest that married you? Lady Jane, obey, and we envy you
+not the happiness of your love; dare to rebel against us, and disgrace
+and shame overtake you, and you shall stand before all the world
+disowned and scoffed at; you the strumpet, that--"
+
+"Stop, my father!" cried Jane, as she sprang vehemently from the floor.
+"Desist from your terrible words if you do not wish me to die of shame.
+Nay, I submit, I obey! You are right, I cannot draw back."
+
+"And why would you either? Is it not a life pleasant and full of
+enjoyment? Is it not rare good fortune to see our sins transfigured to
+virtue; to be able to account earthly enjoyment the service of Heaven?
+And what do you bewail then? That he does not love you? Nay, he does
+love you; his vows of love still echo in your ears; your heart still
+trembles with the fruition of happiness. What matters it if the Earl of
+Surrey with his inward eyes sees the woman he folds in his arms to be
+another than you? Yet in reality he loves but you alone. Whether you are
+for him named Catharine Parr or Jane Douglas, it is all the same if you
+only are his love."
+
+"But a day will come when he will discover his mistake, and when he will
+curse me."
+
+"That day will never come. The holy Church will find a way to avert
+that, if you bow to her will and are obedient to her."
+
+"I do bow to it!" sighed Jane. "I will obey; only promise me, my father,
+that no harm shall happen to him; that I shall not be his murderess."
+
+"No, you shall become his savior and deliverer. Only you must fulfil
+punctually the work I commit to you. First of all, then, tell me the
+result of your meeting to-day. He does not doubt that you are the
+queen?"
+
+"No, he believes it so firmly that he would take the sacrament on it.
+That is to say, he believes it now because I have promised him to give
+him publicly a sign by which he may recognize that it is the queen that
+loves him."
+
+"And this sign?" inquired her father, with a look beaming with joy.
+
+"I have promised him that at the great tournament, the queen will give
+him a rosette, and that in that rosette be will find a note from the
+queen."
+
+"Ah, the idea is an admirable one!" exclaimed Lord Douglas, "and only
+a woman who wishes to avenge herself could conceive it. So, then, the
+queen will become her own accuser, and herself give into our hands
+a proof of her guilt. The only difficulty in the way is to bring the
+queen, without arousing her suspicion, to wear this rosette, and to give
+it to Surrey."
+
+"She will do it if I beg her to do so, for she loves me; and I shall
+so represent it to her that she will do it as an act of kindness to me.
+Catharine is good-natured and agreeable, and cannot refuse a request."
+
+"And I will apprise the king of it. That is to say, I shall take good
+care not to do this myself, for it is always dangerous to approach a
+hungry tiger in his cage and carry him his food, because he might in his
+voracity very readily devour our own hand together with the proffered
+meat."
+
+"But how?" asked she with an expression of alarm. "Will he content
+himself with punishing Catharine alone; will he not also crush him--him
+whom he must look upon as her lover?"
+
+"He will do so. But you yourself shall save him and set him free. You
+shall open his prison and give him freedom, and he will love you--you,
+the savior of his life."
+
+"Father, father, it is a hazardous game that you are playing; and it
+may happen that you will become thereby your daughter's murderer. For,
+listen well to what I tell you; if his head falls, I die by my own
+hands; if you make me his murderess, you become thereby mine; and I will
+curse you and execrate you in hell! What to me is a royal crown if it is
+stained with Henry Howard's blood? What care I for renown and honor,
+if he is not there to see my greatness, and if his beaming eyes do not
+reflect back to me the light of my crown? Protect him, therefore; guard
+his life as the apple of your eye, if you wish me to accept the royal
+crown that you offer me, so that the King of England may become again a
+vassal of the Church!"
+
+"And that the whole of devout Christendom may praise Jane Douglas,
+the pious queen who has succeeded in the holy work of bringing the
+rebellious and recreant son of the Church, Henry the Eighth, back to the
+Holy Father in Rome, to the only consecrated lord of the Church, truly
+penitent. On, on, my daughter; do not despond. A high aim beckons you,
+and a brilliant fortune awaits you! Our holy mother, the Church, will
+bless and praise you, and Henry the Eighth will declare you his queen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE PRISONER.
+
+
+Still all was calm and quiet in the palace of Whitehall. Nothing was
+stirring, and nobody had heard how Lady Jane Douglas left her chamber
+and glided down the corridor.
+
+No one has heard it, and no eye is awake, and none sees what is now
+taking place in the queen's room. She is alone--all alone. The servants
+are all asleep in their chambers. The queen herself has bolted the doors
+of the anteroom on the inside, and no other door leads into her boudoir
+and bedroom, except through this anteroom. She is therefore perfectly
+secluded, perfectly secure.
+
+Speedily and in haste she envelops herself in a long black mantle,
+the hood of which she draws well over her head and brow, and which
+completely covers and conceals her form.
+
+And now she presses on a spring inserted in the frame of a picture.
+The picture flies back and shows an opening, through which a person can
+quite conveniently pass out.
+
+Catharine does so. Then she carefully pushes the picture back to its
+place from the outside, and for a long time walks on in the passage
+hollowed out of the solid wall, till groping along she at last lays
+hold again of a knob in the wall. She presses on it; and now at her
+feet opens a trap-door, through which a feeble light forces its way
+and renders visible a small narrow staircase there situated. Catharine
+enters and descends the steps with winged feet. Now at the foot of the
+staircase she again presses on a secret spring; and again a door opens,
+through which the queen passes into a large hall.
+
+"Oh," whispered she, fetching a long breath, "the green summer house at
+last."
+
+She quickly traversed it and opened the next door.
+
+"John Heywood?"
+
+"I am here, queen!"
+
+"Hush, hush! gently as possible, that the watch, who walks up and
+down just behind the door, may not hear us. Come, we still have a long
+walk--let us make haste."
+
+Again she pressed on a spring inserted in the wall; and again a door
+opens. But before Catharine bolts this door, she takes the lamp burning
+on the table there, which is to lighten the dark and difficult path
+through which they are now to wend their way.
+
+Now she bolts the door behind them; and they enter a long, dark
+corridor, at the end of which is found still another staircase, and down
+which they both go. Numberless steps conduct them below; gradually the
+air becomes dense, the steps moist. The stillness of the grave is around
+them. No sound of life, not the least noise, is now perceptible.
+
+They are in a subterranean passage, which stretches out in length before
+them farther than the eye can reach. Catharine turns to John Heywood;
+the lamp lights up her face, which is pale, but exhibits an expression
+firm and resolute.
+
+"John Heywood, reflect once more! I ask not whether you have courage,
+for I know that. I only wish to know whether you will employ this
+courage for your queen?"
+
+"No, not for the queen, but for the noble woman who has saved my son."
+
+"You must then be my protector to-day if we meet with dangers. But if it
+be God's will, we shall encounter no dangers. Let us go."
+
+They go vigorously forward, silent all the way. At length they come to
+a place where the passage grows broader, and spreads out into a little
+open chamber, on the side walls of which a few teats are placed.
+
+"We have now accomplished half of the journey," said Catharine; "and
+here we will rest a little."
+
+She placed the lamp on the small marble table in the middle of the
+passage, and sat down, pointing to John Heywood to take a seat near her.
+
+"I am not the queen, here," said she; "and you are not the king's
+fool; but I am a poor weak woman, and you are my protector. You may,
+therefore, well have the right to sit by me."
+
+But John shook his head with a smile, and sat down at her feet. "St.
+Catharine, savior of my son, I lie at thy feet, and devoutly return
+thanks to thee."
+
+"John, are you acquainted with this subterranean passage?" asked the
+queen.
+
+John gave a sad smile. "I am acquainted with it, queen."
+
+"Ah, you know it? I supposed it was a secret of the king and queen."
+
+"Then you will readily conceive that the fool knows it. For the King of
+England and the fool are twin brothers. Yes, queen, I know this passage;
+and I once wended it in anguish and tears."
+
+"What! You yourself, John Heywood?"
+
+"Yes, queen. And now I ask you, do you know the history of this
+underground passage? You are silent. Now, well for you that you do not
+know it. It is a long and bloody history, and if I should narrate to you
+the whole of it, the night would be too short for it. When this passage
+was built, Henry was still young, and possessed yet a heart. At that
+time, he loved not merely his wives, but his friends and servants
+also--specially Cromwell, the all-powerful minister. He then resided at
+Whitehall, and Henry in the royal apartments of the Tower. But Henry was
+always longing for his favorite; and so Cromwell one day surprised him
+with this subterranean passage, the construction of which had occupied a
+hundred men a whole year. Ah, ah, the king was then very much moved,
+and thanked his powerful minister for this surprise with tears and hugs.
+There passed scarcely a day that Henry did not go to Cromwell through
+this passage. So he saw each day how the palace of Whitehall became more
+and more splendid and glorious; and when he returned to the Tower, he
+discovered that this residence was altogether unworthy of a king; but
+that his minister lived by far more magnificently than the King of
+England. That, queen, was the cause of Cromwell's fall! The king wanted
+Whitehall. The sly Cromwell noticed it, and made him a present of his
+gem, the palace on whose construction and decoration he had labored
+ten years. Henry accepted the present; but now Cromwell's fall was
+irrevocable. The king could not, of course, forgive Cromwell for having
+dared to offer him a present so valuable, that Henry could not or would
+not repay it. He remained, therefore, Cromwell's debtor; and since this
+tormented and vexed him, he swore Cromwell's ruin. When Henry moved into
+Whitehall, it was concluded that Cromwell must ascend the scaffold. Ah,
+the king is such an economical builder! A palace costs him nothing but
+the head of a subject. With Cromwell's bead be paid for Whitehall; and
+Wolsey died for Hampton Court."
+
+"Not on the scaffold, though, John."
+
+"Oh, no; Henry preferred merely to break his heart, and not his head.
+First, he had that wonderful pleasure-villa, Hampton Court, with all
+its treasures, presented him by Wolsey; then he removed him from all his
+offices, and deprived him of all his honors. Finally, he was to go to
+the Tower as a prisoner; but he died on his way thither. No, you are
+right! Wolsey did not die on the scaffold, he was put to death much more
+slowly and more cruelly. He was not killed with the sword, but pricked
+to death with pins!"
+
+"Did you not say, John, that you had travelled this way once before?"
+
+"Yes, queen, and I did it to bid farewell to the noblest of men, and the
+truest of friends, Thomas More! I begged and besought Cromwell so long
+that he had compassion on my anguish, and allowed me to go through this
+passage to Thomas More, that I might at least receive the blessing and
+last kiss of affection of this saint. Ah, queen, speak no more of it
+to me! From that day I became a fool; for I saw it was not worth the
+trouble to be an honest man, when such men as More are executed as
+criminals. Come, queen, let us go on!"
+
+"Yes, on, John!" said she, rising. "But do you know then whither we are
+going?"
+
+"Ah, queen, do I not then know you? and did I not tell you that Anne
+Askew is to be stretched upon the rack to-morrow, unless she recant?"
+
+"I see that you have understood me," said she, giving him a friendly
+nod. "Yes, I am going to Anne Askew."
+
+"But how will you, without being seen and discovered, find out her
+cell?"
+
+"John, even the unhappy have friends. Yes, the queen herself has a few;
+and so chance, or it may be even God's will, has so arranged matters,
+that Anne Askew is occupying, just at this time, that small room in
+which the secret passage terminates."
+
+"Is she alone in that room?"
+
+"Yes, all alone. The guard stands without before the door."
+
+"And should they hear you, and open the door?"
+
+"Then without doubt I am lost, unless God supports me."
+
+They walked on in silence, both too much occupied with their own
+thoughts to interrupt them by conversation.
+
+But this long, extended walk at length wearied Catharine. She leaned
+exhausted against the wall.
+
+"Will you do me a favor, queen?" asked John Heywood. "Permit me to carry
+you. Your little feet can bear you no farther; make me your feet, your
+majesty!"
+
+She refused with a friendly smile. "No, John, these are the
+passion-stations of a saint; and you know one must make the round of
+them in the sweat of his face, and on his knees."
+
+"Oh, queen, how noble and how courageous you are!" exclaimed John
+Heywood. "You do good without display, and you shun no danger, if it
+avails toward the accomplishment of noble work."
+
+"Yet, John," said she, with a bewitching smile, "I dread danger; and
+just on that account I begged you to accompany me. I shudder at the
+long, desolate way, at the darkness and grave-like stillness of this
+passage. Ah, John, I thought to myself, if I came here alone, the shades
+of Anne Boleyn and Catharine would be roused from their sleep by me who
+wear their crown; they would hover about me, and seize me by the hand
+and lead me to their graves, to show me that there is yet room there
+for me likewise. You see, then, that I am not at all courageous, but a
+cowardly and trembling woman."
+
+"And nevertheless, you came, queen."
+
+"I reckoned on you, John Heywood. It was my duty to risk this passage,
+to save, perchance, the life of the poor enthusiastic girl. For it shall
+not be said that Catharine deserts her friends in misfortune, and that
+she shrinks back at danger. I am but a poor, weak woman, John, who
+cannot defend her friends with weapons, and, therefore, I must resort to
+other means. But see, John, here the path forks! Ah, my God! I know it
+only from the description that was given me, but no one said anything of
+this to me. John, which way must we now turn?"
+
+"This way, queen; and here we are at the end of our journey. That path
+there leads to the torture-chamber, that is to say, to a small grated
+window, through which one can overlook that room. When King Henry was in
+special good-humor, he would resort with his friend to this grating to
+divert himself a little with the tortures of the damned and blasphemers.
+For you well know, queen, only such as have blasphemed God, or have not
+recognized King Henry as the pope of their Church, have the honor of the
+rack as their clue. But hush! here we are at the door, and here is the
+spring that opens it."
+
+Catharine set her lamp on the ground and pressed the spring.
+
+The door turned slowly and noiselessly on its hinges, and softly, like
+shades, the two entered.
+
+They now found themselves in a small, circular apartment, which seemed
+to have been originally a niche formed in the wall of the Tower, rather
+than a room. Through a narrow grated opening in the wall only a little
+air and light penetrated into this dungeon, the bald, bare walls of
+which showed the stones of the masonry. There was no chair, no table in
+the whole space; only yonder in that corner on the earth they had heaped
+up some straw. On this straw lay a pale, tender creature; the sunken,
+thin cheeks, transparently white as alabaster; the brow so pure and
+clear; the entire countenance so peaceful; the bare, meagre arms thrown
+back over the head; the hands folded over the forehead, the head bent to
+one side in quiet, peaceful slumber; the delicate, tender form wrapped
+in a long black dress, gently stretched out, and on her lips a smile,
+such as only the happy know.
+
+That was Anne Askew, the criminal, the condemned--Anne Askew, who was
+an atheist only for this, because she did not believe in the king's vast
+elevation and godlikeness, and would not subject her own free soul to
+that of the king.
+
+"She sleeps," whispered Catharine, deeply mored, Wholly involuntarily
+she folded her hands as she stepped to the couch of the sufferer, and a
+low prayer trembled on her lips.
+
+"So sleep the gust!" said Hey wood. "Angels comfort them in their
+slumbers; and the breath of God refreshes them. Poor girl; how soon, and
+they will wrench these noble, fair limbs, and torture thee for the honor
+of God, and open to tones of distress that mouth which now smiles so
+peacefully!"
+
+"No, no," said the queen, hastily. "I have come to save her, and God
+will assist me to do it. I cannot spare her slumbers any longer. I must
+wake her."
+
+She bent down and pressed a kiss on the young girl's forehead. "Anne,
+awake; I am here! I will save you and set you free. Anne, Anne, awake!"
+
+She slowly raised her large, brilliant eyes, and nodded a salutation to
+Catharine.
+
+"Catharine Parr!" said she, with a smile. "I expected only a letter from
+you; and have you come yourself?"
+
+"The guards have been dismissed, and the turnkeys changed, Anne; for our
+correspondence had been discovered."
+
+"Ah, you will write to me no more in future! And yet your letters were
+my only comfort," sighed Anne Askew. "But that also is well; and perhaps
+it will only make the path that I have to tread still easier. The heart
+may move its pinions freely and easily, and return to God."
+
+"Hear me, Anne, hear," said Catharine in a low and hurried voice. "A
+terrible danger threatens you! The king has given orders to move you, by
+means of the rack, to recant."
+
+"Well, and what more?" asked Anne, with smiling face.
+
+"Unfortunate, you know not what you are saying! You know not what
+fearful agonies await you! You know not the power of pains, which are
+perhaps still mightier than the spirit, and may overcome it."
+
+"And if I did know them now, what would it avail me?" asked Anne Askew.
+"You say they will put me to the rack. Well, then, I shall have to bear
+it, for I have no power to change their will."
+
+"Yet, Anne, yet you have the power! Retract what you have said, Anne!
+Declare that you repent, and that you perceive that you have been
+deluded! Say that you will recognize the king as lord of the Church;
+that you will swear to the six articles, and never believe in the Pope
+of Rome. Ah, Anne, God sees your heart and knows your thoughts. You have
+no need to make them known by your lips. He has given you life, and you
+have no right to throw it away; you must seek to keep it so long as you
+can. Recant, then! It is perfectly allowable to deceive those who
+would murder us. Recant, then, Anne, recant! When they in their haughty
+arrogance demand of you to say what they say, consider them as lunatics,
+to whom you make apparent concessions only to keep them from raving. Of
+what consequence is it whether you do or do not say that the king is the
+head of the Church? From His heavens above, God looks down and smiles
+at this petty earthly strife which concerns not Him, but men only. Let
+scholars and theologians wrangle; we women have nothing to do with it.
+If we only believe in God, and bear Him to our hearts, the form in which
+we do it is a matter of indifference. But in this case the question is
+not about God, but merely about external dogmas. Why should you trouble
+yourself with these? What have you to do with the controversies of the
+priests? Recant, then, poor enthusiastic child, recant!"
+
+While Catharine, in a low tone and with fluttering breath, thus spoke,
+Anne Askew had slowly arisen from her couch, and now stood, like a lily,
+so slender and delicate, confronting the queen.
+
+Her noble countenance expressed deep indignation. Her eyes shot
+lightning, and a contemptuous smile was on her lips.
+
+"What! Can you thus advise me?" said she. "Can you wish me to deny my
+faith, and abjure my God, only to escape earthly pain? And your tongue
+does not refuse to utter this, and your heart does not shrink with shame
+while you do it? Look at these arms; what are they worth that I should
+not sacrifice them to God? See these feeble limbs! Are they so precious
+that I, like a disgusting niggard, should spare them? No, no, God is my
+highest good--not this feeble, decaying body! For God I sacrifice it.
+I should recant? Never! Faith is not enveloped in this or that garb; it
+must be naked and open. So may mine be. And if I then am chosen to be
+an example of pure faith, that denies not, and makes profession--well,
+then, envy me not this preeminence. 'Many are called, but few are
+chosen.' If I am one of the chosen, I thank God for it, and bless the
+erring mortals who wish to make me such by means of the torture of the
+rack. Ah, believe me, Catharine, I rejoice to die, for it is such a sad,
+desolate, and desperate thing to live. Let me die, Catharine--die, to
+enter into blessedness!"
+
+"But, poor, pitiable child! this is more than death; it is the torture
+of earth that threatens you. Oh, bethink you, Anne, that you are only
+a feeble woman. Who knows whether the rack may not yet conquer your
+spirit, and whether you, with your mangled limbs, may not by the fury
+of the pain yet be brought to that point that you will recant and abjure
+your faith?"
+
+"If I could do that," cried Anne Askew, with flashing eyes, "believe
+me, queen, as soon as I came to my senses I would lay violent hands
+on myself, in order to give myself over to eternal damnation, as the
+punishment of my recantation! God has ordered that I shall be a sign of
+the true faith. Be His command fulfilled!"
+
+"Well, then, so be it," said Catharine resolutely. "Do not recant,
+but save yourself from your executioners! I, Anne, I, will save you! I
+cannot bear--I cannot think of it--that this dear noble form should
+be sacrificed to a vile delusion of man; that they will torture to the
+honor of God a noble likeness of the same God! Oh, come, come, I
+will save you! I, the queen! Give me your hand. Follow me out of this
+dungeon. I know a path that leads out of this place; and I will conceal
+you so long in my own apartments that you can continue your flight
+without danger."
+
+"No, no, queen, you shall not conceal her with you!" said John Heywood.
+"You have been graciously pleased to allow me to be your confidant; envy
+me not, then, a share in your noble work also. Not with you shall Anne
+Askew find refuge, but with me. Oh, come, Anne, follow your friends. It
+is life that calls you, that opens the doors to you, and desires to call
+you by a thousand names to itself! Do you not hear them, all those sweet
+and alluring voices; do you not see them, all those noble and smiling
+faces, how they greet you and beckon to you? Anne Askew, it is the noble
+husband that calls you! You know him not as yet, but he is waiting for
+you there in the world without. Anne Askew, there are your children,
+who are stretching their tender arms out to you. You have not yet borne
+them; but love holds them in her arms, and will bring them to meet you.
+It is the wife and the mother that the world yet demands of you, Anne.
+You ought not to shun the holy calling which God has given you. Come,
+then, and follow us--follow your queen, who has the right to order her
+subject. Follow the friend, who has sworn that he will watch over you
+and protect you as a father!"
+
+"Father in heaven, protect me!" exclaimed Anne Askew, falling on her
+knees and stretching her hands upward. "Father in heaven! they would
+tear away Thy child, and alienate my heart from Thee! They are leading
+me into temptation and alluring me with their words. Protect me, my
+Father; make my ear deaf, that I may not hear them! Give me a sign that
+I am Thine; that no one has any longer power over me, save Thou alone! A
+sign, that Thou, Father, callest me!"
+
+And as if God had really heard her prayer, a loud knocking was now
+perceived at the outer door, and a voice cried: "Anne Askew, awake! and
+hold yourself ready! The high chancellor and the Bishop of Winchester
+come to fetch you away!"
+
+"Ah, the rack!" groaned Catharine, as with a shudder she buried her face
+in her hands.
+
+"Yes, the rack!" said Anne, with a blissful smile. "God calls me!"
+
+John Heywood had approached the queen and impetuously seized her hand.
+"You see it is in vain," said he, urgently. "Make haste then to save
+yourself! Hasten to leave this prison before the door there opens."
+
+"No," said Catharine, firmly and resolutely. "No, I stay. She shall not
+surpass me in courage and greatness of soul! She will not deny her God;
+well, then, I also will be a witness of my God. I will not in shame cast
+my eyes to the ground before this young girl; like her, I will frankly
+and openly profess my faith; like her I will say: 'God alone is Lord of
+his Church,' God--"
+
+There was a movement without; a key was heard to turn in the lock.
+
+"Queen, I conjure you," besought John Heywood, "by all that is holy to
+you, by your love, come, come!"
+
+"No, no!" cried she, vehemently.
+
+But now Anne seized her hand, and stretching the other arm toward
+heaven, she said in a loud, commanding voice: "In the name of God, I
+order you to leave me!"
+
+While Catharine drew back wholly involuntarily, John Heywood pushed her
+to the secret door, and urging her out almost with violence, he drew the
+door to behind them both.
+
+Just as the secret door had closed, the other on the opposite side
+opened. "With whom were you speaking?" asked Gardiner, peering around
+the room with a sharp look.
+
+"With the tempter, that wished to alienate me from God," said she--"with
+the tempter, who at the approach of your footsteps wanted to fool my
+heart with fear, and persuade me to recant!"
+
+"You are, then, firmly resolved? you do not retract?" asked Gardiner;
+and a savage joy shone in his pale, hard countenance.
+
+"No, I do not recant!" said she, with a face beaming with smiles.
+
+"Then, in the name of God and of the king, I take you into the
+torture-chamber!" cried Chancellor Wriothesley, as he advanced and laid
+his heavy hand on Anne's shoulder. "You would not hear the voice of love
+warning you and calling you, so we will now try to arouse you from
+your madness by the voice of wrath and damnation." He beckoned to the
+attendants on the rack, who stood behind him in the open door, and
+ordered them to seize her and carry her to the torture-chamber.
+
+Anne, smiling, turned them back. "Nay, not so!" said she. "The Saviour
+went on foot, and bore His cross to the place of execution. I will tread
+His path. Show me the way, I follow you. But let no one dare touch me. I
+will show you that not by constraint, but gladly and freely, I tread the
+path of suffering, which I shall endure for the sake of my God. Rejoice,
+oh my soul!--sing, my lips! for the bridegroom is near, and the feast is
+about to begin."
+
+And in exultant tones Anne Askew began to sing a hymn, that had not died
+away when she entered the torture-chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. PRINCESS ELIZABETH.
+
+
+The king sleeps. Let him sleep! He is old and infirm, and God
+has severely punished the restless tyrant with a vacillating,
+ever-disquieted, never-satisfied spirit, while He bound his body and
+made the spirit prisoner of the body; while He made the ambitious king,
+struggling for the infinite, a slave to his own flesh. How high soever
+his thoughts soar, still the king remains a clumsy, confined, powerless
+child of humanity; how much soever his conscience harasses him with
+disquiet and dread, yet he must be calm and endure it. He cannot run
+away from his conscience; God has fettered him by the flesh. The king is
+sleeping! But the queen is not; and Jane Douglas is not; neither is
+the Princess Elizabeth. She has watched with heart beating high. She is
+restless, and, pacing her room up and down in strange confusion, waited
+for the hour that she had appointed for the meeting. Now the hour had
+arrived. A glowing crimson overspread the face of the young princess;
+and her hand trembled as she took the light and opened the secret door
+to the corridor. She stood still for a moment, hesitating; then, ashamed
+of her irresolution, she crossed the corridor and ascended the small
+staircase which led to the tower-chamber. With a hasty movement she
+pushed open the door and entered the small slip that was at the end of
+her journey, and Thomas Seymour was already there.
+
+As she saw him, an involuntary trepidation came over her, and for the
+first time she now became conscious of her hazardous step.
+
+As Seymour, the ardent young man, approached her with a passionate
+salutation, she stepped shyly back and pushed away his hand.
+
+"How! you will not allow me to kiss your hand?" asked he, and she
+thought she observed on his face a slight, scornful smile. "You make me
+the happiest of mortals by inviting me to this interview, and now you
+stand before me rigid and cold, and I am not once permitted to clasp you
+in my arms, Elizabeth!"
+
+Elizabeth! He had called her by her first name without her having
+given him permission to do so. That offended her. In the midst of her
+confusion, that aroused the pride of the princess, and made her aware
+how much she must have forgotten her own dignity, when another could be
+so forgetful of it.
+
+She wished to regain it. At this moment she would have given a year of
+her life if she had not taken this step--if she had not invited the earl
+to this meeting.
+
+She wanted to try and regain in his eyes her lost position, and again to
+become to him the princess.
+
+Pride in her was still mightier than love. She meant her lover should at
+the same time bow before her as her favored servant.
+
+Therefore she gravely said: "Earl Thomas Seymour, you have often begged
+us for a private conversation; we now grant it to you. Speak, then! what
+matter of importance have you to bring before us?"
+
+And with an air of gravity she stepped to an easy-chair, on which she
+seated herself slowly and solemnly like a queen, who gives audience to
+her vassals.
+
+Poor, innocent child, that in her unconscious trepidation wished to
+intrench herself behind her grandeur, as behind a shield, which might
+conceal her maidenly fear and girlish anxiety!
+
+Thomas Seymour, however, divined her thoughts; and his proud and cold
+heart revolted against this child's attempt to defy him.
+
+He wanted to humble her; he wished to compel her to bow before him, and
+implore his love as a gracious gift.
+
+He therefore bowed low to the princess, and respectfully said: "Your
+highness, it is true I have often besought you for an audience; but
+you have so long refused me, that at last I could no longer summon up
+courage to solicit it; and I let my wish be silent and my heart dumb.
+Therefore seek not now, when these pains have been subdued, to excite
+them again. My heart should remain dead, my lips mute. You have so
+willed; and I have submitted to your will. Farewell, then, princess,
+and may your days be happier and more serene than those of poor Thomas
+Seymour!"
+
+He bowed low before her, and then went slowly to the door. He had
+already opened it and was about to step out, when a hand was suddenly
+laid on his shoulder and drew him with vehement impetuosity back into
+the room.
+
+"Do you want to go?" asked Elizabeth, with fluttering breath and
+trembling voice. "You want to leave me, and, flouting me, you want now,
+it may be, to go to the Duchess of Richmond, your mistress, and
+relate to her with a sneer that the Princess Elizabeth granted you an
+interview, and that you have flouted her?"
+
+"The Duchess of Richmond is not my mistress," said the earl, earnestly.
+
+"No, not your mistress; but she will very soon be your wife!"
+
+"She will never be my wife!"
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because I do not love her, princess."
+
+A beam of delight passed over Elizabeth's pale, agitated face. "Why do
+you call me princess?" asked she.
+
+"Because you have come as a princess to favor your poor servant with an
+audience. But, ah, it would be greatly abusing your princely grace did
+I want to protract this audience still further. I therefore retire,
+princess."
+
+And again he approached the door. But Elizabeth rushed after him, and,
+laying hold of his arms with both her hands, she wildly pushed him back.
+
+Her eyes shot lightning; her lips trembled; a passionate warmth was
+manifested in her whole being. Now she was the true daughter of her
+father, inconsiderate and passionate in her wrath, destroying in her
+ferocity.
+
+"You shall not go," muttered she, with her teeth firmly set. "I will not
+let you go! I will not let you confront me any longer with that cold,
+smiling face. Scold me; cast on me the bitterest reproaches, because I
+have dared to brave you so long; curse me, if you can! Anything but this
+smiling calmness. It kills me; it pierces my heart like a dagger. For
+you see well enough that I have no longer the power to withstand you;
+you see well enough that I love you. Yes, I love you to ecstasy and to
+desperation; with desire and dread. I love you as my demon and my angel.
+I am angry, because you have so entirely crushed the pride of my heart.
+I curse you, because you have made me so entirely your slave; and the
+next moment I fall on my knees and beseech God to forgive me this crime
+against you. I love you, I say--not as those soft, gentle-hearted women
+love, with a smile on the lip; but with madness and desperation, with
+jealousy and wrath. I love you as my father loved Anne Boleyn, whom, in
+the hatred of his love and the cruel wrath of his jealousy, he made to
+mount the scaffold, because he had been told that she was untrue to him.
+Ah, had I the power, I would do as my father did; I would murder you, if
+you should dare ever to cease to love me. And now, Thomas Seymour, now
+say whether you have the courage to desire to leave me?"
+
+She looked bewitching in the naming might of her passion; she was so
+young, so ardent; and Thomas Seymour was so ambitious! In his eyes
+Elizabeth was not merely the beautiful, charming maiden, who loved him:
+she was more than that: she was the daughter of Henry the Eighth, the
+Princess of England, perchance some day the heiress of the throne. It is
+true, her father had disinherited her, and by act of Parliament declared
+her unworthy of succeeding to the throne.[Footnote: Burnet, vol. i,
+p. 138] But Henry's vacillating mind might change, and the disowned
+princess might one day become queen.
+
+The earl thought of this as he gazed on Elizabeth--as he saw her before
+him, so charming, so young, and so glowing with passion. He thought of
+it as he now clasped her in his arms, and pressed on her lips a burning
+kiss.
+
+"No, I will not go," whispered he. "I will never more depart from your
+side, if you do not wish me to go. I am yours!--your slave, your vassal;
+and I will never be anything else but this alone. They may betray me;
+your father may punish me for high treason; yet will I exult in my good
+fortune, for Elizabeth loves me, and it will be for Elizabeth that I
+die!"
+
+"You shall not die!" cried she, clinging fast to him. "You shall live,
+live at my side, proud, great, and happy! You shall be my lord and my
+master; and if I am ever queen, and I feel here in my heart that I must
+become so, then will Thomas Seymour be King of England."
+
+"That is to say, in the quiet and secrecy of your chamber I should
+perhaps be so!" said he with a sigh. "But there without, before the
+world, I shall still be ever only a servant; and at the best, I shall be
+called the favorite."
+
+"Never, never, that I swear to you! Said I not that I loved you?"
+
+"But the love of a woman is so changeable! Who knows how long it will be
+before you will tread under your feet poor Thomas Seymour, when once the
+crown has adorned your brow."
+
+She looked at him well-nigh horrified. "Can this be, then? Is it
+possible that one can forget and forsake what he once loved?"
+
+"Do you ask, Elizabeth? Has not your father already his sixth wife?"
+
+"It is true," said she, as mournfully she dropped her head upon her
+breast. "But I," said she, after a pause, "I shall not be like my father
+in that. I shall love you eternally! And that you may have a guaranty of
+my faithfulness, I offer myself to you as your wife."
+
+Astonished, he looked inquiringly into her excited, glowing face! He did
+not understand her.
+
+But she continued, passionately: "Yes, you shall be my lord and my
+husband! Come, my beloved, come! I have not called you to take upon
+yourself the disgraceful role of the secret lover of a princess--I have
+called you to be my husband. I wish a bond to unite us two, that is so
+indissoluble that not even the wrath and will of my father, but only
+death itself, can sever it. I will give you proof of my love and my
+devotion; and you shall be forced to acknowledge that I truly love you.
+Come, my beloved, that I may soon hail you as my husband!"
+
+He looked at her as though petrified. "Whither will you lead me?"
+
+"To the private chapel," said she, innocently. "I have written Cranmer
+to await me there at daybreak. Let us hasten, then!"
+
+"Cranmer! You have written to the archbishop?" cried Seymour, amazed.
+"How! what say you? Cranmer awaits us in the private chapel?"
+
+"Without doubt he is waiting for us, as I have written him to do so."
+
+"And what is he to do? What do you want of him?"
+
+She looked at him in astonishment. "What do I want of him? Why, that he
+may marry us!"
+
+The earl staggered back as if stunned. "And have you written him that
+also?"
+
+"Nay, indeed," said she, with a charming, childlike smile. "I know very
+well that it is dangerous to trust such secrets to paper. I have only
+written him to come in his official robes, because I have an important
+secret to confess to him."
+
+"Oh, God be praised! We are not lost," sighed Seymour.
+
+"But how, I do not understand you?" asked she. "You do not extend me
+your hand! You do not hasten to conduct me to the chapel!"
+
+"Tell me, I conjure you, tell me only this one thing: have you ever
+spoken to the archbishop of your--no--of our love? Have you ever
+betrayed to him so much, as a syllable of that which stirs our hearts?"
+
+She blushed deeply beneath the steady gaze which he fixed on her.
+"Upbraid me, Seymour," whispered she. "But my heart was weak and
+timorous; and as often as I tried to fulfil the holy duty, and confess
+everything honestly and frankly to the archbishop, I could not do
+it! The word died on my lips; and it was as though an invisible power
+paralyzed my tongue."
+
+"So, then, Cranmer knows nothing?"
+
+"No, Seymour, he knows nothing as yet. But now he shall learn all;
+now we will go before him and tell him that we love each other, and
+constrain him, by our prayers, to bless our union, and join our hands."
+
+"Impossible!" cried Seymour. "That can never be!"
+
+"How! What do you say?" asked she in astonishment.
+
+"I say that Cranmer will never be so insane, nay, so criminal, as to
+fulfil your wish. I say that you can never be my wife."
+
+She looked him full and square in the face. "Have you not then told me
+that you loved me?" asked she. "Have I not sworn to you that I loved you
+in return? Must we then not be married, in order to sanctify the union
+of our hearts?"
+
+Seymour sank his eyes to the ground before her pure innocent look, and
+blushed for shame. She did not understand this blush; because he was
+silent, she deemed him convinced.
+
+"Come," said she, "come; Cranmer is waiting for us!"
+
+He again raised his eyes and looked at her in amazement, "Do you not
+see, then, this is all only a dream that can never become reality? Do
+you not feel that this precious fantasy of your great and noble heart
+will never be realized? How! are you then so little acquainted with your
+father as not to know that he would destroy us both if we should dare to
+set at naught his paternal and his royal authority? Your birth would not
+secure you from his destroying fury, for you well know he is unyielding
+and reckless in his wrath; and the voice of consanguinity sounds not so
+loud in him that it would not be drowned by the thunder of his wrath.
+Poor child, you have learned that already! Remember with what cruelty
+he has already revenged himself on you for the pretended fault of your
+mother; how he transferred to you his wrath against her. Remember that
+he refused your hand to the Dauphin of France, not for the sake of
+your happiness, but because he said you were not worthy of so exalted a
+position. Anne Boleyn's bastard could never become Queen of France. And
+after such a proof of his cruel wrath against you, will you dare cast
+in his face this terrible insult?--compel him to recognize a subject, a
+servant, as his son?"
+
+"Oh, this servant is, however, the brother of a Queen of England!" said
+she, shyly. "My father loved Jane Seymour too warmly not to forgive her
+brother."
+
+"Ah, ah, you do not know your father! He has no heart for the past; or,
+if he has, it is only to take vengeance for an injury or a fault, but
+not to reward love. King Henry would be capable of sentencing Anne
+Boleyn's daughter to death, and of sending to the block and rack
+Catharine Howard's brothers, because these two queens once grieved him
+and wounded his heart; but he would not forgive me the least offence on
+account of my being the brother of a queen who loved him faithfully and
+tenderly till her death. But I speak not of myself. I am a warrior, and
+have too often looked death in the face to fear him now. I speak only of
+you, Elizabeth. You have no right to perish thus. This noble head must
+not be laid upon the block. It is destined to wear a royal crown. A
+fortune still higher than love awaits you--fame and power! I must not
+draw you away from this proud future. The Princess Elizabeth, though
+abused and disowned, may yet one day mount the throne of England. The
+Countess Seymour never! she disinherits herself! Follow, then, your high
+destiny. Earl Seymour retires before a throne."
+
+"That is to say, you disdained me?" asked she, angrily stamping the
+floor with her foot. "That is to say, the proud Earl Seymour holds the
+bastard too base for his coronet! That is to say, you love me not!"
+
+"No, it means that I love you more than myself--better and more purely
+than any other man can love you; for this love is so great that it makes
+my selfishness and my ambition silent, and allows me to think only of
+you and your future."
+
+"Ah," sighed she, mournfully, "if you really loved me, you would not
+consider--you would not see the danger, nor fear death. You would think
+of nothing, and know nothing, save love."
+
+"Because I think of love, I think of you," said Seymour. "I think that
+you are to move along over the world, great, powerful, and glorious, and
+that I will lend you my arm for this. I think of this, that my queen of
+the future needs a general who will win victories for her, and that
+I will be that general. But when this goal is reached--when you are
+queen--then you have the power from one of your subjects to make a
+husband; then it rests with your own will to elevate me to be the
+proudest, the happiest, and the most enviable of all men. Extend me your
+hand, then, and I will thank and praise God that he is so gracious to
+me; and my whole existence will be spent in the effort to give you the
+happiness that you are so well entitled to demand."
+
+"And until then?" asked she, mournfully.
+
+"Until then, we will be constant, and love each other!" cried he, as he
+gently pressed her in his arms. She gently repelled him. "Will you also
+be true to me till then?"
+
+"True till death!"
+
+"They have told me that you would marry the Duchess of Richmond, in
+order thereby to at length put an end to the ancient hatred between the
+Howards and Seymours."
+
+Thomas Seymour frowned, and his countenance grew dark. "Believe me, this
+hatred is invincible," said he; "and no matrimonial alliance could wash
+it away. It is an inheritance from many years in our families; and I am
+firmly resolved not to renounce my inheritance. I shall just as little
+marry the Duchess of Richmond, as Henry Howard will my sister, the
+Countess of Shrewsbury."
+
+"Swear that to me! Swear to me, that you say the truth, and that this
+haughty and coquettish duchess shall never be your wife. Swear it to me,
+by all that is sacred to you!"
+
+"I swear it by my love!" exclaimed Thomas Seymour, solemnly.
+
+"I shall then at least have one sorrow the less," sighed Elizabeth.
+"I shall have no occasion to be jealous. And is it not true," she then
+said, "is it not true we shall often see each other? We will both keep
+this secret of this tower faithfully and sacredly; and after days full
+of privation and disappointment, we will here keep festival the nights
+full of blissful pleasure and sweet transport. But why do you smile,
+Seymour?"
+
+"I smile, because you are pure and innocent as an angel," said he, as
+he reverently kissed her hand. "I smile, because you are an exalted,
+godlike child, whom one ought to adore upon his knees, and to whom one
+ought to pray, as to the chaste goddess Vesta! Yes, my dear, beloved
+child, here we will, as you say, pass nights full of blissful pleasure;
+and may I be reprobate and damned, if I should ever be capable of
+betraying this sweet, guileless confidence with which you favor me, and
+sully your angel purity!"
+
+"Ah, we will be very happy, Seymour!" said she, smiling. "I lack only
+one thing--a friend, to whom I can tell my happiness, to whom I can
+speak of you. Oh, it often seems to me as if this love, which must
+always be concealed, always shut up, must at last burst my breast; as if
+this secret must with violence break a passage, and roar like a tempest
+over the whole world. Seymour, I want a confidante of my happiness and
+my love."
+
+"Guard yourself well against desiring to seek such a one!" exclaimed
+Seymour, anxiously. "A secret that three know, is a secret no more; and
+one day your confidante will betray us."
+
+"Not so; I know a woman who would be incapable of that--a woman who
+loves me well enough to keep my secret as faithfully as I myself; a
+woman who could be more than merely a confidante, who could be the
+protectress of our love. Oh, believe me, if we could gain her to our
+side, then our future would be a happy and a blessed one, and we might
+easily succeed in obtaining the king's consent to our marriage."
+
+"And who is this woman?"
+
+"It is the queen."
+
+"The queen!" cried Thomas Seymour, with such an expression of horror
+that Elizabeth trembled; "the queen your confidante? But that is
+impossible! That would be plunging us both inevitably into ruin. Unhappy
+child, be very careful not to mention even a single word, a syllable of
+your relation to me. Be very careful not to betray to her, even by the
+slightest intimation, that Thomas Seymour is not indifferent to you! Ah,
+her wrath would dash to pieces you and me!"
+
+"And why do you believe that?" asked Elizabeth, gloomily. "Why do you
+suppose that Catharine would fly into a passion because Earl Seymour
+loves me? Or how?--it is she, perhaps, that you love, and you dare not
+therefore let her know that you have sworn your love to me also? Ah,
+I now see through it all; I understand it all! You love the queen--her
+only. For that reason you will not go to the chapel with me; for that
+reason you swore that you would not marry the Duchess of Richmond;
+and therefore--oh, my presentiment did not deceive me--therefore that
+furious ride in Epping Forest to-day. Ah, the queen's horse must of
+course become raving, and run away, that his lordship, the master of
+horse, might follow his lady, and with her got lost in the thicket
+of the woods!--And now," said she, her eyes flashing with anger, and
+raising her hand to heaven as if taking an oath, "now I say to you: Take
+heed to yourself! Take heed to yourself, Seymour, that you do not, even
+by a single word or a single syllable, betray your secret, for that
+word would crush you! Yes, I feel it, that I am no bastard, that I am
+my father's own daughter; I feel it in this wrath and this jealousy that
+rages within me! Take heed to yourself, Seymour, for I will go hence
+and accuse you to the king, and the traitor's head will fall upon the
+scaffold!"
+
+She was beside herself. With clenched fists and a threatening air she
+paced the room up and down. Tears gushed from her eyes; but she shook
+them out of her eyelashes, so that they fell scattering about her like
+pearls. Her father's impetuous and untractable nature stirred within
+her, and his blood seethed in her veins.
+
+But Thomas Seymour had already regained his self-command and composure.
+He approached the princess and despite her struggles clasped her in his
+arms.
+
+"Little fool!" said he, between his kisses. "Sweet, dear fool, how
+beautiful you are in your anger, and how I love you for it! Jealousy is
+becoming to love; and I do not complain, though you are unjust and cruel
+toward me. The queen has much too cold and proud a heart ever to be
+loved by any man. Ah, only to think this is already treason to her
+virtue and modesty; and surely she has not deserved this from us two,
+that we should disdain and insult her. She is the first that has always
+been just to you; and to me she has ever been only a gracious mistress!"
+
+"It is true," murmured Elizabeth, completely ashamed; "she is a true
+friend and mother; and I have her to thank for my present position at
+this court."
+
+Then, after a pause, she said, smiling, and extending her hand to the
+earl: "You are right. It would be a crime to suspect her; and I am a
+fool. Forgive me, Seymour, forgive my absurd and childish anger; and I
+promise you in return to betray our secret to no one, not even to the
+queen."
+
+"Do you swear that to me?"
+
+"I swear it to you! and I swear to you more than that: I will never
+again be jealous of her."
+
+"Then you do but simple justice to yourself and to the queen also," said
+the earl, with a smile, as he drew her again to his arms.
+
+But she pushed him gently back. "I must now away. The morning dawns, and
+the archbishop awaits me in the royal chapel."
+
+"And what will you say to him, beloved?"
+
+"I will make my confession to him."
+
+"How! so you will then betray our love to him?"
+
+"Oh," said she, with a bewitching smile, "that is a secret between us
+and God; and only to Him alone can we confess it; because He alone can
+absolve us from it. Farewell, then, Seymour, farewell, and think of me
+till we see each other again! But when--say, when shall we meet again?"
+
+"When there is a night like this one, beloved, when the moon is not in
+the heavens. Oh, then I could wish there were a change of the moon every
+week," said she, with the charming innocence of a child. "Farewell,
+Seymour, farewell; we must part."
+
+She clung to his tall, sturdy form as the ivy twines around the trunk of
+an oak. Then they parted. The princess slipped again softly and
+unseen into her apartments, and thence into the royal chapel; the earl
+descended again the spiral staircase which led to the secret door of the
+garden.
+
+Unobserved and unseen he returned to his palace; even his valet, who
+slept in the anteroom, did not see him, as the earl crept past him
+lightly on his toes, and betook himself to his sleeping-room.
+
+But no sleep came to his eyes that night, and his soul was restless and
+full of fierce torment. He was angry with himself, and accused himself
+of treachery and perfidy; and then again, full of proud haughtiness, he
+still tried to excuse himself and to silence his conscience, which was
+sitting in judgment on him.
+
+"I love her--her only!" said he to himself. "Catharine possesses my
+heart, my soul; I am ready to devote my whole life to her. Yes, I love
+her! I have this day so sworn to her; and she is mine for all eternity!"
+
+"And Elizabeth?" asked his conscience. "Have you not sworn truth and
+love to her also?"
+
+"No!" said he. "I have only received her oath; I have not given her mine
+in return. And when I vowed never to marry the Duchess of Richmond; when
+I swore this 'by my love,' then I thought only of Catharine--of that
+proud, beautiful, charming woman, at once maidenly and voluptuous;
+but not of this young, inexperienced, wild child--of this unattractive
+little princess!"
+
+"But the princess may one day become a queen," whispered his ambition.
+
+"That, however, is very doubtful," replied he to himself. "But it is
+certain that Catharine will one day be the regent, and if I am at that
+time her husband, then I am Regent of England."
+
+This was the secret of his duplicity and his double treachery. Thomas
+Seymour loved nothing but himself, nothing but his ambition. He was
+capable of risking his life for a woman; but for renown and greatness he
+would have gladly sacrificed this woman.
+
+For him there was only one aim, one struggle: to be come great and
+powerful above all the nobles of the kingdom--to be the first man in
+England. And to reach this aim, he would be afraid of no means; he would
+shrink from no treachery and no sin.
+
+Like the disciples of Loyola, he said, in justification of himself, "the
+end sanctifies the means."
+
+And thus for him every means was right which conducted him to the end;
+that is to say, to greatness and glory.
+
+He was firmly convinced that he loved the queen ardently; and in his
+nobler hours he did really love her. Depending on the moment, a son of
+the hour, in him feeling and will varied with the rapidity of lightning,
+and he ever was wholly and completely that with which the moment
+inflamed him.
+
+When, therefore, he stood before the queen, he did not lie when he swore
+that he loved her passionately. He really loved her, with double warmth,
+since she had to his mind in some sort identified herself with his
+ambition. He adored her, because she was the means that might conduct
+him to his end; because she might some day hold in her hands the sceptre
+of England. And on the day when this came to pass, he wished to be
+her lover and her lord. She had accepted him as her lord, and he was
+entirely certain of his future sway.
+
+Consequently he loved the queen, but his proud and ambitious heart could
+never be so completely animated by one love as that there should not
+be room in it for a second, provided this second love presented him a
+favorable chance for the attainment of the aim of his life.
+
+Princess Elizabeth had this chance. And if the queen would certainly
+become one day Regent of England, yet Elizabeth might some day perchance
+become queen thereof. Of course, it was as yet only a perhaps, but one
+might manage out of this perhaps to make a reality. Besides, this young,
+passionate child loved him, and Thomas Seymour was himself too young
+and too easily excitable to be able to despise a love that presented him
+with such enticing promises and bright dreams of the future.
+
+"It does not become a man to live for love alone," said he to himself as
+he now thought over the events of the night. "He must struggle for the
+highest and wish to reach the greatest, and no means of attaining this
+end ought he to leave unemployed. Besides, my heart is large enough to
+satisfy a twofold love. I love them both--both of these fair women who
+fetch me a crown. Let fate decide to which of the two I shall one day
+belong!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY.
+
+
+The great court festival, so long expected, was at last to take place
+today. Knights and lords were preparing for the tournament; poets and
+scholars for the feast of the poets. For the witty and brave king wished
+to unite the two in this festival today, in order to give the world a
+rare and great example of a king who could claim all virtue and wisdom
+as his own; who could be equally great as a hero and as a divine;
+equally great as a poet and as a philosopher and a scholar.
+
+The knights were to fight for the honor of their ladies; the poets were
+to sing their songs, and John Heywood to bring out his merry farces. Ay,
+even the great scholars were to have a part in this festival; for the
+king had specially, for this, summoned to London from Cambridge, where
+he was then professor in the university, his former teacher in the Greek
+language, the great scholar Croke, to whom belonged the merit of having
+first made the learned world of Germany, as well as of England, again
+acquainted with the poets of Greece. [Footnote: Tytler, p. 307.] He
+wished to recite with Croke some scenes from Sophocles to his wondering
+court; and though, to be sure, there was no one there who understood
+the Greek tongue, yet all, without doubt, must be enraptured with the
+wonderful music of the Greek and the amazing erudition of the king.
+
+Preparations were going on everywhere; arrangements were being made;
+every one was making his toilet, whether it were the toilet of the mind
+or of the body.
+
+Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, made his also; that is to say, he had
+retired to his cabinet, and was busy filing away at the sonnets which
+he expected to recite to-day, and in which he lauded the beauty and the
+grace of the fair Geraldine.
+
+He had the paper in his hand, and was lying on the velvet ottoman which
+stood before his writing-table.
+
+Had Lady Jane Douglas seen him now, she would have been filled with
+painful rapture to observe how, with head leaned back on the cushion,
+his large blue eyes raised dreamily to heaven, he smiled and whispered
+gentle words.
+
+He was wholly absorbed in sweet reminiscences; he was thinking of those
+rapturous, blessed hours which he a few days before had spent with his
+Geraldine; and as he thought of them he adored her, and repeated to her
+anew in his mind his oath of eternal love and inviolable truth.
+
+His enthusiastic spirit was completely filled with a sweet melancholy;
+and he felt perfectly intoxicated by the magical happiness afforded him
+by his Geraldine.
+
+She was his--his at last! After struggles so long and painful, after
+such bitter renunciation, and such mournful resignation, happiness had
+at last arisen for him; the never expected had at last become indeed a
+reality. Catharine loved him. With a sacred oath she had sworn to him
+that she would one day become his wife; that she would become his wife
+before God and man.
+
+But when is the day to come on which he may show her to the world as
+his consort? When will she be at length relieved from the burden of her
+royal crown? When at length will fall from her those golden chains that
+bind her to a tyrannical and bloodthirsty husband--to the cruel and
+arrogant king? When will Catharine at length cease to be queen, in order
+to become Lady Surrey?
+
+Strange! As he asked himself this, there ran over him a shudder, and an
+unaccountable dread fell upon his soul.
+
+It seemed to him as if a voice whispered to him: "Thou wilt never live
+to see that day! The king, old as he is, will nevertheless live longer
+than thou! Prepare thyself to die, for death is already at thy door!"
+
+And it was not the first time that he had heard that voice. Often before
+it had spoken to him, and always with the same words, the same warning.
+Often it seemed to him in his dreams as if he felt a cutting pain
+about the neck; and he had seen a scaffold, from which his own head was
+rolling down.
+
+Henry Howard was superstitious; for he was a poet, and to poets it is
+given to perceive the mysterious connection between the visible and the
+invisible world; to believe that supernatural powers and invisible forms
+surround man, and either protect him or else curse him.
+
+There were hours in which he believed in the reality of his dreams--in
+which he did not doubt of that melancholy and horrible fate which they
+foretold.
+
+Formerly he had given himself up to it with smiling resignation; but
+now--since he loved Catharine, since she belonged to him--now he would
+not die. Now, when life held out to him its most enchanting enjoyments,
+its intoxicating delights--now he would not leave them--now he dreaded
+to die. He was therefore cautious and prudent; and, knowing the king's
+malicious, savage, and jealous character, he had always been extremely
+careful to avoid everything that might excite him, that might arouse the
+royal hyena from his slumbers.
+
+But it seemed to him as though the king bore him and his family a
+special spite; as though he could never forgive them that the consort
+whom he most loved, and who had the most bitterly wronged him, had
+sprung from their stock. In the king's every word and every look, Henry
+Howard felt and was sensible of this secret resentment of the king; he
+suspected that Henry was only watching for the favorable moment when he
+could seize and strangle him.
+
+He was therefore on his guard. For now, when Geraldine loved him, his
+life belonged no longer to himself alone; she loved him; she had a claim
+on him; his days were, therefore, hallowed in his own eyes.
+
+So he had kept silence under the petty annoyances and vexations of the
+king. He had taken it even without murmuring, and without demanding
+satisfaction, when the king had suddenly recalled him from the army that
+was fighting against France, and of which he was commander-in-chief, and
+in his stead had sent Lord Hertford, Earl of Sudley, to the army which
+was encamped before Boulogne and Montreuil. He had quietly and without
+resentment returned to his palace; and since he could no longer be a
+general and warrior, he became again a scholar and poet. His palace was
+now again the resort of the scholars and writers of England; and he was
+always ready, with true princely munificence, to assist oppressed and
+despised talent; to afford the persecuted scholar an asylum in his
+palace. He it was who saved the learned Fox from starvation, and took
+him into his house, where Horatius Junius and the poet Churchyard,
+afterward so celebrated, had both found a home--the former as his
+physician and the latter as his page. [Footnote: Nott's Life of the Earl
+of Surrey]
+
+Love, the arts, and the sciences, caused the wounds that the king had
+given his ambition, to heal over; and he now felt no more rancor; now
+he almost thanked the king. For to his recall only did he owe his good
+fortune; and Henry, who had wished to injure him, had given him his
+sweetest pleasure.
+
+He now smiled as he thought how Henry, who had taken from him the baton,
+had, without knowing it, given him in return his own queen, and had
+exalted him when he wished to humble him.
+
+He smiled, and again took in hand the poem in which he wished to
+celebrate in song, at the court festival that day, the honor and
+praise of his lady-love, whom no one knew, or even suspected--the fair
+Geraldine.
+
+"The verses are stiff," muttered he; "this language is so poor! It has
+not the power of expressing all that fulness of adoration and ecstasy
+which I feel. Petrarch was more fortunate in this respect. His
+beautiful, flexible language sounds like music, and it is, even just by
+itself, the harmonious accompaniment of his love. Ah, Petrarch, I envy
+thee, and yet would not be like thee. For thine was a mournful and
+bitter-sweet lot. Laura never loved thee; and she was the mother of
+twelve children, not a single one of whom belonged to thee."
+
+He laughed with a sense of his own proud success in love, and seized
+Petrarch's sonnets, which lay near him on the table, to compare his own
+new sonnet with a similar one of Petrarch's.
+
+He was so absorbed in these meditations, that he had not at all observed
+that the hanging which concealed the door behind him was pushed aside,
+and a marvellous young woman, resplendent with diamonds and sparkling
+with jewelry, entered his cabinet.
+
+For an instant she stood still upon the threshold, and with a smile
+observed the earl, who was more and more absorbed in his reading.
+
+She was of imposing beauty; her large eyes blazed and glowed like a
+volcano; her lofty brow seemed in all respects designed to wear a crown.
+And, indeed, it was a ducal coronet that sparkled on her black hair,
+which in long ringlets curled down to her full, voluptuous shoulders.
+Her tall and majestic form was clad in a white satin dress, richly
+trimmed with ermine and pearls; two clasps of costly brilliants held
+fast to her shoulders the small mantilla of crimson velvet, faced with
+ermine, which covered her back and fell down to her waist.
+
+Thus appeared the Duchess of Richmond, the widow of King Henry's natural
+son, Henry Richmond; the sister of Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey;
+and the daughter of the noble Duke of Norfolk.
+
+Since her husband had died and left her a widow at twenty, she resided
+in her brother's palace, and had placed herself under his protection,
+and in the world they were known as "the affectionate brother and
+sister."
+
+Ah, how little knew the world, which is ever wont to judge from
+appearances, of the hatred and the love of these two; how little
+suspicion had it of the real sentiments of this brother and sister!
+
+Henry Howard had offered his sister his palace as her residence,
+because he hoped by his presence to lay on her impulsive and voluptuous
+disposition a restraint which should compel her not to overstep the
+bounds of custom and decency. Lady Richmond had accepted this offer of
+his palace because she was obliged to; inasmuch as the avaracious and
+parsimonious king gave his son's widow only a meagre income, and her own
+means she had squandered and lavishly thrown away upon her lovers.
+
+Henry Howard had thus acted for the honor of his name; but he loved not
+his sister; nay, he despised her. But the Duchess of Richmond hated
+her brother, because her proud heart felt humbled by him, and under
+obligations of gratitude.
+
+But their hatred and their contempt were a secret that they both
+preserved in the depths of the heart, and which they scarcely dared
+confess to themselves. Both had veiled this their inmost feeling with
+a show of affection, and only once in a while was one betrayed to the
+other by some lightly dropped word or unregarded look.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. BROTHER AND SISTER.
+
+
+Lightly on the tips of her toes the duchess stole toward her brother,
+who did not yet observe her. The thick Turkish carpet made her steps
+inaudible. She already stood behind the earl, and he had not yet noticed
+her.
+
+Now she bent over his shoulder, and fastened her sparkling eyes on the
+paper in her brother's hand.
+
+Then she read in a loud, sonorous voice the title of it: "Complaint,
+because Geraldine never shows herself to her lover unless covered by
+her veil." [Footnote: Sonnet by Surrey.--See Nott's Life and Works of
+Surrey.] "Ah," said the duchess, laughing, "now, then, I have spied out
+your secret, and you must surrender to me at discretion. So you are in
+love; and Geraldine is the name of the chosen one to whom you address
+your poems! I swear to you, my brother, you will repay me dear for this
+secret."
+
+"It is no secret at all, sister," said the earl, with a quiet smile,
+as he rose from the divan and saluted the duchess. "It is so little a
+secret, that I shall recite this sonnet at the court festival this very
+evening. I shall not, therefore, need your secrecy, Rosabella."
+
+"So the fair Geraldine never shows herself to you unless in a dark veil,
+black as the night," said the duchess, musingly. "But tell me, brother,
+who then is the fair Geraldine? Of the ladies at court, I know not a
+single one who bears that name."
+
+"So you see from that, the whole is only a fiction--a creation of my
+fancy."
+
+"No, indeed," said she, smiling; "one does not write with such warmth
+and enthusiasm unless he is really in love. You sing your lady-love, and
+you give her another name. That is very plain. Do not deny it, Henry,
+for I know indeed that you have a lady-love. It may be read in your
+eyes. And look you! it is on account of this dear one that I have come
+to you. It pains me, Henry, that you have no confidence in me, and
+allow me no share in your joys and sorrows. Do you not know, then, how
+tenderly I love you, my dear, noble brother?"
+
+She put her arm tenderly round his neck, and wanted to kiss him. He bent
+his head back, and laying his hand on her rosy, round chin, he looked
+inquiringly and smilingly into her eyes.
+
+"You want something of me, Rosabella!" said he. "I have never yet
+enjoyed your tenderness and sisterly affection, except when you needed
+my services."
+
+"How suspicious you are!" cried she, with a charming pout, as she shook
+his hand away from her face. "I have come from wholly disinterested
+sympathy; partly to warn you, partly to find out whether your love is
+perchance fixed upon a lady that would render my warning useless."
+
+"Well, so you see, Rosabella, that I was right, and that your tenderness
+was not aimless. Now, then, you want to warn me? I have yet to learn
+that I need any warning."
+
+"Nay, brother! For it would certainly be very dangerous and mischievous
+for you, if your love should chance not to be in accordance with the
+command of the king."
+
+A momentary flush spread over Henry Howard's face, and his brow
+darkened.
+
+"With the king's command?" asked he, in astonishment. "I did not know
+that Henry the Eighth could control my heart. And, at any rate, I would
+never concede him that right. Say quickly, then, sister, what is it?
+What means this about the king's command, and what matrimonial scheme
+have you women been again contriving? For I well know that you and my
+mother have no rest with the thought of seeing me still unmarried. You
+want to bestow on me, whether or no, the happiness of marriage; yet,
+nevertheless, it appears to me that you both have sufficiently learned
+from experience that this happiness is only imaginary, and that marriage
+in reality is, at the very least, the vestibule of hell."
+
+"It is true," laughed the duchess; "the only happy moment of my married
+life was when my husband died. For in that I am more fortunate than my
+mother, who has her tyrant still living about her. Ah, how I pity my
+mother!"
+
+"Dare not to revile our noble father!" cried the earl, almost
+threateningly. "God alone knows how much he has suffered from our
+mother, and how much he still suffers. He is not to blame for this
+unhappy marriage. But you have not come to talk over these sad and
+disgraceful family matters, sister! You wish to warn me, did you say?"
+
+"Yes, warn you!" said the duchess, tenderly, as she took her brother's
+hand and led him to the ottoman. "Come, let us sit down here, Henry, and
+let us for once chat confidentially and cordially, as becomes brother
+and sister. Tell me, who is Geraldine?"
+
+"A phantom, an ideal! I have told you that already."
+
+"You really love, then, no lady at this court?"
+
+"No, none! There is among all these ladies, with whom the queen has
+surrounded herself, not one whom I am able to love."
+
+"Ah, your heart then is free, Henry; and you will be so much more easily
+inclined to comply with the king's wish."
+
+"What does the king wish?"
+
+She laid her head on her brother's shoulder, and said in a low whisper:
+"That the Howard and Seymour families be at last reconciled; that at
+last they may reconcile the hatred, which has for centuries separated
+them, by means of a firm and sincere bond of love."
+
+"Ah, the king wants that!" cried the earl, scornfully.
+
+"Forsooth, now, he has made a good beginning toward bringing about this
+reconciliation. He has insulted me before all Europe, by removing me
+from my command, and investing a Seymour with my rank and dignity; and
+he requires that I in return shall love this arrogant earl, who has
+robbed me of what is my due; who has long intrigued and besieged the
+king's ears with lies and calumnies, till he has gained his end and
+supplanted me."
+
+"It is true the king recalled you from the army; but this was done in
+order to give you the first place at his court--to appoint you lord
+chamberlain to the queen."
+
+Henry Howard trembled and was silent. "It is true," he then muttered; "I
+am obliged to the king for this place."
+
+"And then," continued the duchess, with an innocent air, "then I do not
+believe either that Lord Hertford is to blame for your recall. To prove
+this to you, he has made a proposal to the king, and to me also, which
+is to testify to you and to all the world how great an honor Lord
+Hertford esteems it to be allied to the Howards, and above all things to
+you, by the most sacred bonds."
+
+"Ah, that noble, magnanimous lord!" cried Henry Howard, with a bitter
+laugh. "As matters do not advance well with laurels, he tries the
+myrtles; since he can win no battles, he wants to make marriages. Now,
+sister, let me hear what he has to propose."
+
+"A double marriage, Henry. He asks my hand for his brother Thomas
+Seymour, provided you choose his sister, Lady Margaret, for your wife."
+
+"Never!" cried the earl. "Never will Henry Howard present his hand to a
+daughter of that house; never condescend so far as to elevate a Seymour
+to be his wife. That is well enough for a king--not for a Howard!"
+
+"Brother, you insult the king!"
+
+"Well, I insult him, then! He has insulted me, too, in arranging this
+base scheme."
+
+"Brother, reflect; the Seymours are powerful, and stand high in the
+king's favor."
+
+"Yes, in the king's favor they stand high! But the people know their
+proud, cruel, and arrogant disposition; and the people and nobility
+despise them. The Seymours have the voice of the king in their favor;
+the Howards the voice of the whole country, and that is of more
+consequence. The king can exalt the Seymours, for they stand far beneath
+him. He cannot exalt the Howards, for they are his equals. Nor can he
+degrade them. Catharine died on the scaffold--the king became thereby
+only a hangman--our escutcheon was not sullied by that act!"
+
+"These are very proud words, Henry!"
+
+"They become a son of the Norfolks, Rosabella! Ah, see that petty Lord
+Hertford, Earl Seymour. He covets a ducal coronet for his sister. He
+wants to give her to me to wife; for as soon as our poor father dies, I
+wear his coronet! The arrogant upstarts! For the sister's escutcheon, my
+coronet; for the brother's, your coronet. Never, say I, shall that be!"
+
+The duchess had become pale, and a tremor ran through her proud form.
+Her eyes flashed, and an angry word was already suspended on her lips;
+but she still held it back. She violently forced herself to calmness and
+self-possession.
+
+"Consider once more, Henry," said she, "do not decide at once. You speak
+of our greatness; but you do not bear in mind the power of the Seymours.
+I tell you they are powerful enough to tread us in the dust, despite all
+our greatness. And they are not only powerful at the present; they will
+be so in the future also; for it is well known in what disposition and
+what way of thinking the Prince of Wales is trained up. The king is old,
+weak, and failing; death lurks behind his throne, and will soon enough
+press him in his arms. Then Edward is king. With him, the heresy of
+Protestantism triumphs; and however great and numerous our party may be,
+yet we shall be powerless and subdued. Yes, we shall be the oppressed
+and persecuted."
+
+"We shall then know how to fight, and if it must be so, to die also!"
+cried her brother. "It is more honorable to die on the battle-field than
+to purchase life and humiliation."
+
+"Yes, it is honorable to die on the field of battle; but, Henry, it is a
+disgrace to come to an end upon the scaffold. And that, my brother, may
+be your fate, if you do not this time bend your pride; if you do not
+grasp the hand that Lord Hertford extends to you in reconciliation, but
+mortally offend him. He will take bloody vengeance, when once he comes
+into power."
+
+"Let him do it, if he can; my life is in God's hand! My head belongs
+to the king, but my heart to myself; and that I will never degrade to
+merchandise, which I may barter for a little security and royal favor."
+
+"Brother, I conjure you, consider it!" cried the duchess, no longer able
+to restrain her passionate disposition, and all ablaze in her savage
+wrath. "Dare not in proud arrogance to destroy my future also! You may
+die on the scaffold, if you choose; but I--I will be happy; I will
+at last, after so many years of sorrow and disgrace, have my share of
+life's joys also. It is my due, and I will not relinquish it; and you
+shall not be allowed to tear it from me. Know, then, my brother, I love
+Thomas Seymour; all my desire, all my hope is fixed on him; and I will
+not tear this love out of my heart; I will not give him up."
+
+"Well, if you love him, marry him, then!" exclaimed her brother. "Become
+the wife of this Thomas Seymour! Ask the duke, our father, for his
+consent to this marriage, and I am certain he will not refuse you,
+for he is prudent and cautious, and will, better than I, calculate the
+advantages which a connection with the Seymours may yield our family. Do
+that, sister, and marry your dearly beloved. I do not hinder you."
+
+"Yes, you do hinder me--you alone!" cried his sister, flaming with
+wrath. "You will refuse Margaret's hand; you will give the Seymours
+mortal offence. You thereby make my union with Thomas Seymour
+impossible! In the proud selfishness of your haughtiness, you see not
+that you are dashing to atoms my happiness, while you are thinking only
+of your desire to offend the Seymours. But I tell you, I love Thomas
+Seymour--nay, I adore him. He is my happiness, my future, my eternal
+bliss. Therefore have pity on me, Henry! Grant me this happiness, which
+I implore you for as Heaven's blessing. Prove to me that you love me,
+and are willing to make this sacrifice for me. Henry, on my knees,
+I conjure you! Give me the man I love; bend your proud head; become
+Margaret Seymour's husband, that Thomas Seymour may become mine."
+
+She had actually sunk upon her knees; and her face deluged with
+tears, bewitchingly beautiful in her passionate emotion, she looked up
+imploringly to her brother.
+
+But the earl did not lift her up; on the contrary, with a smile, he fell
+back a step. "How long is it now, duchess," asked he, mockingly, "since
+you swore that your secretary, Mr. Wilford, was the man whom you loved?
+Positively, I believed you--I believed it till I one day found you in
+the arms of your page. On that day, I swore to myself never to believe
+you again, though you vowed to me, with an oath ever so sacred, that
+you loved a man. Well, now, you love a man; but what one, is a matter of
+indifference. To-day his name is Thomas, tomorrow Archibald, or Edward
+as you please!"
+
+For the first time the earl drew the veil away from his heart, and let
+his sister see all the contempt and anger that he felt toward her.
+
+The duchess also felt wounded by his words, as by a red-hot iron.
+
+She sprang from her knees; and with flurried breath, with looks flashing
+with rage, every muscle of her countenance convulsed and trembling,
+there she stood before her brother. She was a woman no more; she was a
+lioness, that, without compassion or pity, will devour him who has dared
+irritate her.
+
+"Earl of Surrey, you are a shameless wretch!" said she, with compressed,
+quivering lips. "Were I a man, I would slap you in the face, and call
+you a scoundrel. But, by the eternal God, you shall not say that you
+have done this with impunity! Once more, and for the last time, I now
+ask you, will you comply with Lord Hertford's wish? Will you marry Lady
+Margaret, and accompany me with Thomas Seymour to the altar?"
+
+"No, I will not, and I will never do it!" exclaimed her brother,
+solemnly. "The Howards bow not before the Seymours; and never will Henry
+Howard marry a wife that he does not love!"
+
+"Ah, you love her not!" said she, breathless, gnashing her teeth. "You
+do not love Lady Margaret; and for this reason must your sister renounce
+her love, and give up this man whom she adores. Ah, you love not this
+sister of Thomas Seymour? She is not the Geraldine whom you adore--to
+whom you dedicate your verses! Well, now, I will find her out--your
+Geraldine. I will discover her; and then, woe to you and to her! You
+refuse me your hand to lead me to the altar with Thomas Seymour; well,
+now, I will one day extend you my hand to conduct you and your Geraldine
+to the scaffold!"
+
+And as she saw how the earl startled and turned pale, she continued with
+a scornful laugh: "Ah, you shrink, and horror creeps over you! Does
+your conscience admonish you that the hero, rigid in virtue, may yet
+sometimes make a false step? You thought to hide your secret, if you
+enveloped it in the veil of night, like your Geraldine, who, as you
+wailingly complain in that poem there, never shows herself to you
+without a veil as black as night. Just wait, wait! I will strike a light
+for you, before which all your night-like veils shall be torn in shreds;
+I will light up the night of your secret with a torch which will be
+large enough to set on fire the fagot piles about the stake to which you
+and your Geraldine are to go!"
+
+"Ah, now you let me see for the first time your real countenance," said
+Henry Howard, shrugging his shoulders. "The angel's mask falls from your
+face; and I behold the fury that was hidden beneath it. Now you are your
+mother's own daughter; and at this moment I comprehend for the first
+time what my father has suffered, and why he shunned not even the
+disgrace of a divorce, just to be delivered from such a Megaera."
+
+"Oh, I thank you, thank you!" cried she, with a savage laugh. "You are
+filling up the measure of your iniquity. It is not enough that you drive
+your sister to despair; you revile your mother also! You say that we are
+furies; well, indeed, for we shall one day be such to you, and we will
+show you our Medusa-face, before which you will be stiffened to stone.
+Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, from this hour out, I am your implacable
+enemy; look out for the head on your shoulders, for my hand is raised
+against it, and in my hand is a sword! Guard well the secret that sleeps
+in your breast; for you have transformed me to a vampire that will suck
+your heart's blood. You have reviled my mother, and I will go hence and
+tell her of it. She will believe me; for she well knows that you hate
+her, and that you are a genuine son of your father; that is to say, a
+canting hypocrite, a miserable fellow, who carries virtue on the lips
+and crime in the heart."
+
+"Cease, I say, cease," cried the earl, "if you do not want me to forget
+that you are a woman and my sister!"
+
+"Forget it by all means," said she, scornfully. "I have forgotten long
+since that you are my brother, as you have long since forgotten that you
+are the son of your mother. Farewell, Earl of Surrey; I leave you and
+your palace, and will from this hour out abide with my mother, the
+divorced wife of the Duke of Norfolk. But mark you this: we two are
+separated from you in our love--but not in our hate! Our hatred to
+you remains eternal and unchangeable; and one day it will crush you!
+Farewell, Earl of Surrey; we meet again in the king's presence!"
+
+She rushed to the door. Henry Howard did not hold her back. He looked
+after her with a smile as she left the cabinet, and murmured, almost
+compassionately: "Poor woman! I have, perhaps, cheated her out of a
+lover, and she will never forgive me that. Well, let it be so! Let
+her, as much as she pleases, be my enemy, and torment me with petty
+pin-prickings, if she be but unable to harm her. I hope, though, that I
+have guarded well my secret, and she could not suspect the real cause
+of my refusal. Ah, I was obliged to wrap myself in that foolish family
+pride, and make haughtiness a cloak for my love. Oh, Geraldine, thee
+would I choose, wert thou the daughter of a peasant; and I would not
+hold my escutcheon tarnished, if for thy sake I must draw a pale
+athwart it.--But hark! It is striking four! My service begins! Farewell,
+Geraldine, I must to the queen!"
+
+And while he betook himself to his dressing-room, to put on his state
+robes for the great court feast, the Duchess of Richmond returned to her
+own apartments, trembling and quivering with rage. She traversed these
+with precipitate haste, and entered her boudoir, where Earl Douglas was
+waiting for her.
+
+"Well," said he, stepping toward her with his soft, lurking smile, "has
+he consented?"
+
+"No," said she, gnashing her teeth. "He swore he would never enter into
+an alliance with the Seymours."
+
+"I well knew that," muttered the earl. "And what do you decide upon now,
+my lady?"
+
+"I will have revenge! He wants to hinder me from being happy; I will for
+that make him unhappy!"
+
+"You will do well in that, my lady; for he is an apostate and perjurer;
+an unfaithful son of the Church. He inclines to the heretical sect, and
+has forgotten the faith of his fathers."
+
+"I know it!" said she, breathlessly.
+
+Earl Douglas looked at her in astonishment, and continued: "But he is
+not merely an atheist, he is a traitor also; and more than once he has
+reviled his king, to whom he, in his pride of heart, believes himself
+far superior."
+
+"I know it!" repeated she.
+
+"So proud is he," continued the earl, "so full of blasphemous
+haughtiness, that he might lay his hands upon the crown of England."
+
+"I know it!" said the duchess again. But as she saw the earl's
+astonished and doubting looks, she added, with an inhuman smile: "I know
+everything that you want that I should know! Only impute crimes to him;
+only accuse him; I will substantiate everything, testify to everything
+that will bring him to ruin. My mother is our ally; she hates the father
+as hotly as I the son. Bring your accusation, then, Earl Douglas; we are
+your witnesses!"
+
+"Nay, indeed, my lady," said he, with a gentle, insinuating smile. "I
+know nothing at all; I have heard nothing; how, then, can I bring
+an accusation? You know all; to you he has spoken. You must be his
+accuser!"
+
+"Well, then, conduct me to the king!" said she.
+
+"Will you allow me to give you some more advice first?"
+
+"Do so, Earl Douglas."
+
+"Be very cautious in the choice of your means. Do not waste them all
+at once, so that if your first thrust does not hit, you may not be
+afterward without weapons. It is better, and far less dangerous, to
+surely kill the enemy that you hate with a slow, creeping poison,
+gradually and day by day, than to murder him at once with a dagger,
+which may, however, break on a rib and become ineffective. Tell, then,
+what you know, not at once, but little by little. Administer your drug
+which is to make the king furious, gradually; and if you do not hit
+your enemy to-day, think that you will do it so much the more surely
+to-morrow. Nor do you forget that we have to punish, not merely the
+heretic Henry Howard, but above all things the heretical queen, whose
+unbelief will call down the wrath of the Most High upon this land."
+
+"Come to the king," said she, hastily. "On the way you can tell me what
+I ought to make known and what conceal. I will do implicitly what you
+say. Now, Henry Howard," said she softly to herself, "hold yourself
+ready; the contest begins! In your pride and selfishness you have
+destroyed the happiness of my life--my eternal felicity. I loved Thomas
+Seymour; I hoped by his side to find the happiness that I have so long
+and so vainly sought in the crooked paths of life. By this love my soul
+would have been saved and restored to virtue. My brother has willed
+otherwise. He has, therefore, condemned me to be a demon, instead of
+an angel. I will fulfil my destiny. I will be an evil spirit to him."
+[Footnote: The Earl of Surrey, by his refusal to marry Margaret Seymour,
+gave occasion to the rupture of the proposed alliance between Thomas
+Seymour and the Duchess of Richmond, his sister. After that the duchess
+mortally hated him and combined with his enemies against him. The
+Duchess of Richmond is designated by all the historians of her time
+as "the most beautiful woman of her century, but also a shameless
+Messalina."--See Tytler, p. 890. Also Burnet, vol. i, p. 134; Leti, vol.
+i, p. 83; and Nott's Life of Henry Howard.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. THE QUEEN'S TOILET.
+
+
+The festivities of the day are concluded, and the gallant knights and
+champions, who have to-day broken a lance for the honor of their ladies,
+may rest from their victories upon their laurels. The tournament of arms
+was over, and the tournament of mind was about to begin. The knights,
+therefore, retired to exchange the coat-of-mail for gold-embroidered
+velvet apparel; the ladies to put on their lighter evening dresses;
+and the queen, likewise with this design, had withdrawn to her
+dressing-room, while the ladies and lords of her court were in
+attendance in the large anteroom to escort her to the throne.
+
+Without, it was beginning to grow dusky, and the twilight cast its
+long shadows across this hall, in which the cavaliers of the court were
+walking up and down with the ladies, and discussing the particularly
+important events of the day's tourney.
+
+The Earl of Sudley, Thomas Seymour, had borne off the prize of the day,
+and conquered his opponent, Henry Howard. The king had been in raptures
+on this account. For Thomas Seymour had been for some time his favorite;
+perhaps because he was the declared enemy of the Howards. He had,
+therefore, added to the golden laurel crown which the queen had
+presented to the earl as the award, a diamond pin, and commanded the
+queen to fasten it in the earl's ruff with her own hand. Catharine
+had done so with sullen countenance and averted looks; and even Thomas
+Seymour had shown himself only a very little delighted with the proud
+honor with which the queen, at her husband's command, was to grace him.
+
+The rigid popish party at court formed new hopes from this, and dreamed
+of the queen's conversion and return to the true, pure faith; while
+the Protestant, "the heretical" party, looked to the future with gloomy
+despondency, and were afraid of being robbed of their most powerful
+support and their most influential patronage.
+
+Nobody had seen that, as the queen arose to crown the victor, Thomas
+Seymour, her handkerchief, embroidered with gold, fell from her hands,
+and that the earl, after he had taken it up and presented it to the
+queen, had thrust his hand for a moment, with a motion wholly accidental
+and undesigned, into his ruff, which was just as white as the small
+neatly-folded paper which he concealed in it, and which he had found in
+the queen's handkerchief.
+
+One person had seen it. This little ruse of the queen had not escaped
+John Heywood, who had immediately, by some cutting witticism, set the
+king to laughing, and tried to draw the attention of the courtiers from
+the queen and her lover.
+
+He was now standing crowded into the embrasure of a window, and entirely
+concealed behind the silk curtain; and so, without being seen, he let
+his falcon eyes roam over the whole room.
+
+He saw everything; he heard everything; and, noticed by none, he
+observed all.
+
+He saw how Earl Douglas now made a sign to Bishop Gardiner, and how he
+quickly answered it.
+
+As if by accident, both now left the groups with whom they had just been
+chatting, and drew near each other, looking about for some place where,
+unobserved and separated from the rest, they might converse together. In
+all the windows were standing groups, chatting and laughing; only that
+window behind the curtain of which John Heywood was concealed, was
+unoccupied.
+
+So Earl Douglas and the bishop turned thither.
+
+"Shall we attain our end to-day?" asked Gardiner, in a low voice.
+
+"With God's gracious assistance, we shall annihilate all our enemies
+to-day. The sword already hangs over their heads, and soon it will fall
+and deliver us from them," said Earl Douglas, solemnly.
+
+"Are you, then, certain of it?" asked Gardiner, and an expression of
+cruel delight flitted across his malicious, ashy face. "But tell me, how
+comes it that Archbishop Cranmer is not here?"
+
+"He is sick, and so had to remain at Lambeth."
+
+"May this sickness be the forerunner of his death!" muttered the bishop,
+devoutly folding his hands.
+
+"It will be so, your highness; God will destroy His enemies and bless
+us. Cranmer is accused, and the king will judge him without mercy."
+
+"And the queen?"
+
+Earl Douglas was a moment silent, and then said, in a low whisper:
+"Wait but a few hours more, and she will be queen no longer. Instead of
+returning from the throne-room to her apartments, we shall accompany her
+to the Tower."
+
+John Heywood, completely enveloped in the folds of the curtain, held his
+breath and listened.
+
+"And you are, then, perfectly sure of our victory?" asked Gardiner. "Can
+no accident, no unforeseen circumstance, snatch it from us?"
+
+"If the queen gives him the rosette--no! For then the king will find
+Geraldine's love-letter in the silver knot, and she is condemned. So
+all depends on the queen's wearing the rosette, and not discovering
+its contents. But see, your highness, there is the Duchess of Richmond
+approaching us. She makes a sign to me. Now pray for us, your highness,
+for I am going with her to the king, and she will accuse this hated
+Catharine Parr! I tell you, bishop, it is an accusation involving
+life and death; and if Catharine escape one danger, she will run into
+another. Wait here for me, your highness; I will return soon and tell
+you the result of our scheme. Lady Jane, also, will soon bring us news
+here."
+
+He left the window and followed the duchess, who crossed the hall, and
+with her disappeared through the door that led to the king's apartments.
+
+The ladies and lords of the court laughed and chatted away.
+
+John Heywood stood, with throbbing heart and in breathless anxiety,
+behind the curtain, close by Gardiner, who had folded his hands and was
+praying.
+
+While Gardiner prayed, and Douglas accused and calumniated, the queen,
+suspecting nothing of these plots they were framing against her, was in
+her toilet-room and being adorned by her women.
+
+She was to-day very beautiful, very magnificent to look upon; at once
+a woman and queen; at the same time resplendent and modest, with a
+bewitching smile on her rosy lips; and yet commanding respect in her
+proud and glorious beauty. None of Henry's queens had so well understood
+the art of appearing in public, and none remained so much the woman
+while doing so.
+
+As she now stood before the large mirror, which the Republic of Venice
+had sent the king as a wedding-gift, and which reflected the figure of
+the queen sparkling with diamonds, she smiled, for she was obliged to
+confess to herself that she was very beautiful to-day; and she thought
+that to-day Thomas Seymour would look upon his love with pride.
+
+As she thought of him, a deep crimson overspread her face, and a thrill
+flew through her frame. How handsome he had been at the tournament that
+day; how splendidly he leaped over the barriers; how his eye flashed;
+how contemptuous had been his smile! And then, that look which he
+directed over to her at the moment when he had conquered his antagonist,
+Henry Howard, and hurled the lance from his hand! Oh, her heart was then
+ready to burst with delight and rapture!
+
+Wholly given up to her reverie, she sank in her gilded arm-chair and
+cast her eyes to the ground, dreaming and smiling.
+
+Behind her stood her women in respectful silence, waiting for a sign
+from their mistress. But the queen no longer thought at all of them; she
+imagined herself alone; she saw nobody but that handsome, manly face for
+which she had reserved a place in her heart.
+
+Now the door opened, and Lady Jane Douglas entered. She, too, was
+magnificently dressed, and sparkling with diamonds; she, too, was
+beautiful, but it was the pallid, dreadful beauty of a demon; and he who
+looked upon her just then, as she entered the room, would have trembled,
+and his heart would have been seized with an undefined fear.
+
+She threw a quick glance on her mistress lost in revery; and as she saw
+that her toilet was finished, she made a sign to the women, who silently
+obeyed and left the room.
+
+Still Catharine noticed nothing. Lady Jane stood behind her and observed
+her in the mirror. As she saw the queen smile, her brow darkened and
+fierce fire flashed in her eyes.
+
+"She shall smile no more," said she to herself. "I suffer thus terribly
+by her; well, now, she shall suffer too."
+
+Softly and noiselessly she slipped into the next room, the door of which
+stood ajar, and opened with hurried hand a carton filled with ribbons
+and bows. Then she drew from the velvet pocket, wrought with pearls,
+which hung at her side, suspended by a gold chain, a dark-red rosette,
+and threw it into the box. That was all.
+
+Lady Jane now returned to the adjoining room; and her countenance, which
+had been previously gloomy and threatening, was now proud and joyful.
+
+With a bright smile she walked up to the queen, and kneeling down at her
+side, she pressed a fervent kiss on the hand that was hanging down.
+
+"What is my queen musing over?" asked she, as she laid her head on
+Catharine's knee and tenderly looked up at her.
+
+The queen gave a slight start, and raised her head. She saw Lady Jane's
+tender smile, and her yet searching looks.
+
+Because she felt conscious of guilt, at least of guilty thoughts, she
+was on her guard, and remembered John Heywood's warning.
+
+"She is observing me," she said to herself; "she seems affectionate; so
+she is brooding over some wicked plot."
+
+"Ah, it is well you have come, Jane," said she aloud. "You can help me;
+for, to tell you the truth, I am in great perplexity. I am in want of a
+rhyme, and I am thinking in vain how I shall find it."
+
+"Ah, are you composing poetry, queen?"
+
+"Why, Jane, does that surprise you? Shall I, the queen, be able, then,
+to bear off no prize? I would give my precious jewels, if I could
+succeed in composing a poem to which the king was obliged to award the
+prize. But I am wanting in a musical ear; I cannot find the rhyme, and
+so shall be obliged at last to give up the idea of winning laurels also.
+How the king would enjoy it, though! For, to confess the truth to you, I
+believe he is a little afraid that Henry Howard will bear off the prize,
+and he would be very thankful to me if I could contest it with him. You
+well know the king has no love for the Howards."
+
+"And you, queen?" asked Jane; and she turned so pale, that the queen
+herself noticed it.
+
+"You are unwell, Jane," said she, sympathizingly. "Really, Jane, you
+seem to be suffering. You need recreation; you should rest a little."
+
+But Jane had already regained her calm and earnest air, and she
+succeeded in smiling.
+
+"No, indeed!" said she. "I am well, and satisfied to be permitted to be
+near you. But will you allow me, queen, to make a request of you?"
+
+"Ask, Jane, ask, and it is granted beforehand; for I know that Jane will
+request nothing that her friend cannot grant."
+
+Lady Jane was silent, and looked thoughtfully upon the ground. With firm
+resolution she struggled with herself. Her proud heart reared fiercely
+up at the thought of bowing before this woman, whom she hated, and
+of being obliged to approach her with a fawning prayer. She felt such
+raging hate against the queen, that in that hour she would willingly
+have given her own life, if she could have first seen her enemy at her
+feet, wailing and crushed.
+
+Henry Howard loved the queen; so Catharine had robbed her of the heart
+of him whom she adored. Catharine had condemned her to the eternal
+torment of renouncing him--to the rack of enjoying a happiness and a
+rapture that was not hers--to warm herself at a fire which she like a
+thief had stolen from the altar of another's god.
+
+Catharine was condemned and doomed. Jane had no more compassion. She
+must crush her.
+
+"Well," asked the queen, "you are silent? You do not tell me what I am
+to grant you?"
+
+Lady Jane raised her eyes, and her look was serene and peaceful.
+"Queen," said she, "I encountered in the ante-room one who is unhappy,
+deeply bowed down. In your hand alone is the power to raise him up
+again. Will you do it?"
+
+"Will I do it!" exclaimed Catharine, quickly. "Oh, Jane, you well know
+how much my heart longs to help and be serviceable to the unfortunate!
+Ah, so many wounds are inflicted at this court, and the queen is so poor
+in balm to heal them! Allow me this pleasure then, Jane, and I shall be
+thankful to you, not you to me! Speak then, Jane, speak quickly; who is
+it that needs my help?"
+
+"Not your help, queen, but your compassion and your grace. Earl Sudley
+has conquered poor Earl Surrey in the tournament to-day, and you
+comprehend that your lord chamberlain feels himself deeply bowed and
+humbled."
+
+"Can I alter that, Jane? Why did the visionary earl, the enthusiastic
+poet, allow himself a contest with a hero who already knows what he
+wants, and ever accomplishes what he wills? Oh, it was wonderful to look
+upon, with what lightning speed Thomas Seymour lifted him out of
+the saddle! And the proud Earl Surrey, the wise and learned man, the
+powerful party leader, was forced to bow before the hero, who like an
+angel Michael had thrown him in the dust."
+
+The queen laughed.
+
+That laugh went through Jane's heart like a cutting sword.
+
+"She shall pay me for that!" said she softly to herself. "Queen," said
+she aloud, "you are perfectly right; he has deserved this humiliation;
+but now, after he is punished, you should lift him up. Nay, do not
+shake your beautiful head. Do it for your own sake, queen; do it from
+prudence. Earl Surrey, with his father, is the head of a powerful party,
+whom this humiliation of the Howards fills with a still more burning
+hate against the Seymours, and who will, in time to come, take a bloody
+revenge for it."
+
+"Ah, you frighten me!" said the queen, who had now become serious.
+
+Lady Jane continued: "I saw how the Duke of Norfolk bit his lips, as his
+son had to yield to Seymour; I heard how one, here and there, muttered
+low curses and vows of vengeance against the Seymours."
+
+"Who did that? Who dared to do it?" exclaimed Catharine, springing up
+impetuously from her arm-chair. "Who at this court is so audacious as to
+wish to injure those whom the queen loves? Name him to me, Jane; I will
+know his name! I will know it, that I may accuse him to the king. For
+the king does not want that these noble Seymours should give way to
+the Howards; he does not want that the nobler, the better, and more
+glorious, should bow before these quarrelsome, domineering papists. The
+king loves the noble Seymours, and his powerful arm will protect them
+against all their enemies."
+
+"And, without doubt, your majesty will assist him in it?" said Jane,
+smiling.
+
+This smile brought the queen back to her senses again.
+
+She perceived that she had gone too far; that she had betrayed too much
+of her secret. She must, therefore, repair the damage, and allow her
+excitement to be forgotten. Therefore she said, calmly: "Certainly,
+Jane; I will assist the king to be just. But never will I be unjust, not
+even against these papists. If I cannot love them, nevertheless no one
+shall say that I hate them. And besides, it becomes a queen to rise
+above parties. Say, then, Jane, what can I do for poor Surrey? With what
+shall we bind up these wounds that the brave Seymour has inflicted on
+him?"
+
+"You have publicly given the victor in the tournament a token of your
+great favor--you have crowned him."
+
+"It was the king's order," exclaimed Catharine, warmly.
+
+"Well! He will not, however, command you to reward the Earl of Surrey
+also, if he likewise should gain the victory this evening. Do it,
+therefore, of your own accord, queen. Give him openly, before your whole
+court, a token of your favor! It is so easy for princes to make men
+happy, to comfort the unfortunate! A smile, a friendly word, a pressure
+of the hand is sufficient for it. A ribbon that you wear on your dress
+makes him to whom you present it, proud and happy, and raises him high
+above all others. Ponder it well, queen; I speak not for Earl Surrey's
+sake; I am thinking more of yourself. If you have the courage, publicly
+and in spite of the disgrace with which King Henry threatens the
+Howards, to be nevertheless just to them, and to recognize _their_
+merits as well as that of others--believe me, if you do that, the whole
+of this powerful party, which is now hostile to you, will fall at your
+feet overcome and conquered. You will at last become the all-powerful
+and universally loved Queen of England; and, like the heretics, the
+papists also will call you their mistress and protectress. Consider no
+longer! Let your noble and generous heart prevail! Spiteful fortune has
+prostrated Henry Howard in the dust. Extend him your hand, queen,
+that he may rise again, and again stand there at your court, proud and
+radiant as he always was. Henry Howard well deserves that you should be
+gracious to him. Great and beaming like a star, he shines on high above
+all men; and there is no one who can say that he himself is more prudent
+or braver, wiser or more learned, noble or greater, than the noble, the
+exalted Surrey. All England resounds with his fame. The women repeat
+with enthusiasm his beautiful sonnets and love-songs; the learned are
+proud to call him their equal, and the warriors speak with admiration of
+his feats of arms. Be just, then, queen! You have so highly honored the
+merit of valor; now, honor the merit of mind also! You have, in Seymour,
+honored the warrior; now, in Howard, honor the poet and the man!"
+
+"I will do it," said Catharine, as with a charming smile she looked into
+Jane's glowing and enthusiastic countenance. "I will do it, Jane, but
+upon one condition!"
+
+"And this condition is--"
+
+Catharine put her arm around Jane's neck, and drew her close to her
+heart, "That you confess to me, that you love Henry Howard, whom you
+know how to defend so enthusiastically and warmly."
+
+Lady Jane gave a start, and for a moment leaned her head on the queen's
+shoulder, exhausted.
+
+"Well," asked she, "do you confess it? Will you acknowledge that your
+proud, cold heart is obliged to declare itself overcome and conquered?"
+
+"Yes, I confess it," cried Lady Jane, as with passionate vehemence she
+threw herself at Catharine's feet. "Yes, I love him--I adore him. I know
+it is a disdained and unhappy love; but what would you have? My heart is
+mightier than everything else. I love him; he is my god and my lord; I
+adore him as my savior and lord. Queen, you know all my secret; betray
+me if you will! Tell it to my father, if you wish him to curse me. Tell
+it to Henry Howard, if it pleases you to hear how he scoffs at me. For
+he, queen--he loves me not!"
+
+"Poor unfortunate Jane!" exclaimed the queen, compassionately.
+
+Jane uttered a low cry, and rose from her knees. That was too much.
+Her enemy commiserated her. She, who was to blame for her sorrow--she
+bemoaned her fate.
+
+Ah, she could have strangled the queen; she could have plunged a dagger
+into her heart, because she dared to commiserate her.
+
+"I have complied with your condition, queen," said she, breathing
+hurriedly. "Will you now comply with my request?"
+
+"And will you really be an advocate for this unthankful, cruel man,
+who does not love you? Proudly and coldly he passes your beauty by, and
+you--you intercede for him!"
+
+"Queen, true love thinks not of itself! It sacrifices itself. It makes
+no question of the reward it receives, but only of the happiness which
+it bestows. I saw in his pale, sorrowful face, how much he suffered;
+ought I not to think of comforting him? I approached him, I addressed
+him; I heard his despairing lamentation over that misfortune, which,
+however, was not the fault of his activity and courage, but, as all the
+world saw, the fault of his horse, which was shy and stumbled. And as
+he, in all the bitterness of his pain, was lamenting that you, queen,
+would despise and scorn him, I, with full trust in your noble and
+magnanimous heart, promised him that you would, at my request, yet give
+him to-day, before your whole court, a token of your favor. Catharine,
+did I do wrong?"
+
+"No, Jane, no! You did right; and your words shall be made good. But how
+shall I begin? What shall I do?"
+
+"The earl this evening, after the king has read the Greek scene with
+Croke, will recite some new sonnets which he has composed. When he
+has done so, give him some kind of a present--be it what it may, no
+matter--as a token of your favor."
+
+"But how, Jane, if his sonnets deserve no praise and no acknowledgment?"
+
+"You may be sure that they do deserve it. For Henry Howard is a noble
+and true poet, and his verses are full of heavenly melody and exalted
+thoughts."
+
+The queen smiled. "Yes," said she, "you love him ardently; for you have
+no doubt as to him. We will, therefore, recognize him as a great poet.
+But with what shall I reward him?"
+
+"Give him a rose that you wear in your bosom--a rosette that is fastened
+to your dress and shows your colors."
+
+"But alas, Jane, to-day I wear neither a rose nor a rosette."
+
+"Yet you can wear one, queen. A rosette is, indeed, wanting here on your
+shoulder. Your purple mantle is too negligently fastened. We must put
+some trimming here."
+
+She went hastily into the next room and returned with the box in which
+were kept the queen's ribbons embroidered with gold, and bows adorned
+with jewels.
+
+Lady Jane searched and selected, here and there, a long time. Then she
+took the crimson velvet rosette, which she herself had previously thrown
+into the box, and showed it to the queen.
+
+"See, it is at the same time tasteful and rich, for a diamond clasp
+confines it in the middle. Will you allow me to fasten this rosette on
+your shoulder, and will you give it to the Earl of Surrey?"
+
+"Yes, Jane, I will give it to him, because you wish it. But, poor Jane,
+what do, you gain by my doing it?"
+
+"At any rate, a friendly smile, queen."
+
+"And is that enough for you? Do you love him so much, then?"
+
+"Yes, I love him!" said Jane Douglas, with a sigh of pain, as she
+fastened the rosette on the queen's shoulder.
+
+"And now, Jane, go and announce to the master of ceremonies that I am
+ready, as soon as the king wishes it, to resort to the gallery." Lady
+Jane turned to leave the chamber. But, already upon the threshold, she
+returned once more.
+
+"Forgive me, queen, for venturing to make one more request of you. You
+have, however, just shown yourself too much the noble and true friend of
+earlier days for me not to venture one more request."
+
+"Now, what is it, poor Jane?"
+
+"I have intrusted my secret not to the queen, but to Catharine Parr, the
+friend of my youth. Will she keep it, and betray to none my disgrace and
+humiliation?"
+
+"My word for that, Jane. Nobody but God and ourselves shall ever know
+what we have spoken."
+
+Lady Jane humbly kissed her hand and murmured a few words of thanks;
+then she left the queen's room to go in quest of the master of
+ceremonies.
+
+In the queen's anteroom she stopped a moment, and leaned against the
+wall, exhausted, and as it were crushed. Nobody was here who could
+observe and listen to her. She had no need to smile, no need to conceal,
+beneath a calm and equable appearance, all those tempestuous and
+despairing feelings which were working within. She could allow her
+hatred and her resentment, her rage and her despair, to pour forth in
+words and gestures, in tears and imprecations, in sobs and sighs. She
+could fall on her knees and beseech God for grace and mercy, and call on
+the devil for revenge and destruction.
+
+When she had so done, she arose, and her demeanor resumed its wonted
+cold and calm expression. Only her cheeks were still paler; only a still
+gloomier fire darted from her eyes, and a scornful smile played about
+her thin, compressed lips.
+
+She traversed the rooms and corridors, and now she entered the king's
+anteroom. As she observed Gardiner, who was standing alone and separated
+from the rest in the embrasure of the window, she went up to him; and
+John Heywood, who was still hidden behind the curtain, shuddered at the
+frightful and scornful expression of her features.
+
+She offered the bishop her hand, and tried to smile. "It is done" said
+she, almost inaudibly.
+
+"What! The queen wears the rosette?" asked Gardiner vivaciously.
+
+"She wears the rosette, and will give it to him."
+
+"And the note is in it?"
+
+"It is concealed under the diamond clasp."
+
+"Oh, then she is lost!" muttered Gardiner. "If the king finds this
+paper, Catharine's death-warrant is signed."
+
+"Hush!" said Lady Jane. "See! Lord Hertford is coming toward us. Let us
+go to meet him."
+
+They both left the window and walked out into the hall.
+
+John Heywood immediately slipped from behind the curtain, and, softly
+gliding along by the wall, left the hall perceived by no one.
+
+Outside, he stopped and reflected.
+
+"I must see this conspiracy to the bottom," said he to himself. "I must
+find out through whom and by what they wish to destroy her; and I must
+have sure and undeniable proof in my hands, in order to be able to
+convict them, and successfully accuse them to the king. Therefore it is
+necessary to be cautious and prudent. So let us consider what to do. The
+simplest thing would be to beg the queen not to wear the rosette. But
+that is only to demolish the web for this time, without, however, being
+able to kill the spider that wove it. So she must wear the rosette; for
+besides, without that I should never be able either to find out to whom
+she is to give it. But the paper that is concealed in the rosette--that
+I must have--that must not be in it. 'If the king finds this paper.
+Catharine's death-warrant is signed.' Now, my reverend priest of the
+devil, the king will not find that paper, for John Heywood will not have
+it so. But how shall I begin? Shall I tell the queen what I heard?
+No! She would lose her cheerful spirit and become embarrassed, and the
+embarrassment would be in the king's eyes the most convincing proof of
+her guilt. No, I must take this paper out of the rosette without the
+queen's being aware of it. Boldly to work, then! I must have this paper,
+and tweak these hypocrites by the nose. How it can be done, it is not
+clear to me yet; but I will do it--that is enough. Halloo, forward to
+the queen!"
+
+With precipitant haste he ran through the halls and corridors, while
+with a smile he muttered away to himself: "Thank God, I enjoy the honor
+of being the fool; for only the king and the fool have the privilege of
+being able to enter unannounced every room, even the queen's."
+
+Catharine was alone in her boudoir, when the small door, through which
+the king was accustomed to resort to her, was softly opened.
+
+"Oh, the king is coming!" said she, walking to the door to greet her
+husband.
+
+"Yes, the king is coming, for the fool is already here," said John
+Heywood, who entered through the private door. "Are we alone, queen?
+Does nobody overhear us?"
+
+"No, John Heywood, we are all alone. What do you bring me?"
+
+"A letter, queen."
+
+"From whom?" asked she, and a glowing crimson flitted over her cheek.
+
+"From whom?" repeated John Heywood, with a waggish smile. "I do not
+know, queen; but at any rate it is a begging letter; and without doubt
+you would do well not to read it at all; for I bet you, the shameless
+writer of this letter demands of you some impossibility--it may be a
+smile, or a pressure of the hand, a lock of your hair, or perchance even
+a kiss. So, queen, do not read the begging letter at all."
+
+"John," said she, smiling, and yet trembling with impatience, "John,
+give me the letter."
+
+"I will sell it to you, queen. I have learned that from the king, who
+likewise gives nothing away generously, without taking in return more
+than he gives. So let us trade. I give you the letter; you give me the
+rosette which you wear on your shoulder there."
+
+"Nay, indeed, John; choose something else--I cannot give you the
+rosette."
+
+"And by the gods be it sworn!" exclaimed John, with comic pathos, "I
+give you not the letter, if you do not give me the rosette."
+
+"Silly loon," said the queen, "I tell you I cannot! Choose something
+else, John; and I conjure you, dear John, give me the letter."
+
+"Then only, when you give me the rosette. I have sworn it by the gods,
+and what I vow to them, that I stick to! No, no, queen--not those sullen
+airs, not that angry frown. For if I cannot in earnest receive the
+rosette as a present, then let us do like the Jesuits and papists, who
+even trade with the dear God, and snap their fingers at Him. I must
+keep my oath! I give you the letter, and you give me the rosette; but
+listen--you only lend it to me; and when I have it in my hand a moment,
+I am generous and bountiful, like the king, and I make you a present of
+your own property."
+
+With a quick motion the queen tore the rosette from her shoulder, and
+handed it to John Heywood.
+
+"Now give me the letter, John."
+
+"Here it is," said John Heywood as he received the rosette. "Take it;
+and you will see that Thomas Seymour is my brother."
+
+"Your brother?" asked Catharine with a smile, as with trembling hand she
+broke the seal.
+
+"Yes, my brother, for he is a fool! Ah, I have a great many brothers.
+The family of fools is so very large!"
+
+The queen no longer heard. She was reading the letter of her lover. She
+had eyes only for those lines, that told her that Thomas Seymour loved
+her, adored her, and was pining away with longing after her. She did
+not see how John Heywood, with nimble hand, unfastened the diamond clasp
+from the rosette, and took out of it the little paper that was concealed
+in the folds of the ribbon.
+
+"She is saved!" murmured he, while he thrust the fatal paper into his
+doublet, and fastened the clasp again with the pin. "She is saved, and
+the king will not sign her death-warrant this time."
+
+Catharine had read the letter to the end, and hid it in her bosom.
+
+"Queen, you have sworn to burn up every letter that I bring you from
+him; for, forbidden love-letters are dangerous things. One day they may
+find a tongue and testify against you! Queen, I will not bring you again
+another letter, if you do not first burn that one."
+
+"John, I will burn it up when once I have really read it. Just now I
+read it only with my heart, not with my eyes. Allow me, then, to wear it
+on my heart a few hours more."
+
+"Do you swear to me that you will burn it up this very day?"
+
+"I swear it."
+
+"Then I will be satisfied this time. Here is your rosette; and like
+the famous fox in the fable, that pronounced the grapes sour because he
+could not get them, I say, take your rosette back; I will have none of
+it."
+
+He handed the queen the rosette, and she smilingly fastened it on her
+shoulder again.
+
+"John," said she, with a bewitching smile, extending her hand to him,
+"John, when will you at length permit me to thank you otherwise than
+with words? When will you at length allow your queen to reward you for
+all this service of love, otherwise than with words?"
+
+John Heywood kissed her hand, and said mournfully: "I will demand
+a reward of you on the day when my tears and my prayers succeed in
+persuading you to renounce this wretched and dangerous love. On that
+day I shall have really deserved a reward, and I will accept it from you
+with a proud heart."
+
+"Poor John! So, then, you will never receive your reward; for that day
+will never come!"
+
+"So, then, I shall probably receive my reward, but from the king; and it
+will be a reward whereby one loses hearing and sight, and head to boot.
+Well, we shall see! Till then, farewell, queen! I must to the king; for
+somebody might surprise me here, and come to the shrewd conclusion that
+John Heywood is not always a fool, but sometimes also the messenger of
+love! I kiss the hem of your garment; farewell, queen!"
+
+He glided again through the private door.
+
+"Now we will at once examine this paper," said he, as he reached the
+corridor and was sure of being seen by no one.
+
+He drew the paper out of his doublet and opened it. "I do not know the
+hand-writing," muttered her, "but it was a woman that wrote it."
+
+The letter read: "Do you believe me now, my beloved? I swore to deliver
+to you to-day, in the presence of the king and all of my court, this
+rosette; and I have done so. For you I gladly risk my life, for you are
+my life; and still more beautiful were it to die with you, than to
+live without you. I live only when I rest in your arms; and those dark
+nights, when you can be with me, are the light and sunshine of my days.
+Let us pray Heaven a dark night may soon come; for such a night restores
+to me the loved one, and to you, your happy wife, Geraldine."
+
+"Geraldine! who is Geraldine?" muttered John Heywood, slipping the
+paper into his doublet again. "I must disentangle this web of lying
+and deceit. I must know what all this means. For this is more than a
+conspiracy--a false accusation. It concerns, as it seems, a
+reality. This letter the queen is to give to a man; and in it, sweet
+recollections, happy nights, are spoken of. So he who receives this
+letter is in league with them against Catharine, and I dare say her
+worst enemy, for he makes use of love against her. Some treachery or
+knavery is concealed behind this. Either the man to whom this letter is
+addressed is deceived--and he is unintentionally a tool in the hands of
+the papists--or he is in league with them, and has given himself up to
+the villainy of playing the part of a lover to the queen. But who can he
+be? Perchance, Thomas Seymour. It were possible; for he has a cold and
+deceitful heart, and he would be capable of such treachery. But woe be
+to him if it is he! Then it will be I who accuses him to the king; and,
+by God! his head shall fall! Now away to the king!"
+
+Just as he entered the king's anteroom, the door of the cabinet opened,
+and the Duchess of Richmond, accompanied by Earl Douglas, walked out.
+
+Lady Jane and Gardiner were standing, as if by accident, near the door.
+
+"Well, have we attained our end there also?" asked Gardiner.
+
+"We have attained it," said Earl Douglas. "The duchess has accused her
+brother of a liaison with the queen. She has deposed that he sometimes
+leaves the palace by night, and does not return to it before morning.
+She has declared that for four nights she herself dogged her brother and
+saw him as he entered the wing of the castle occupied by the queen; and
+one of the queen's maids has communicated to the duchess that the queen
+was not in her room on that night."
+
+"And the king listened to the accusation, and did not throttle you in
+his wrath!"
+
+"He is just in that dull state of rage in which the lava that the crater
+will afterward pour forth, is just prepared. As yet all is quiet, but be
+sure there will be an eruption, and the stream of red-hot lava will busy
+those who have dared excite the god Vulcan."
+
+"And does he know about the rosette?" asked Lady Jane.
+
+"He knows everything. And until that moment he will allow no one to
+suspect his wrath and fury. He says he will make the queen perfectly
+secure, in order to get into his hands thereby sure proof of her guilt.
+Well, we will furnish him this evidence; and hence it follows that the
+queen is inevitably lost."
+
+"But hark! The doors are opened, and the master of ceremonies comes to
+summon us to the golden gallery."
+
+"Just walk in," muttered John Heywood, gliding along behind them. "I am
+still here; and I will be the mouse that gnaws the net in which you want
+to catch my noble-minded lioness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE QUEEN'S ROSETTE.
+
+
+The golden gallery, in which the tourney of the poets was to take place,
+presented to-day a truly enchanting and fairy-like aspect. Mirrors
+of gigantic size, set in broad gilt frames, ornamented with the moat
+perfect carved work, covered the walls, and threw back, a thousand
+times reflected, the enormous chandeliers which, with their hundreds and
+hundreds of candles, shed the light of day in the vast hall. Here and
+there were seen, arranged in front of the mirrors, clusters of the
+rarest and choicest flowers, which poured through the hall their
+fragrance, stupefying and yet so enchanting, and outshone in brilliancy
+of colors even the Turkish carpet, which stretched through the whole
+room and changed the floor into one immense flower-bed. Between the
+clumps of flowers were seen tables with golden vases, in which were
+refreshing beverages; while at the other end of the enormous gallery
+stood a gigantic sideboard, which contained the choicest and rarest
+dishes. At present the doors of the sideboard, which, when open, formed
+a room of itself, were closed.
+
+They had not yet come to the material enjoyments; they were still
+occupied in absorbing the spiritual. The brilliant and select company
+that filled the hall was still for some time condemned to be silent, and
+to shut up within them their laughter and gossip, their backbiting and
+slander, their flattery and hypocrisy.
+
+Just now a pause ensued. The king, with Croke, had recited to his court
+a scene from "Antigone"; and they were just taking breath from the
+wonderful and exalted enjoyment of having just heard a language of which
+they understood not a word, but which they found to be very beautiful,
+since the king admired it.
+
+Henry the Eighth had again leaned back on his golden throne, and,
+panting, rested from his prodigious exertion; and while he rested and
+dreamed, an invisible band played a piece of music composed by the king
+himself, and which, with its serious and solemn movement, strangely
+contrasted with this room so brilliant and cheerful--with this splendid,
+laughing and jesting assembly.
+
+For the king had bidden them amuse themselves and be gay; to give
+themselves up to unrestrained chit-chat. It was, therefore, natural for
+them to laugh, and to appear not to notice the king's exhaustion and
+repose.
+
+Besides, they had not for a long time seen Henry so cheerful, so full of
+youthful life, so sparkling with wit and humor, as on this evening. His
+mouth was overflowing with jests that made the gentlemen laugh, and the
+beautiful, brilliant women blush, and, above all, the young queen,
+who sat by him on the rich and splendid throne, and now and then threw
+stolen and longing glances at her lover, for whom she would willingly
+and gladly have given her royal crown and her throne.
+
+When the king saw how Catharine blushed, he turned to her, and in his
+tenderest tone begged her pardon for his jest, which, however, in its
+sauciness, served only to make his queen still more beautiful, still
+more bewitching. His words were then so tender and heartfelt, his looks
+so full of love and admiration, that nobody could doubt but that the
+queen was in highest favor with her husband, and that he loved her most
+tenderly.
+
+Only the few who knew the secret of this tenderness of the king, so
+open and so unreservedly displayed, comprehended fully the danger which
+threatened the queen; for the king was never more to be dreaded than
+when he flattered; and on no one did his wrath fall more crushingly than
+on him whom he had just kissed and assured of his favor.
+
+This was what Earl Douglas said to himself, when he saw with what a
+cordial look Henry the Eighth chatted with his consort.
+
+Behind the throne of the royal pair was seen John Heywood, in his
+fantastic and dressy costume, with his face at once noble and cunning;
+and the king just then broke out into loud, resounding laughter at his
+sarcastic and satirical observations.
+
+"King, your laugh does not please me to-day," said John Heywood,
+earnestly. "It smacks of gall. Do you not find it so, queen?"
+
+The queen was startled from her sweet reveries, and that was what John
+Heywood had wished. He, therefore, repeated his question.
+
+"No, indeed," said she: "I find the king to-day quite like the sun. He
+is radiant and bright, like it."
+
+"Queen, you do not mean the sun, but the full moon," said John Heywood.
+"But only see, Henry, how cheerfully Earl Archibald Douglas over there
+is chatting with the Duchess of Richmond! I love that good earl.
+He always appears like a blind-worm, which is just in the notion of
+stinging some one on the heel, and hence it comes that, when near
+the earl, I always transform myself into a crane. I stand on one leg;
+because I am then sure to have the other at least safe from the earl's
+sting. King, were I like you, I would not have those killed that the
+blind-worm has stung; but I would root out the blind-worms, that the
+feet of honorable men might be secure from them."
+
+The king cast at him a quick, searching look, which John Heywood
+answered with a smile.
+
+"Kill the blind-worms, King Henry," said he; "and when you are once at
+work destroying vermin, it will do no harm if you once more give these
+priests also a good kick. It is now a long time since we burnt any of
+them, and they are again becoming arrogant and malicious, as they
+always were and always will be. I see even the pious and meek bishop of
+Winchester, the noble Gardiner, who is entertaining himself with Lady
+Jane over there, smiling very cheerfully, and that is a bad sign; for
+Gardiner smiles only when he has again caught a poor soul, and prepared
+it as a breakfast for his lord. I do not mean you, king, but his
+lord--the devil. For the devil is always hungry for noble human souls;
+and to him who catches one for him he gives indulgence for his sins for
+an hour. Therefore Gardiner catches so many souls; for since he sins
+every hour, every hour he needs indulgence."
+
+"You are very spiteful to-day, John Heywood," said the queen, smiling,
+while the king fixed his eyes on the ground, thoughtful and musing.
+
+John Heywood's words had touched the sore place of his heart, and, in
+spite of himself, filled his suspicious soul with new doubts.
+
+He mistrusted not merely the accused, but the accusers also; and if
+he punished the one as criminals, he would have willingly punished the
+others as informants.
+
+He asked himself: "What aim had Earl Douglas and Gardiner in accusing
+the queen; and why had they startled him out of his quiet and
+confidence?" At that moment, when he looked on his beautiful wife, who
+sat by him in such serene tranquillity, unembarrassed and smiling, he
+felt a deep anger fill his heart, not against Catharine, but against
+Jane, who accused her. She was so lovely and beautiful! Why did they
+envy him her? Why did they not leave him in his sweet delusion? But
+perhaps she was not guilty. No, she was not. The eye of a culprit is
+not thus bright and clear. The air of infidelity is not thus
+unembarrassed--of such maidenly delicacy.
+
+Moreover, the king was exhausted and disgusted. One can become satiated
+even with cruelty; and, at this hour, Henry felt completely surfeited
+with bloodshed.
+
+His heart--for, in such moments of mental relaxation and bodily
+enfeeblement, the king even had a heart--his heart was already in the
+mood of pronouncing the word pardon, when his eye fell on Henry Howard,
+who, with his father, the Duke of Norfolk, and surrounded by a circle of
+brilliant and noble lords, was standing not far from the royal throne.
+
+The king felt a deadly stab in his breast, and his eyes darted lightning
+over toward that group.
+
+How proud and imposing the figure of the noble earl looked; how high
+he overtopped all others; how noble and handsome his countenance; how
+kingly was his bearing and whole appearance!
+
+Henry must admit all this; and because he must do so, he hated him.
+
+Nay! no mercy for Catharine! If what her accusers had told him were
+true--if they could give him the proofs of the queen's guilt, then she
+was doomed. And how could he doubt it? Had they not told him that in
+the rosette, which the queen would give Earl Surrey, was contained a
+love-letter from Catharine, which he would find? Had not Earl Surrey, in
+a confidential hour, yesterday imparted this to his sister, the Duchess
+of Richmond, when he wished to bribe her to be the messenger of love
+between the queen and himself? Had she not accused the queen of having
+meetings by night with the earl in the deserted tower?
+
+Nay, no compassion for his fair queen, if Henry Howard was her lover.
+
+He must again look over at his hated enemy. There he still stood by his
+father, the Duke of Norfolk. How sprightly and gracefully the old duke
+moved; how slim his form; and how lofty and imposing his bearing!
+The king was younger than the duke; and yet he was fettered to his
+truckle-chair; yet he sat on his throne like an immovable colossus,
+while he moved freely and lightly, and obeyed his own will, not
+necessity. Henry could have crushed him--this proud, arrogant earl, who
+was a free man, whilst his king was nothing but a prisoner to his own
+flesh, a slave of his unwieldy body.
+
+"I will exterminate it--this proud, arrogant race of Howards!" muttered
+the king, as he turned with a friendly smile to the Earl of Surrey.
+
+"You have promised us some of your poems, cousin!" said he. "So let us
+now enjoy them; for you see, indeed, how impatiently all the beautiful
+women look on England's noblest and greatest poet, and how very angry
+with me they would be if I still longer withhold this enjoyment from
+them! Even my fair queen is full of longing after your songs, so rich
+in fancy; for you well know, Howard, she loves poetry, and, above all
+things, yours."
+
+Catharine had scarcely heard what the king said. Her looks had
+encountered Seymour's, and their eyes were fixed on each other's. But
+she had then cast down to the floor her eyes, still completely filled
+with the sight of her lover, in order to think of him, since she no
+longer dared gaze at him.
+
+When the king called her name, she started up and looked at him
+inquiringly. She had not heard what he had said to her.
+
+"Not even for a moment does she look toward me!" said Henry Howard
+to himself. "Oh, she loves me not! or at least her understanding is
+mightier than her love. Oh, Catharine, Catharine, fearest thou death so
+much that thou canst on that account deny thy love?"
+
+With desperate haste he drew out his portfolio. "I will compel her to
+look at me, to think of me, to remember her oath," thought he. "Woe to
+her, if she does not fulfil it--if she gives me not the rosette, which
+she promised me with so solemn a vow! If she does it not, then I will
+break this dreadful silence, and before her king, and before her court,
+accuse her of treachery to her love. Then, at least, she will not be
+able to cast me off; for we shall mount the scaffold together."
+
+"Does my exalted queen allow me to begin?" asked he aloud, wholly
+forgetting that the king had already given him the order to do so, and
+that it was he only who could grant such a permission.
+
+Catharine looked at him in astonishment. Then her glance fell on Lady
+Jane Douglas, who was gazing over at her with an imploring expression.
+The queen smiled; for she now remembered that it was Jane's beloved
+who had spoken to her, and that she had promised the poor young girl to
+raise again the dejected Earl of Surrey and to be gracious to him.
+
+"Jane is right," thought she; "he appears to be deeply depressed and
+suffering. Ah, it must be very painful to see those whom one loves
+suffering. I will, therefore, comply with Jane's request, for she says
+this might revive the earl."
+
+With a smile she bowed to Howard. "I beg you," said she, "to lend our
+festival its fairest ornament--to adorn it with the fragrant flowers of
+your poesy. You see we are all burning with desire to hear your verses."
+
+The king shook with rage, and a crushing word was already poised upon
+his lip. But he restrained himself. He wanted to have proofs first; he
+wanted to see them not merely accused, but doomed also; and for that he
+needed proofs of their guilt.
+
+Henry Howard now approached the throne of the royal pair, and with
+beaming looks, with animated countenance, with a voice trembling with
+emotion, he read his love-song to the fair Geraldine. A murmur of
+applause arose when he had read his first sonnet. The king only looked
+gloomily, with fixed eyes; the queen alone remained uninterested and
+cold.
+
+"She is a complete actress," thought Henry Howard, in the madness of his
+pain. "Not a muscle of her face stirs; and yet this sonnet must remind
+her of the fairest and most sacred moment of our love."
+
+The queen remained unmoved and cold. But had Henry Howard looked at Lady
+Jane Douglas, he would have seen how she turned pale and blushed; how
+she smiled with rapture, and how, nevertheless, her eyes filled with
+tears.
+
+Earl Surrey, however, saw nothing but the queen; and the sight of her
+made him tremble with rage and pain. His eyes darted lightning: his
+countenance glowed with passion; his whole being was in desperate,
+enthusiastic excitement. At that moment he would have gladly breathed
+out his life at Geraldine's feet, if she would only recognize him--if
+she would only have the courage to call him her beloved.
+
+But her smiling calmness, her friendly coolness, brought him to despair.
+
+He crumpled the paper in his hand; the letters danced before his eyes;
+he could read no more.
+
+But he would not remain, mute, either. Like the dying swan, he would
+breathe out his pain in a last song, and give sound and words to his
+despair and his agony. He could no longer read; but he improvised.
+
+Like a glowing stream of lava, the words flowed from his lips; in fiery
+dithyrambic, in impassioned hymns, he poured forth his love and pain.
+The genius of poesy hovered over him and lighted up his noble and
+thoughtful brow.
+
+He was radiantly beautiful in his enthusiasm; and even the queen felt
+herself carried away by his words. His plaints of love, his longing
+pains, his rapture and his sad fancies, found an echo in her heart. She
+understood him; for she felt the same joy, the same sorrow and the same
+rapture; only she did not feel all this for him.
+
+But, as we have said, he enchanted her; the current of his passion
+carried her away. She wept at his laments; she smiled at his hymns of
+joy.
+
+When Henry Howard at length ceased, profound silence reigned in the vast
+and brilliant hall.
+
+All faces betrayed deep emotion; and this universal silence was the
+poet's fairest triumph; for it showed that envy and jealousy were dumb,
+and that scorn itself could find no words.
+
+A momentary pause ensued; it resembled that sultry, ominous stillness
+which is wont to precede the bursting of a tempest; when Nature stops a
+moment in breathless stillness, to gather strength for the uproar of the
+storm.
+
+It was a significant, an awful pause; but only a few understood its
+meaning.
+
+Lady Jane leaned against the wall, completely shattered and breathless.
+She felt that the sword was hanging over their heads, and that it would
+destroy her if it struck her beloved.
+
+Earl Douglas and the Bishop of Winchester had involuntarily drawn
+near each other, and stood there hand in hand, united for this unholy
+struggle; while John Heywood had crept behind the king's throne, and in
+his sarcastic manner whispered in his ear some epigrams, that made the
+king smile in spite of himself.
+
+But now the queen arose from her seat, and beckoned Henry Howard nearer
+to her.
+
+"My lord," said she, almost with solemnity, "as a queen and as a woman
+I thank you for the noble and sublime lyrics which you have composed in
+honor of a woman! And for that the grace of my king has exalted me to be
+the first woman in England, it becomes me, in the name of all women, to
+return to you my thanks. To the poet is due a reward other than that of
+the warrior. To the victor on the battlefield is awarded a laurel crown.
+But you have gained a victory not less glorious, for you have conquered
+hearts! We acknowledge ourselves vanquished, and in the name of all
+these noble women, I proclaim you their knight! In token of which,
+accept this rosette, my lord. It entitles you to wear the queen's
+colors; it lays you under obligation to be the knight of all women!"
+
+She loosened the rosette from her shoulder, and handed it to the earl.
+
+He had sunk on one knee before her, and already extended his hand to
+receive this precious and coveted pledge.
+
+But at this moment the king arose, and, with an imperious gesture, held
+back the queen's hand.
+
+"Allow me, my lady," said he, in a voice quivering with rage--"allow
+me first to examine this rosette, and convince myself that it is worth
+enough to be presented to the noble earl as his sole reward. Let me see
+this rosette."
+
+Catharine looked with astonishment into that face convulsed with passion
+and fury, but without hesitation she handed him the rosette.
+
+"We are lost!" murmured Earl Surrey, while Earl Douglas and Gardiner
+exchanged with each other looks of triumph; and Jane Douglas murmured in
+her trembling heart prayers of anxiety and dread, scarcely hearing
+the malicious and exultant words which the Duchess of Richmond was
+whispering in her ear.
+
+The king held the rosette in his hand and examined it. But his hands
+trembled so much that he was unable to unfasten the clasp which held it
+together.
+
+He, therefore, handed it to John Heywood. "These diamonds are poor,"
+said he, in a curt, dry tone. "Unfasten the clasp, fool; we will replace
+it with this pin here. Then will the present gain for the earl a double
+value; for it will come at the same time from me and from the queen."
+
+"How gracious you are to-day!" said John Heywood, smiling--"as gracious
+as the cat, that plays a little longer with the mouse before she devours
+it."
+
+"Unfasten the clasp!" exclaimed the king, in a thundering voice, no
+longer able to conceal his rage. Slowly John Heywood unfastened
+the clasp from the ribbon. He did it with intentional slowness and
+deliberation; he let the king see all his movements, every turn of his
+fingers; and it delighted him to hold those who had woven this plot in
+dreadful suspense and expectation.
+
+Whilst he appeared perfectly innocent and unembarrassed, his keen,
+piercing glance ran over the whole assembly, and he noticed well the
+trembling impatience of Gardiner and Earl Douglas; and it did not escape
+him how pale Lady Jane was, and how full of expectation were the intent
+features of the Duchess of Richmond.
+
+"They are the ones with whom this conspiracy originated," said John
+Heywood to himself. "But I will keep silence till I can one day convict
+them."
+
+"There, here is the clasp!" said he then aloud to the king. "It stuck as
+tightly in the ribbon as malice in the hearts of priests and courtiers!"
+
+The king snatched the ribbon out of his hand, and examined it by drawing
+it through his fingers.
+
+"Nothing! nothing at all!" said he, gnashing his teeth; and now,
+deceived in his expectations and suppositions, he could no longer muster
+strength to withstand that roaring torrent of wrath which overflowed his
+heart. The tiger was again aroused in him; he had calmly waited for
+the moment when the promised prey would be brought to him; now, when it
+seemed to be escaping him, his savage and cruel disposition started up
+within him. The tiger panted and thirsted for blood; and that he was not
+to get it, made him raging with fury.
+
+With a wild movement he threw the rosette on the ground, and raised his
+arm menacingly toward Henry Howard. "Dare not to touch that rosette,"
+cried he, in a voice of thunder, "before you have exculpated yourself
+from the guilt of which you are accused."
+
+Earl Surrey looked him steadily and boldly in the eye. "Have I been
+accused, then?" asked he. "Then I demand, first of all, that I be
+confronted with my accusers, and that my fault be named!"
+
+"Ha, traitor! Do you dare to brave me?" yelled the king, stamping
+furiously with his foot. "Well, now, I will be your accuser and I will
+be your judge!"
+
+"And surely, my king and husband, you will be a righteous judge," said
+Catharine, as she inclined imploringly toward the king and grasped his
+hand. "You will not condemn the noble Earl Surrey without having heard
+him; and if you find him guiltless, you will punish his accusers?"
+
+But this intercession of the queen made the king raging. He threw her
+hand from him, and gazed at her with looks of such flaming wrath, that
+she involuntarily trembled.
+
+"Traitoress yourself!" yelled he, wildly. "Speak not of innocence--you
+who are yourself guilty; and before you dare defend the earl, defend
+yourself!"
+
+Catharine rose from her seat and looked with flashing eyes into the
+king's face blazing with wrath. "King Henry of England," said she,
+solemnly, "you have openly, before your whole court, accused your queen
+of a crime. I now demand that you name it!"
+
+She was of wondrous beauty in her proud, hold bearing--in her imposing,
+majestic tranquillity.
+
+The decisive moment had come, and she was conscious that her life and
+her future were struggling with death for the victory.
+
+She looked over to Thomas Seymour, and their eyes met. She saw how he
+laid his hand on his sword, and nodded to her a smiling greeting.
+
+"He will defend me; and before he will suffer me to be dragged to the
+Tower, he himself will plunge his sword into my breast," thought she,
+and a joyous, triumphant assurance filled her whole heart.
+
+She saw nothing but him, who had sworn to die with her when the decisive
+moment came. She looked with a smile on the blade which he had
+already half drawn from its scabbard; and she hailed it as a dear,
+long-yearned-for friend.
+
+She saw not that Henry Howard also had lain his hand on his sword; that
+he, too, was ready for her defence, firmly resolved to slay the king
+himself, before his mouth uttered the sentence of death over the queen.
+
+But Lady Jane Douglas saw it. She understood how to read the earl's
+countenance; she felt that he was ready to go to death for his beloved;
+and it filled her heart at once with woe and rapture.
+
+She, too, was now firmly resolved to follow her heart and her love; and,
+forgetting all else besides these, she hastened forward, and was now
+standing by Henry Howard.
+
+"Be prudent, Earl Surrey," said she, in a low whisper. "Take your hand
+from your sword. The queen, by my mouth, commands you to do so!"
+
+Henry Howard looked at her astonished and surprised; but he let his hand
+slip from the hilt of his sword, and again looked toward the queen.
+
+She had repeated her demand; she had once more demanded of the
+king--who, speechless and completely overcome with anger, had fallen
+back into his seat--to name the crime of which she was accused.
+
+"Now, then, my queen, you demand it, and you shall hear it," cried he.
+"You want to know the crime of which you are accused? Answer me then,
+my lady! They accuse you of not always staying at night in your
+sleeping-room. It is alleged that you sometimes leave it for many hours;
+and that none of your women accompanied you when you glided through the
+corridors and up the secret stairs to the lonely tower, in which, was
+waiting for you your lover, who at the same time entered the tower
+through the small street door."
+
+"He knows all!" muttered Henry Howard; and again he laid his hand on his
+sword, and was about to approach the queen.
+
+Lady Jane held him back. "Wait for the issue," said she. "There is still
+time to die!"
+
+"He knows all!" thought the queen also; and now she felt within herself
+the daring courage to risk all, that at least she might not stand there
+a traitoress in the eyes of her lover.
+
+"He shall not believe that I have been untrue to him," thought she. "I
+will tell all--confess all, that he may know why I went and whither."
+
+"Now answer, my Lady Catharine!" thundered the king. "Answer, and tell
+me whether you have been falsely accused. Is it true that you,
+eight days ago, in the night between Monday and Tuesday, left your
+sleeping-room at the hour of midnight, and went secretly to the lonely
+tower? Is it true that you received there a man who is your lover?"
+
+The queen looked at him in angry pride. "Henry, Henry, woe to you, that
+you dare thus insult your own wife!" cried she.
+
+"Answer me! You were not on that night in your sleeping-room?"
+
+"No," said Catharine, with dignified composure, "I was not there."
+
+The king sank back in his seat, and a real roar of fury sounded from
+his lips. It made the women turn pale, and even the men felt themselves
+tremble.
+
+Catharine alone had not heeded it at all; she alone had heard nothing
+save that cry of amazement which Thomas Seymour uttered; and she saw
+only the angry and up-braiding looks which he threw across at her. She
+answered these looks with a friendly and confident smile, and pressed
+both her hands to her heart, as she looked at him.
+
+"I will justify myself before him at least," thought she.
+
+The king had recovered from his first shock. He again raised himself up,
+and his countenance now exhibited a fearful, threatening coolness.
+
+"You confess, then," asked he, "that you were not in your sleeping-room
+on that night?"
+
+"I have already said so," exclaimed Catharine, impatiently. The king
+compressed his lips so violently, that they bled. "And a man was with
+you?" asked he--"a man with whom you made an assignation, and whom you
+received in the lonely tower?"
+
+"A man was with me. But I did not receive him in the lonely tower; and
+it was no assignation."
+
+"Who was that man?" yelled the king. "Answer me! Tell me his name, if
+you do not want me to strangle you myself!"
+
+"King Henry, I fear death no longer!" said Catharine, with a
+contemptuous smile.
+
+"Who was that man? Tell me his name!" yelled the king once more.
+
+The queen raised herself more proudly, and her defiant look ran over the
+whole assembly.
+
+"The man," said she, solemnly, "who was with me on that night--he is
+named--"
+
+"He is named John Heywood!" said this individual; as he seriously and
+proudly walked forward from behind the king's throne. "Yes, Henry, your
+brother, the fool John Heywood, had on that night the proud honor of
+accompanying your consort on her holy errand; but, I assure you, that he
+was less like the king, than the king is just now like the fool."
+
+A murmur of surprise ran through the assembly. The king leaned back
+in his royal seat speechless. "And now, King Henry," said Catharine,
+calmly--"now I will tell you whither I went with John Heywood on that
+night."
+
+She was silent, and for a moment leaned back on her seat. She felt that
+the looks of all were directed to her; she heard the king's wrathful
+groan; she felt her lover's flashing, reproachful glances; she saw the
+derisive smile of those haughty ladies, who had never forgiven her--that
+she, from a simple baroness, had become queen. But all this made her
+only still bolder and more courageous.
+
+She had arrived at the turning-point of her life, where she must risk
+everything to avoid sinking into the abyss.
+
+But Lady Jane also had arrived at such a decisive moment of her
+existence. She, too, said to herself: "I must at this hour risk all, if
+I do not want to lose all." She saw Henry Howard's pale, expectant face.
+She knew, if the queen now spoke, the whole web of their conspiracy
+would be revealed to him.
+
+She must, therefore, anticipate the queen. She must warn Henry Howard.
+
+"Fear nothing!" whispered she to him. "We were prepared for that. I have
+put into her hands the means of escape!"
+
+"Will you now at last speak?" exclaimed the king, quivering with
+impatience and rage. "Will you at last tell us where you were on that
+night?"
+
+"I will tell!" exclaimed Catharine, rising up again boldly and
+resolutely "But woe be to those who drive me to this! For I tell you
+beforehand, from the accused I will become an accuser who demands
+justice, if not before the throne of the King of England, yet before the
+throne of the Lord of all kings! King Henry of England, do you ask me
+whither I went on that night with John Heywood? I might, perhaps, as
+your queen and consort, demand that you put this question to me not
+before so many witnesses, but in the quiet of our chamber; but you seek
+publicity, and I do not shun it. Well, hear the truth, then, all of
+you! On that night, between Monday and Tuesday, I was not in my
+sleeping-apartment, because I had a grave and sacred duty to perform;
+because a dying woman called on me for help and pity! Would you know, my
+lord and husband, who this dying woman was? It was Anne Askew!"
+
+"Anne Askew!" exclaimed the king in astonishment; and his countenance
+exhibited a less wrathful expression.
+
+"Anne Askew!" muttered the others; and John Heywood very well saw how
+Bishop Gardiner's brow darkened, and how Chancellor Wriothesley turned
+pale and cast down his eyes.
+
+"Yes, I was with Anne Askew!" continued the queen--"with Anne Askew, whom
+those pious and wise lords yonder had condemned, not so much on account
+of her faith, but because they knew that I loved her. Anne Askew was to
+die, because Catharine Parr loved her! She was to go to the stake, that
+my heart also might burn with fiery pains! And because it was so, I
+was obliged to risk everything in order to save her. Oh, my king, say
+yourself, did I not owe it to this poor girl to try everything in order
+to save her? On my account she was to suffer these tortures. For they
+had shamefully stolen from me a letter which Anne Askew, in the distress
+of her heart, had addressed to me; and they showed this letter to you in
+order to cast suspicion on me and accuse me to you. But your noble heart
+repelled the suspicion; and now their wrath fell again on Anne Askew,
+and she must suffer, because they did not find me punishable. She must
+atone for having dared to write to me. They worked matters with you
+so that she was put to the rack. But when my husband gave way to their
+urging, yet the noble king remained still awake in him. 'Go,' said he,
+'rack her and kill her; but see first whether she will not recant.'"
+
+Henry looked astonished into her noble and defiant face. "Do you know
+that?" asked he. "And yet we were alone, and no human being present. Who
+could tell you that?"
+
+"When man is no longer able to help, then God undertakes!" said
+Catharine solemnly. "It was God who commanded me to go to Anne Askew,
+and try whether I could save her. And I went. But though the wife of
+a noble and great king, I am still but a weak and timid woman. I was
+afraid to tread this gloomy and dangerous path alone; I needed a strong
+manly arm to lean upon; and so John Heywood lent me his."
+
+"And you were really with Anne Askew," interposed the king,
+thoughtfully--"with that hardened sinner, who despised mercy, and in the
+stubbornness of her soul would not be a partaker of the pardon that I
+offered her?"
+
+"My lord and husband," said the queen, with tears in her eyes, "she whom
+you have just accused stands even now before the throne of the Lord, and
+has received from her God the forgiveness of her sins! Therefore, do you
+likewise pardon her; and may the flames of the stake, to which yesterday
+the noble virgin body of this girl was bound, have consumed also the
+wrath and hatred which had been kindled in your heart against her! Anne
+Askew passed away like a saint; for she forgave all her enemies and
+blessed her tormentors."
+
+"Anne Askew was a damnable sinner, who dared resist the command of her
+lord and king!" interrupted Bishop Gardiner, looking daggers at her.
+
+"And dare you maintain, my lord, that you at that time fulfilled the
+commands of your royal master simply and exactly?" asked Catharine. "Did
+you keep within them with respect to Anne Askew? No! I say; for the king
+had not ordered you to torture her; he had not bidden you to lacerate in
+blasphemous wrath a noble human form, and distort that likeness of God
+into a horrible caricature. And that, my lord, you did! Before God and
+your king, I accuse you of it--I, the queen! For you know, my lord and
+husband, I was there when Anne Askew was racked. I saw her agony, and
+John Heywood saw it with me."
+
+The eyes of all were now directed inquiringly to the king, of whose
+ferocity and choler every one expected a violent outbreak.
+
+But this time they were mistaken. The king was so well satisfied to find
+his consort clear of the crime laid to her charge, that he willingly
+forgave her for having committed a crime of less weighty character.
+Besides, it filled him with respect to see his consort confronting her
+accusers so boldly and proudly; and he felt toward them just as burning
+wrath and hatred as he had before harbored against the queen. He was
+pleased that the malignant and persistent persecutors of his fair and
+proud wife should now be humbled by her before the eyes of all his
+court.
+
+Therefore he looked at her with an imperceptible smile, and said with
+deep interest: "But how could this happen, my lady? By what path did you
+get thither?"
+
+"That is an inquiry which any one except the king is authorized to make.
+King Henry alone knows the way that I went!" said Catharine, with a
+slight smile.
+
+John Heywood, who was still standing behind the king's throne, now bent
+down close to Henry's ear, and spoke with him a long time in a quick,
+low tone.
+
+The king listened to him attentively; then he murmured so loud that the
+bystanders could very well understand him: "By God, she is a spirited
+and brave woman; and we should be obliged to confess that, even were she
+not our queen!"
+
+"Continue, my lady!" said he then aloud, turning to the queen with
+a gracious look. "Relate to me, Catharine, what saw you then in the
+torture-chamber?"
+
+"Oh, my king and lord, it horrifies me only to think of it," cried she,
+shuddering and turning pale. "I saw a poor young woman who writhed in
+fearful agony, and whose staring eyes were raised in mute supplication
+to Heaven. She did not beg her tormentors for mercy; she wanted from
+them no compassion and no pity; she did not scream and whine from the
+pain, though her limbs cracked and her flesh snapped apart like glass;
+she raised her clasped hands to God, and her lips murmured low prayers,
+which, perhaps, made the angels of heaven weep, but were not able to
+touch the hearts of her tormentors. You had ordered her to be racked,
+if she would not retract. They did not ask her whether she would do
+this--they racked her. But her soul was strong and full of courage;
+and, under the tortures of the executioner, her lips remained mute. Let
+theologians say and determine whether Anne Askew's faith was a false
+one; but this they will not dare deny: that in the noble enthusiasm
+of this faith, she was a heroine who at least did not deny her God.
+At length, worn out with so much useless exertion, the assistant
+executioners discontinued their bloody work, to rest from the tortures
+which they had prepared for Anne Askew. The lieutenant of the Tower
+declared the work of the rack ended. The highest degrees had been
+applied, and they had proved powerless; cruelty was obliged to
+acknowledge itself conquered. But the priests of the Church, with savage
+vehemence, demanded that she should be racked once more. Dare deny
+that, ye lords, whom I behold standing there opposite with faces pale
+as death! Yes, my king, the servants of the rack refused to obey the
+servants of God; for in the hearts of the hangman's drudges there was
+more pity than in the hearts of the priests! And when they refused to
+proceed in their bloody work, and when the lieutenant of the Tower, in
+virtue of the existing law, declared the racking at an end, then I
+saw one of the first ministers of our Church throw aside his sacred
+garments; then the priest of God transformed himself into a hangman's
+drudge, who, with bloodthirsty delight, lacerated anew the noble mangled
+body of the young girl, and more cruel than the attendants of the rack,
+unsparingly they broke and dislocated the limbs, which they had
+only squeezed in their screws. [Footnote: Burnet's "History of the
+Reformation," vol. i, p. 132.] Excuse me, my king, from sketching this
+scene of horror still further! Horrified and trembling, I fled from that
+frightful place, and returned to my room, shattered and sad at heart."
+
+Catharine ceased, exhausted, and sank back into her seat.
+
+A breathless stillness reigned around. All faces were pale and
+colorless. Gardiner and Wriothesley stood with their eyes fixed, gloomy
+and defiant, expecting that the king's wrath would crush and destroy
+them.
+
+But the king scarcely thought of them; he thought only of his fair young
+queen, whose boldness inspired him with respect, and whose innocence and
+purity filled him with a proud and blissful joy.
+
+He was, therefore, very much inclined to forgive those who in reality
+had committed no offence further than this, that they had carried out a
+little too literally and strictly the orders of their master.
+
+A long pause had ensued--a pause full of expectation and anxiety for all
+who were assembled in the hall. Only Catharine reclined calmly in her
+chair, and with beaming eyes looked across to Thomas Seymour, whose
+handsome countenance betrayed to her the gratification and satisfaction
+which he felt at this clearing up of her mysterious night-wandering.
+
+At last the king arose, and, bowing low before his consort, said in
+a loud, full-toned voice: "I have deeply and bitterly injured you, my
+noble wife; and as I publicly accused you, I will also publicly ask your
+forgiveness! You have a right to be angry with me; for it behooved me,
+above all, to believe with unshaken firmness in the truth and honor of
+my wife. My lady, you have made a brilliant vindication of yourself; and
+I, the king, first of all bow before you, and beg that you may forgive
+me and impose some penance."
+
+"Leave it to me, queen, to impose a penance on this repentant sinner!"
+cried John Hey wood, gayly. "Your majesty is much too magnanimous, much
+too timid, to treat him as roughly as my brother King Henry deserves.
+Leave it to me, then, to punish him; for only the fool is wise enough to
+punish the king after his deserts."
+
+Catharine nodded to him with a grateful smile. She comprehended
+perfectly John Heywood's delicacy and nice tact; she apprehended that he
+wanted by a joke to relieve her from her painful situation, and put an
+end to the king's public acknowledgment, which at the same time must
+turn to her bitter reproach--bitter, though it were only self-reproach.
+
+"Well," said she, smiling, "what punishment, then, will you impose upon
+the king?"
+
+"The punishment of recognizing the fool as his equal!"
+
+"God is my witness that I do so!" cried the king, almost solemnly.
+"Fools we are, one and all, and we fall short of the renown which we
+have before men."
+
+"But my sentence is not yet complete, brother!" continued John Heywood.
+"I furthermore give sentence, that you also forthwith allow me to recite
+my poem to you, and that you open your ears in order to hear what John
+Heywood, the wise, has indited!"
+
+"You have, then, fulfilled my command, and composed a new interlude?"
+cried the king, vivaciously.
+
+"No interlude, but a wholly novel, comical affair--a play full of
+lampoons and jokes, at which your eyes are to overflow, yet not with
+weeping, but with laughter. To the right noble Earl of Surrey belongs
+the proud honor of having presented to our happy England her first
+sonnets. Well, now, I also will give her something new. I present her
+the first comedy; and as he sings the beauty of his Geraldine, so I
+celebrate the fame of Gammer Gurton's sewing-needle--Gammer Gurton's
+needle--so my piece is called; and you, King Henry, shall listen to it
+as a punishment for your sins!"
+
+"I will do so," cried the king, cheerfully, "provided you permit it,
+Kate! But before I do so, I make also one more condition--a condition
+for you, queen! Kate, you have disdained to impose a penance on me, but
+grant me at least the pleasure of being allowed to fulfil some wish of
+yours! Make me a request, that I may grant it you!"
+
+"Well, then, my lord and king," said Catharine with a charming smile,
+"I beg you to think no more of the incidents of this day, and to forgive
+those whom I accused, only because their accusation was my vindication.
+They who brought charges against me have in this hour felt contrition
+for their own fault. Let that suffice, king, and forgive them, as I do!"
+
+"You are a noble and great woman, Kate!" cried the king; and, as
+his glance swept over toward Gardiner with an almost contemptuous
+expression, he continued: "Your request is granted. But woe to them who
+shall dare accuse you again! And have you nothing further to demand,
+Kate?"
+
+"Nay, one thing more, my lord and husband!" She leaned nearer to the
+king's ear, and whispered: "They have also accused your noblest and
+most faithful servant; they have accused Cranmer. Condemn him not, king,
+without having heard him; and if I may beg a favor of you, it is this:
+talk with Cranmer yourself. Tell him of what they have charged him, and
+hear his vindication."
+
+"It shall be so, Kate," said the king, "and you shall be present! But
+let this be a secret between us, Kate, and we will carry it out
+in perfect silence. And now, then, John Heywood, let us hear your
+composition; and woe to you, if it does not accomplish what you
+promised--if it does not make us laugh! For you well know that you are
+then inevitably exposed to the rods of our injured ladies."
+
+"They shall have leave to whip me to death, if I do not make you laugh!"
+cried John Heywood, gayly, as he drew out his manuscript.
+
+Soon the hall rang again with loud laughter; and in the universal
+merriment no one observed that Bishop Gardiner and Earl Douglas slipped
+quietly away.
+
+In the anteroom without, they stopped and looked at each other long and
+silently; their countenances expressed the wrath and bitterness which
+filled them; and they understood this mute language of their features.
+
+"She must die!" said Gardiner in a short and quick tone. "She has for
+once escaped from our snares; we will tie them all the tighter next
+time!"
+
+"And I already hold in my hand the threads out of which we will form
+these snares," said Earl Douglas. "We have to-day falsely accused her
+of a love-affair. When we do it again, we shall speak the truth. Did you
+see the looks that Catharine exchanged with the heretical Earl Sudley,
+Thomas Seymour?"
+
+"I saw them, earl!"
+
+"For these looks she will die, my lord. The queen loves Thomas Seymour,
+and this love will be her death."
+
+"Amen!" said Bishop Gardiner, solemnly, as he raised his eyes devoutly
+to heaven. "Amen! The queen has grievously and bitterly injured us
+to-day; she has insulted and abused us before all the court. We will
+requite her for it some day! The torture-chamber, which she has depicted
+in such lively colors, may yet one day open for her, too--not that she
+may behold another's agonies, but that she may suffer agonies herself.
+We shall one day avenge ourselves!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. REVENGE.
+
+
+Miss Holland, the beautiful and much-admired mistress of the Duke of
+Norfolk, was alone in her magnificently adorned boudoir. It was the hour
+when ordinarily the duke was wont to be with her; for this reason
+she was charmingly attired, and had wrapped herself in that light and
+voluptuous negligee which the duke so much liked, because it set off to
+so much advantage the splendid form of his friend.
+
+But to-day the expected one did not make his appearance: in his stead
+his valet had just come and brought the fair miss a note from his
+master. This note she was holding in her hand, while with passionate
+violence she now walked up and down her boudoir. A glowing crimson
+blazed upon her cheeks, and her large, haughty eyes darted wild flashes
+of wrath.
+
+She was disdained--she, Lady Holland, was forced to endure the disgrace
+of being dismissed by her lover.
+
+There, there, in that letter which she held in her hand, and which
+burned her fingers like red-hot iron--there it stood in black and white,
+that he would see her no more; that he renounced her love; that he
+released her.
+
+Her whole frame shook as she thought of this. It was not the anguish of
+a loving heart which made her tremble; it was the wounded pride of the
+woman.
+
+He had abandoned her. Her beauty, her youth no longer had the power to
+enchain him--the man with white hairs and withered features.
+
+He had written her that he was satiated and weary, not of her, but only
+of love in general; that his heart had become old and withered like his
+face: and that there was still in his breast no more room for love, but
+only for ambition.
+
+Was not that a revolting, an unheard-of outrage--to abandon the finest
+woman in England for the sake of empty, cold, stern ambition?
+
+She opened the letter once more. Once more she read that place. Then
+grinding her teeth with tears of anger in her eyes: "He shall pay me for
+this! I will take vengeance for this insult!" She thrust the letter into
+her bosom, and touched the silver bell.
+
+"Have my carriage brought round!" was her order to the servant who
+entered; and he withdrew in silence.
+
+"I will avenge myself!" muttered she, as with trembling hands she
+wrapped herself in her large Turkish shawl. "I will avenge myself; and,
+by the Eternal! it shall be a bloody and swift vengeance! I will show
+him that I, too, am ambitious, and that my pride is not to be humbled.
+He says he will forget me. Oh, I will compel him to think of me, even
+though it be only to curse me!"
+
+With hasty step she sped through the glittering apartments, which the
+liberality of her lover had furnished so magnificently, and descended to
+the carriage standing ready for her.
+
+"To the Duchess of Norfolk's!" said she to the footman standing at the
+door of the carriage, as she entered it.
+
+The servant looked at her in astonishment and inquiringly.
+
+"To the Duke of Norfolk; is it not, my lady?"
+
+"No, indeed, to the duchess!" cried she with a frown, as she leaned back
+on the cushion.
+
+After a short time, the carriage drew up before the palace of the
+duchess, and with haughty tread and commanding air she passed through
+the porch.
+
+"Announce me to the duchess immediately," was her order to the lackey
+who was hurrying to meet her.
+
+"Your name, my lady?"
+
+"Miss Arabella Holland."
+
+The servant stepped back, and stared at her in surprise.
+
+"Miss Arabella Holland! and you order me to announce you to the
+duchess?"
+
+A contemptuous smile played a moment about the thin lips of the
+beautiful miss. "I see you know me," said she, "and you wonder a little
+to see me here. Wonder as much as you please, good friend; only conduct
+me immediately to the duchess."
+
+"I doubt whether her ladyship receives calls to-day," stammered the
+servant, hesitatingly.
+
+"Then go and ask; and, that I may learn her answer as soon as possible,
+I will accompany you."
+
+With a commanding air, she motioned to the servant to go before her; and
+he could not summon up courage to gainsay this proud beauty.
+
+In silence they traversed the suite of stately apartments, and at length
+stood before a door hung with tapestry.
+
+"I must beg you to wait here a moment, my lady, so that I can announce
+you to the duchess, who is there in her boudoir."
+
+"No, indeed; I will assume that office myself," said Miss Holland, as
+with strong hand she pushed back the servant and opened the door.
+
+The duchess was sitting at her writing-table, her back turned to the
+door through which Arabella had entered. She did not turn round; perhaps
+she had not heard the door open. She continued quietly writing.
+
+Miss Arabella Holland with stately step crossed the room, and now stood
+close to the chair of the duchess.
+
+"Duchess, I would like to speak with you," said she, coolly and calmly.
+
+The duchess uttered a cry and looked up. "Miss Holland!" cried she
+amazed, and hastily rising. "Miss Holland! you here with me, in my
+house! What do you want here? How dare you cross my threshold?"
+
+"I see you still hate me, my lady," said Arabella, smiling. "You have
+not yet forgiven me that the duke, your husband, found more delight
+in my young, handsome face, than in yours, now growing old--that my
+sprightly, wanton disposition pleased him better than your cold, stately
+air."
+
+The duchess turned pale with rage, and her eyes darted lightning.
+"Silence, you shameless creature! silence, or I will call my servants to
+rid me of you!"
+
+"You will not call them; for I have come to be reconciled with you, and
+to offer you peace."
+
+"Peace with you!" sneered the duchess--"peace with that shameless woman
+who stole from me my husband, the father of my children?--who loaded me
+with the disgrace of standing before the whole world as a repudiated and
+despised wife, and of suffering myself to be compared with you, that the
+world might decide which of us two was worthier of his love? Peace
+with you, Miss Holland?--with the impudent strumpet who squanders my
+husband's means in lavish luxury, and, with scoffing boldness, robs my
+children of their lawful property?"
+
+"It is true, the duke is very generous," said Miss Holland, composedly.
+"He loaded me with diamonds and gold."
+
+"And meanwhile I was doomed almost to suffer want," said the duchess,
+grinding her teeth.
+
+"Want of love, it may be, my lady, but not want of money; for you are
+very magnificently fitted up; and every one knows that the Duchess of
+Norfolk is rich enough to be able to spare the trifles that her husband
+laid at my feet. By Heaven! my lady, I would not have deemed it worth
+the trouble to stoop for them, if I had not seen among these trifles his
+heart. The heart of a man is well worth a woman's stooping for! You have
+neglected that, my lady, and therefore you lost your husband's heart. I
+picked it up. That is all. Why will you make a crime of that?"
+
+"That is enough!" cried the duchess. "It does not become me to dispute
+with you; I desire only to know what gave you the courage to come to
+me?"
+
+"My lady, do you hate me only? Or do you also hate the duke your
+husband?"
+
+"She asks me whether I hate him!" cried the duchess, with a wild,
+scornful laugh. "Yes, Miss Holland, yes! I hate him as ardently as I
+despise you. I hate him so much that I would give my whole estate--ay,
+years of my life--if I could punish him for the disgrace he has put upon
+me."
+
+"Then, my lady, we shall soon understand each other; for I too hate
+him," said Miss Holland, quietly seating herself on the velvet divan,
+and smiling as she observed the speechless astonishment of the duchess.
+
+"Yes, my lady, I hate him; and without doubt still more ardently, still
+more intensely than you yourself; for I am young and fiery; you are old,
+and have always managed to preserve a cool heart."
+
+The duchess was convulsed with rage; but silently, and with an effort,
+she gulped down the drop of wormwood which her wicked rival mingled in
+the cup of joy which she presented to her.
+
+"You do hate him, Miss Holland?" asked she, joyfully.
+
+"I hate him, and I have come to league myself with you against him. He
+is a traitor, a perfidious wretch, a perjurer. I will take vengeance for
+my disgrace!"
+
+"Ah, has he then deserted you also?"
+
+"He has deserted me also."
+
+"Well, then, God be praised!" cried the duchess, and her face beamed
+with joy. "God is great and just; and He has punished you with the same
+weapons with which you sinned! For your sake, he deserted me; and for
+the sake of another woman, he forsakes you."
+
+"Not so, my lady!" said Miss Holland, proudly. "A woman like me is not
+forsaken on account of a woman; and he who loves me will love no other
+after me. There, read his letter!"
+
+She handed the duchess her husband's letter.
+
+"And what do you want to do now?" asked the duchess, after she had read
+it.
+
+"I will have revenge, my lady! He says he no longer has a heart to
+love; well, now, we will so manage, that he may no longer have a head to
+think. Will you be my ally, my lady?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"And I also will be," said the Duchess of Richmond, who just then opened
+the door and came out of the adjoining room.
+
+Not a word of this entire conversation had escaped her, and she very
+well understood that the question was not about some petty vengeance,
+but her father's head. She knew that Miss Holland was not a woman that,
+when irritated, pricked with a pin; but one that grasped the dagger to
+strike her enemy a mortal blow.
+
+"Yes, I too will be your ally," cried the Duchess of Richmond; "we have
+all three been outraged by the same man. Let, then, our revenge be a
+common one. The father has insulted you; the son, me. Well, then, I
+will help you to strike the father, if you in return will assist me to
+destroy the son."
+
+"I will assist you," said Arabella, smiling; "for I also hate the
+haughty Earl of Surrey, who prides himself on his virtue, as if it were
+a golden fleece which God himself had stuck on his breast. I hate him;
+for he never meets me but with proud disregard; and he alone is to blame
+for his father's faithlessness."
+
+"I was present when with tears he besought the duke, our father, to free
+himself from your fetters, and give up this shameful and disgraceful
+connection with you," said the young duchess.
+
+Arabella answered nothing. But she pressed her hands firmly together,
+and a slight pallor overspread her cheeks.
+
+"And why are you angry with your brother?" asked the old duchess,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why am I angry with him, do you ask, my mother? I am not angry with
+him; but I execrate him, and I have sworn to myself never to rest till
+I have avenged myself. My happiness, my heart, and my future, lay in
+his hands; and he has remorselessly trodden under his haughty feet
+these--his sister's precious treasures. It lay with him to make me the
+wife of the man I love; and he has not done it, though I lay at his feet
+weeping and wringing my hands."
+
+"But it was a great sacrifice that you demanded," said her mother. "He
+had to give his hand to a woman he did not love, so that you might be
+Thomas Seymour's wife."
+
+"Mother, you defend him; and yet he it is that blames you daily; and but
+yesterday it seemed to him perfectly right and natural that the duke had
+forsaken you, our mother."
+
+"Did he do that?" inquired the duchess, vehemently. "Well, now, as he
+has forgotten that I am his mother, so will I forget that he is my son.
+I am your ally! Revenge for our injured hearts! Vengeance on father and
+son!"
+
+She held out both hands, and the two young women laid their hands in
+hers.
+
+"Vengeance on father and son!" repeated they both; and their eyes
+flashed, and crimson now mantled their cheeks.
+
+"I am tired of living like a hermit in my palace, and of being banished
+from court by the fear that I may encounter my husband there."
+
+"You shall encounter him there no more," said her daughter, laconically.
+
+"They shall not laugh and jeer at me," cried Arabella. "And when they
+learn that he has forsaken me, they shall also know how I have avenged
+myself for it."
+
+"Thomas Seymour can never become my husband so long as Henry Howard
+lives; for he has mortally offended him, as Henry has rejected the hand
+of his sister. Perhaps I may become his wife, if Henry Howard is no
+more," said the young duchess. "So let us consider. How shall we begin,
+so as to strike them surely and certainly?"
+
+"When three women are agreed, they may well be certain of their
+success," said Arabella, shrugging her shoulders. "We live--God be
+praised for it--under a noble and high-minded king, who beholds the
+blood of his subjects with as much pleasure as he does the crimson of
+his royal mantle, and who has never yet shrunk back when a death-warrant
+was to be signed."
+
+"But this time he will shrink back," said the old duchess. "He will not
+dare to rob the noblest and most powerful family of his kingdom of its
+head."
+
+"That very risk will stimulate him," said the Duchess of Richmond,
+laughing; "and the more difficult it is to bring down these heads, so
+much the more impatiently will he hanker after it. The king hates them
+both, and he will thank us, if we change his hatred into retributive
+justice."
+
+"Then let us accuse both of high treason!" cried Arabella. "The duke is
+a traitor; for I will and can swear that he has often enough called the
+king a bloodthirsty tiger, a relentless tyrant, a man without truth and
+without faith, although he coquettishly pretends to be the fountain and
+rock of all faith."
+
+"If he has said that, and you have heard him, you are in duty bound
+to communicate it to the king, if you do not want to be a traitoress
+yourself," exclaimed the young duchess, solemnly.
+
+"And have you not noticed that the duke has for some time borne the
+same coat-of-arms as the king?" asked the Duchess of Norfolk. "It is not
+enough for his haughty and ambitious spirit to be the first servant of
+this land; he strives to be lord and king of it."
+
+"Tell that to the king, and by to-morrow the head of the traitor falls.
+For the king is as jealous of his kingdom as ever a woman was of
+her lover. Tell him that the duke bears his coat-of-arms, and his
+destruction is certain."
+
+"I will tell him so, daughter."
+
+"We are sure of the father, but what have we for the son?"
+
+"A sure and infallible means, that will as certainly dispatch him into
+eternity as the hunter's tiny bullet slays the proudest stag. Henry
+loves the queen; and I will furnish the king proof of that," said the
+young duchess.
+
+"Then let us go to the king!" cried Arabella, impetuously.
+
+"No, indeed! That would make a sensation, and might easily frustrate our
+whole plan," said the Duchess of Richmond. "Let us first talk with Earl
+Douglas, and hear his advice. Come; every minute is precious! We owe it
+to our womanly honor to avenge ourselves. We cannot and will not leave
+unpunished those who have despised our love, wounded our honor, and
+trodden under foot the holiest ties of nature!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
+
+
+The Princess Elizabeth was sitting in her room, melancholy and absorbed
+in thought. Her eyes were red with weeping; and she pressed her hand on
+her heart, as if she would repress its cry of anguish.
+
+With a disconsolate, perplexed look she gazed around her chamber, and
+its solitude was doubly painful to her to-day, for it testified to her
+forsaken condition, to the disgrace that still rested on her. For were
+it not so, to-day would have been to the whole court a day of rejoicing,
+of congratulations.
+
+To-day was Elizabeth's birthday; fourteen years ago to-day, Anne
+Boleyn's daughter had seen the light of this world.
+
+"Anne Boleyn's daughter!" That was the secret of her seclusion. That
+was why none of the ladies and lords of the court had remembered her
+birthday; for that would have been at the same time a remembrance of
+Anne Boleyn, of Elizabeth's beautiful and unfortunate mother, who had
+been made to atone for her grandeur and prosperity by her death.
+
+Moreover, the king had called his daughter Elizabeth a bastard, and
+solemnly declared her unworthy of succeeding to the throne.
+
+Her birthday, therefore, was to Elizabeth only a day of humiliation and
+pain. Reclining on her divan, she thought of her despised and joyless
+past, of her desolate and inglorious future.
+
+She was a princess, and yet possessed not the rights of her birth; she
+was a young maiden, and yet doomed, in sad resignation, to renounce all
+the delights and enjoyments of youth, and to condemn her passionate
+and ardent heart to the eternal sleep of death. For when the Infante of
+Spain sued for her hand, Henry the Eighth had declared that the bastard
+Elizabeth was unworthy of a princely husband. But in order to intimidate
+other suitors also, he had loudly and openly declared that no subject
+should dare be so presumptuous as to offer his hand to one of his
+royal daughters, and he who dared to solicit them in marriage should be
+punished as a traitor.
+
+So Elizabeth was condemned to remain unmarried; and nevertheless she
+loved; nevertheless she harbored only this one wish, to be the wife of
+her beloved, and to be able to exchange the proud title of princess for
+the name of Countess Seymour.
+
+Since she loved him, a new world, a new sun had arisen on her; and
+before the sweet and enchanting whispers of her love, even the proud and
+alluring voices of her ambition had to be silent. She no longer thought
+of it, that she would never be a queen; she was only troubled that she
+could not be Seymour's wife.
+
+She no longer wanted to rule, but she wanted to be happy. But her
+happiness reposed on him alone--on Thomas Seymour.
+
+Such were her thoughts, as she was in her chamber on the morning of
+her birthday, alone and lonely; and her eyes reddened by tears, her
+painfully convulsed lips, betrayed how much she had wept to-day; how
+much this young girl of fourteen years had already suffered.
+
+But she would think no more about it; she would not allow the lurking,
+everywhere-prying, malicious, and wicked courtiers the triumph of seeing
+the traces of her tears, and rejoicing at her pains and her humiliation.
+She was a proud and resolute soul; she would rather have died than to
+have accepted the sympathy and pity of the courtiers.
+
+"I will work," said she. "Work is the best balm for all pains."
+
+And she took up the elaborate silk embroidery which she had begun for
+her poor, unfortunate friend, Anne of Cleves, Henry's divorced wife. But
+the work occupied only her fingers, not her thoughts.
+
+She threw it aside and seized her books. She took Petrarch's Sonnets;
+and his love plaints and griefs enchained and stirred her own love-sick
+heart.
+
+With streaming tears, and yet smiling and full of sweet melancholy,
+Elizabeth read these noble and tender poems. It appeared to her as if
+Petrarch had only said what she herself so warmly felt. There were her
+thoughts, her griefs. He had said them in his language; she must now
+repeat them in her own. She seated herself, and with hands trembling
+with enthusiasm, fluttering breath, perfectly excited and glowing,
+in glad haste she began a translation of Petrarch's first sonnet.
+[Footnote: Elizabeth, who even as a girl of twelve years old spoke four
+languages, was very fond of composing verses, and of translating the
+poems of foreign authors. But she kept her skill in this respect very
+secret, and was always very angry if any one by chance saw one of
+her poems. After her death there were found among her papers many
+translations, especially of Petrarch's Sonnets, which were the work of
+her earliest youth.--Leti, vol. i, p. 150.] A loud knock interrupted
+her; and in the hastily opened door now appeared the lovely form of the
+queen.
+
+"The queen!" exclaimed Elizabeth with delight. "Have you come to me at
+such an early morning hour?"
+
+"And should I wait till evening to wish my Elizabeth happiness on her
+festival? Should I first let the sun go down on this day, which gave
+to England so noble and so fair a princess?" asked Catharine. "Or you
+thought, perhaps, I did not know that this was your birthday, and that
+to-day my Elizabeth advances from the years of childhood, as a proud
+maiden full of hope?"
+
+"Full of hope?" said Elizabeth, sadly. "Anne Boleyn's daughter has no
+hopes: and when you speak of my birthday, you remind me at the same time
+of my despised birth!"
+
+"It shall be despised no longer!" said Catharine, and, as she put
+her arm tenderly around Elizabeth's neck, she handed her a roll of
+parchment.
+
+"Take that, Elizabeth; and may this paper be to you the promise of a
+joyful and brilliant future! At my request, the king has made this law,
+and he therefore granted me the pleasure of bringing it to you."
+
+Elizabeth opened the parchment and read, and a radiant expression
+overspread her countenance.
+
+"Acknowledged! I am acknowledged!" cried she. "The disgrace of my birth
+is taken away! Elizabeth is no more a bastard--she is a royal princess!"
+
+"And she may some day be a queen!" said Catharine, smiling.
+
+"Oh," cried Elizabeth, "it is not that which stirs me with such joy. But
+the disgrace of my birth is taken away; and I may freely hold up my head
+and name my mother's name! Now thou mayst sleep calmly in thy grave, for
+it is no longer dishonored! Anne Boleyn was no strumpet; she was King
+Henry's lawful wife, and Elizabeth is the king's legitimate daughter! I
+thank Thee, my God--I thank Thee!" And the young, passionate girl threw
+herself on her knees, and raised her hands and her eyes to heaven.
+
+"Spirit of my glorified mother," said she, solemnly, "I call thee! Come
+to me! Overshadow me with thy smile, and bless me with thy breath! Queen
+Anne of England, thy daughter is no longer a bastard, and no one dares
+venture more to insult her. Thou wert with me when I wept and suffered,
+my mother; and often in my disgrace and humiliation, it was as if I
+heard thy voice, which whispered comfort to me; as if I saw thy heavenly
+eyes, which poured peace and love into my breast! Oh, abide with me now
+also, my mother--now, when my disgrace is taken away, abide with me
+in my prosperity; and guard my heart, that it may be kept pure from
+arrogance and pride, and remain humble in its joy! Anne Boleyn, they
+laid thy beautiful, innocent head upon the block; but this parchment
+sets upon it again the royal crown; and woe, woe to those who will now
+still dare insult thy memory!"
+
+She sprang from her knees and rushed to the wall opposite, on which was
+a large oil painting, which represented Elizabeth herself as a child
+playing with a dog.
+
+"Oh, mother, mother!" said she, "this picture was the last earthly thing
+on which thy looks rested; and to these painted lips of thy child thou
+gavest thy last kiss, which thy cruel hangman would not allow to thy
+living child. Oh, let me sip up this last kiss from that spot; let me
+touch with my mouth the spot that thy lips have consecrated!"
+
+She bent down and kissed the picture.
+
+"And now come forth out of thy grave, my mother," said she, solemnly.
+"I have been obliged so long to hide, so long to veil thee! Now thou
+belongest to the world and to the light! The king has acknowledged me as
+his lawful daughter; he cannot refuse me to have a likeness of my mother
+in my room."
+
+As she thus spoke, she pressed on a spring set in the broad gilt frame
+of the picture; and suddenly the painting was seen to move and slowly
+open like a door, so as to render visible another picture concealed
+beneath it, which represented the unfortunate Anne Boleyn in bridal
+attire, in the full splendor of her beauty, as Holbein had painted her,
+at the desire of her husband the king.
+
+"How beautiful and angelic that countenance is!" said Catharine,
+stepping nearer. "How innocent and pure those features! Poor queen! Yet
+thine enemies succeeded in casting suspicion on thee and bringing thee
+to the scaffold. Oh, when I behold thee, I shudder; and my own future
+rises up before me like a threatening spectre! Who can believe herself
+safe and secure, when Anne Boleyn was not secure; when even she had
+to die a dishonorable death? Ah, do but believe me, Elizabeth, it is a
+melancholy lot to be Queen of England; and often indeed have I asked the
+morning whether I, as still Queen of England, shall greet the evening.
+But no--we will not talk of myself in this hour, but only of you,
+Elizabeth--of your future and of your fortune. May this document be
+acceptable to you, and realize all the wishes that slumber in your
+bosom!"
+
+"One great wish of mine it has fulfilled already," said Elizabeth, still
+occupied with the picture. "It allows me to show my mother's likeness
+unveiled! That I could one day do so was her last prayer and last wish,
+which she intrusted to John Heywood for me. To him she committed this
+picture. He alone knew the secret of it, and he has faithfully preserved
+it."
+
+"Oh, John Heywood is a trusty and true friend," said Catharine,
+heartily; "and it was he who assisted me in inclining the king to our
+plan and in persuading him to acknowledge you."
+
+With an unutterable expression Elizabeth presented both hands to her. "I
+thank you for my honor, and the honor of my mother," said she; "I will
+love you for it as a daughter; and never shall your enemies find with me
+an open ear and a willing heart. Let us two conclude with each other a
+league offensive and defensive! Lot us keep true to each other; and the
+enemies of the one shall be the enemies of the other also. And where
+we see danger we will combat it in common; and we will watch over each
+other with a true sisterly eye, and warn one another whenever a chance
+flash brings to light an enemy who is stealing along in the darkness,
+and wants with his dagger to assassinate us from behind."
+
+"So be it!" said Catharine, solemnly. "We will remain inseparable, and
+true to one another, and love each other as sisters!"
+
+And as she imprinted a warm kiss on Elizabeth's lips, she continued:
+"But now, princess, direct your looks once more to that document, of
+which at first you read only the beginning. Do but believe me, it is
+important enough for you to read it quite to the end; for it contains
+various arrangements for your future, and settles on you a suite and a
+yearly allowance, as is suitable for a royal princess."
+
+"Oh, what care I for these things?" cried Elizabeth, merrily. "That is
+my major-domo's concern, and he may attend to it."
+
+"But there is yet another paragraph that will interest you more,"
+said Catharine, with a slight smile; "for it is a full and complete
+reparation to my proud and ambitious Elizabeth. You recollect the answer
+which your father gave to the King of France when he solicited your hand
+for the dauphin?"
+
+"Do I recollect it!" cried Elizabeth, her features quickly becoming
+gloomy. "King Henry said: 'Anne Boleyn's daughter is not worthy to
+accept the hand of a royal prince.'"
+
+"Well, then, Elizabeth, that the reparation made to you may be complete,
+the king, while he grants you your lawful title and honor, has decreed
+that you are permitted to marry only a husband of equal birth; to give
+your hand only to a royal prince, if you would preserve your right of
+succeeding to the throne, Oh, certainly, there could be no more complete
+recantation of the affront once put upon you. And that he consented
+to do this, you owe to the eloquent intercession of a true and trusty
+friend; you have John Hey wood to thank for it."
+
+"John Heywood!" cried Elizabeth, in a bitter tone.
+
+"Oh, I thank you, queen, that it was not you who determined my father to
+this decision. John Heywood did it, and you call him my friend? You
+say that he is a true and devoted servant to us both? Beware of his
+fidelity, queen, and build not on his devotedness; for I tell you his
+soul is full of falsehood; and while he appears to bow before you in
+humbleness, his eyes are only searching for the place on your heel where
+he can strike you most surely and most mortally. Oh, he is a serpent, a
+venomous serpent; and he has just wounded me mortally and incurably. But
+no," continued she, energetically, "I will not submit to this fraud; I
+will not be the slave of this injurious law! I will be free to love and
+to hate as my heart demands; I will not be shackled, nor be compelled
+to renounce this man, whom I perhaps love, and to marry that one, whom I
+perhaps abhor."
+
+With an expression of firm, energetic resolve, she took the roll of
+parchment and handed it back to Catharine. "Queen, take this parchment
+back again; return it to my father, and tell him that I thank him for
+his provident goodness, but will decline the brilliant lot which this
+act offers me. I love freedom so much, that even a royal crown cannot
+allure me when I am to receive it with my hands bound and my heart not
+free."
+
+"Poor child!" sighed Catharine, "you know not, then, that the royal
+crown always binds us in fetters and compresses our heart in iron
+clamps? Ah, you want to be free, and yet a queen! Oh, believe me,
+Elizabeth, none are less free than sovereigns! No one has less the right
+and the power to live according to the dictates of his heart than a
+prince."
+
+"Then," exclaimed Elizabeth, with flashing eyes, "then I renounce the
+melancholy fortune of being, perchance, one day queen. Then I do not
+subscribe to this law, which wants to guide my heart and limit my will.
+What! shall the daughter of King Henry of England allow her ways to be
+traced out by a miserable strip of parchment? and shall a sheet of
+paper be able to intrude itself between me and my heart? I am a royal
+princess; and why will they compel me to give my hand only to a king's
+son? Ay, you are right; it is not my father that has made this law,
+for my father's proud soul has never been willing to submit to any such
+constraint of miserable etiquette. He has loved where he pleased; and no
+Parliament--no law--has been able to hinder him in this respect. I will
+be my father's own daughter. I will not submit to this law!"
+
+"Poor child!" said Catharine, "nevertheless you will be obliged to learn
+well how to submit; for one is not a princess without paying for it. No
+one asks whether our heart bleeds. They throw a purple robe over it, and
+though it be reddened with our heart's blood, who then sees and suspects
+it? You are yet so young, Elizabeth; you yet hope so much!"
+
+"I hope so much, because I have already suffered so much--my eyes have
+been already made to shed so many tears. I have already in my childhood
+had to take before-hand my share of the pain and sorrow of life; now I
+will demand my share of life's pleasure and enjoyment also."
+
+"And who tells you that you shall not have it? This love forces on you
+no particular husband; it but gives you the proud right, once disputed,
+of seeking your husband among the princes of royal blood."
+
+"Oh," cried Elizabeth, with flashing eyes, "if I should ever really be a
+queen, I should be prouder to choose a husband whom I might make a king,
+than such a one as would make me a queen. [Footnote: Elizabeth's own
+words,--Leti, vol. ii, p. 62.] Oh, say yourself, Catharine, must it not
+be a high and noble pleasure to confer glory and greatness on one we
+love, to raise him in the omnipotence of our love high above all other
+men, and to lay our own greatness, our own glory, humbly at his feet,
+that he may be adorned therewith and make his own possession what is
+ours?"
+
+"By Heaven, you are as proud and ambitious as a man!" said Catharine,
+smiling. "Your father's own daughter! So thought Henry when he gave his
+hand to Anne Boleyn; so thought he when he exalted me to be his queen.
+But it behooves him thus to think and act, for he is a man."
+
+"He thought thus, because he loved--not because he was a man."
+
+"And you, too, Elizabeth--do you, too, think thus because you love?"
+
+"Yes, I love!" exclaimed Elizabeth, as with an impulsive movement she
+threw herself into Catharine's arms, and hid her blushing face in the
+queen's bosom. "Yes, I love! I love like my father--regardless of my
+rank, of my birth; but feeling only that my lover is of equally high
+birth in the nobility of his sentiment, in his genius and noble mind;
+that he is my superior in all the great and fine qualities which should
+adorn a man, and yet are conferred on so few. Judge now, queen, whether
+that law there can make me happy. He whom I love is no prince--no son of
+a king."
+
+"Poor Elizabeth!" said Catharine, clasping the young girl fervently in
+her arms.
+
+"And why do you bewail my fate, when it is in your power to make me
+happy?" asked Elizabeth, urgently.
+
+"It was you who prevailed on the king to relieve me of the disgrace that
+rested on me; you will also have power over him to set aside this clause
+which contains my heart's sentence of condemnation."
+
+Catharine shook her head with a sigh. "My power does not reach so far,"
+said she, sadly. "Ah, Elizabeth, why did you not put confidence in me?
+Why did you not let me know sooner that your heart cherished a love
+which is in opposition to this law? Why did you not tell your friend
+your dangerous secret?"
+
+"Just because it is dangerous I concealed it from you; and just on that
+account I do not even now mention the name of the loved one. Queen, you
+shall not through me become a guilty traitoress against your husband;
+for you well know that he punishes every secret concealed from him as an
+act of high treason. No, queen; if I am a criminal, you shall not he
+my accomplice. Ah, it is always dangerous to be the confidant of such a
+secret. You see that in John Heywood. He alone was my confidant, and he
+betrayed me. I myself put the weapons into his hands, and he turned them
+against me."
+
+"No, no," said Catharine, thoughtfully; "John Heywood is true and
+trusty, and incapable of treachery."
+
+"He has betrayed me!" exclaimed Elizabeth, impetuously. "He knew--he
+only--that I love, and that my beloved, though of noble, still is not of
+princely birth. Yet it was he, as you said yourself, who moved the king
+to introduce this paragraph into the act of succession."
+
+"Then, without doubt, he has wished to save you from an error of your
+heart."
+
+"No, he has been afraid of the danger of being privy to this secret,
+and at the cost of my heart and my happiness he wanted to escape this
+danger. But oh, Catharine, you are a noble, great and strong woman; you
+are incapable of such petty fear--such low calculation; therefore, stand
+by me; be my savior and protectress! By virtue of that oath which we
+have just now mutually taken--by virtue of that mutual clasp of
+the hands just given--I call you to my help and my assistance. Oh,
+Catharine, allow me this high pleasure, so full of blessing, of being at
+some time, perhaps, able to make him whom I love great and powerful by
+my will. Allow me this intoxicating delight of being able with my hand
+to offer to his ambition at once power and glory--it may be even a
+crown. Oh, Catharine, on my knees I conjure you--assist me to repeal
+this hated law, which wants to bind my heart and my hand!"
+
+In passionate excitement she had fallen before the queen, and was
+holding up her hands imploringly to her.
+
+Catharine, smiling, bent down and raised her up in her arms.
+"Enthusiast," said she, "poor young enthusiast! Who knows whether you
+will thank me for it one day, if I accede to your wish; and whether
+you will not some time curse this hour which has brought you, perhaps,
+instead of the hoped-for pleasure, only a knowledge of your delusion and
+misery?"
+
+"And were it even so," cried Elizabeth, energetically, "still it is
+better to endure a wretchedness we ourselves have chosen, than to
+be forced to a happy lot. Say, Catharine--say, will you lend me your
+assistance? Will you induce the king to withdraw this hated clause? If
+you do it not, queen, I swear to you, by the soul of my mother, that I
+will not submit to this law; that I will solemnly, before all the world,
+renounce the privilege that is offered me; that I--"
+
+"You are a dear, foolish child," interrupted Catharine--"a child, that
+in youthful presumption might dare wish to fetch the lightnings down
+from heaven, and borrow from Jupiter his thunderbolt. Oh, you are still
+too young and inexperienced to know that fate regards not our murmurs
+and our sighs, and, despite our reluctance and our refusal, still leads
+us in its own ways, not our own. You will have to learn that yet, poor
+child!"
+
+"But I will not!" cried Elizabeth, stamping on the floor with all the
+pettishness of a child. "I will not ever and eternally be the victim
+of another's will; and fate itself shall not have power to make me its
+slave!"
+
+"Well, we will see now," said Catharine, smiling. "We will try this
+time, at least, to contend against fate; and I will assist you if I
+can."
+
+"And I will love you for it as my mother and my sister at once," cried
+Elizabeth, as with ardor she threw herself into Catharine's arms. "Yes,
+I will love you for it; and I will pray God that He may one day give
+me the opportunity to show my gratitude, and to reward you for your
+magnanimity and goodness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. INTRIGUES.
+
+
+For a few days past the king's gout had grown worse, and, to his wrath
+and grief, it confined him as a prisoner to his rolling chair.
+
+The king was, therefore, very naturally gloomy and dejected, and hurled
+the lightnings of his wrath on all those who enjoyed the melancholy
+prerogative of being in his presence. His pains, instead of softening
+his disposition, seemed only to heighten still more his natural
+ferocity; and often might be heard through the palace of Whitehall the
+king's angry growl, and his loud, thundering invectives, which no longer
+spared any one, nor showed respect for any rank or dignity.
+
+Earl Douglas, Gardiner, and Wriothesley very well knew how to take
+advantage of this wrathful humor of the king for their purposes, and
+to afford the cruel monarch, tortured with pain, one satisfaction at
+least--the satisfaction of making others suffer also.
+
+Never had there been seen in England so many burnt at the stake as
+in those days of the king's sickness; never had the prisons been so
+crowded; never had so much blood flowed as King Henry now caused to be
+shed. [Footnote: During the king's reign, and at the instigation of the
+clergy, twenty-eight hundred persons were burnt and executed, because
+they would not recognize the religious institutions established by the
+king as the only right and true ones.--Leti, vol. i, p. 34.] But all
+this did not yet suffice to appease the blood-thirstiness of the king,
+and his friends and counsellors, and his priests.
+
+Still there remained untouched two mighty pillars of Protestantism that
+Gardiner and Wriothesley had to overthrow. These were the queen and
+Archbishop Cranmer.
+
+Still there were two powerful and hated enemies whom the Seymours had
+to overcome; these were the Duke of Norfolk and his son, the Earl of
+Surrey.
+
+But the various parties that in turn besieged the king's ear and
+controlled it, were in singular and unheard-of opposition, and at the
+same time inflamed with bitterest enmity, and they strove to supplant
+each other in the favor of the king.
+
+To the popish party of Gardiner and Earl Douglas, everything depended on
+dispossessing the Seymours of the king's favor; and they, on the other
+hand, wanted above all things to continue in power the young queen,
+already inclined to them, and to destroy for the papists one of their
+most powerful leaders, the Duke of Norfolk.
+
+The one party controlled the king's ear through the queen; the other,
+through his favorite, Earl Douglas.
+
+Never had the king been more gracious and affable to his consort--never
+had he required more Earl Douglas's presence than in those days of his
+sickness and bodily anguish.
+
+But there was yet a third party that occupied an important place in the
+king's favor--a power which every one feared, and which seemed to keep
+itself perfectly independent and free from all foreign influences. This
+power was John Heywood, the king's fool, the epigrammatist, who was
+dreaded by the whole court.
+
+Only one person had influence with him. John Heywood was the friend
+of the queen. For the moment, then, it appeared as if the "heretical
+party," of which the queen was regarded as the head, was the most
+powerful at court.
+
+It was therefore very natural for the popish party to cherish an ardent
+hatred against the queen; very natural for them to be contriving new
+plots and machinations to ruin her and hurl her from the throne.
+
+But Catharine knew very well the danger that threatened her, and she was
+on her guard. She watched her every look, her every word; and Gardiner
+and Douglas could not examine the queen's manner of life each day and
+hour more suspiciously than she herself did.
+
+She saw the sword that hung daily over her head; and, thanks to
+her prudence and presence of mind, thanks to the ever-thoughtful
+watchfulness and cunning of her friend Heywood! she had still known how
+to avoid the falling of that sword.
+
+Since that fatal ride in the wood of Epping Forest, she had not again
+spoken to Thomas Seymour alone; for Catharine very well knew that
+everywhere, whithersoever she turned her steps, some spying eye might
+follow her, some listener's ear might be concealed, which might hear
+her words, however softly whispered, and repeat them where they might be
+interpreted into a sentence of death against her.
+
+She had, therefore, renounced the pleasure of speaking to her lover
+otherwise than before witnesses, and of seeing him otherwise than in the
+presence of her whole court.
+
+What need had she either for secret meetings? What mattered it to her
+pure and innocent heart that she was not permitted to be alone with him?
+Still she might see him, and drink courage and delight from the sight
+of his haughty and handsome face; still she might be near him, and could
+listen to the music of his voice, and intoxicate her heart with his
+fine, euphonious and vigorous discourse.
+
+Catharine, the woman of eight-and-twenty, had preserved the enthusiasm
+and innocence of a young girl of fourteen. Thomas Seymour was her first
+love; and she loved him with that purity and guileless warmth which is
+indeed peculiar to the first love only.
+
+It sufficed her, therefore, to see him; to be near him; to know that
+he loved her; that he was true to her; that all his thoughts and wishes
+belonged to her, as hers to him.
+
+And that she knew. For there ever remained to her the sweet enjoyment of
+his letters--of those passionately written avowals of his love. If
+she was not permitted to say also to him how warmly and ardently she
+returned this love, yet she could write it to him.
+
+It was John Heywood, the true and discreet friend, that brought her
+these letters, and bore her answers to him, stipulating, as a reward for
+this dangerous commission, that they both should regard him as the sole
+confidant of their love; that both should burn up the letters which he
+brought them. He had not been able to hinder Catharine from this unhappy
+passion, but wanted at least to preserve her from the fatal consequences
+of it. Since he knew that this love needed a confidant, he assumed
+this role, that Catharine, in the vehemence of her passion and in the
+simplicity of her innocent heart, might not make others sharers of her
+dangerous secret.
+
+John Heywood therefore watched over Catharine's safety and happiness,
+as she watched over Thomas Seymour and her friends. He protected and
+guarded her with the king, as she guarded Cranmer, and protected him
+from the constantly renewed assaults of his enemies.
+
+This it was that they could never forgive the queen--that she
+had delivered Cranmer, the noble and liberal-minded Archbishop of
+Canterbury, from their snares. More than once Catharine had succeeded
+in destroying their intriguing schemes, and in rending the nets that
+Gardiner and Earl Douglas, with so sly and skilful a hand, had spread
+for Cranmer.
+
+If, therefore, they would overthrow Cranmer, they must first overthrow
+the queen. For this there was a real means--a means of destroying at
+once the queen and the hated Seymours, who stood in the way of the
+papists.
+
+If they could prove to the king that Catharine entertained criminal
+intercourse with Thomas Seymour, then were they both lost; then were the
+power and glory of the papists secured.
+
+But whence to fetch the proofs of this dangerous secret, which the
+crafty Douglas had read only in Catharine's eyes, and for which he had
+no other support than his bare conviction? How should they begin to
+influence the queen to some inconsiderate step, to a speaking witness of
+her love?
+
+Time hung so heavily on the king's hands! It would have been so easy to
+persuade him to some cruel deed--to a hasty sentence of death!
+
+But it was not the blood of the Seymours for which the king thirsted.
+Earl Douglas very well knew that. He who observed the king day and
+night--he who examined and sounded his every sigh, each of his softly
+murmured words, every twitch of his mouth, every wrinkle of his brow--he
+well knew what dark and bloody thoughts stirred the king's soul, and
+whose blood it was for which he thirsted.
+
+The royal tiger would drink the blood of the Howards; and that they
+still lived in health, and abundance, and glory, while he, their
+king and master, lonely and sad, was tossing on his couch in pain and
+agony--that was the worm which gnawed at the king's heart, which made
+his pains yet more painful, his tortures yet keener.
+
+The king was jealous--jealous of the power and greatness of the Howards.
+It filled him with gloomy hatred to think that the Duke of Norfolk, when
+he rode through the streets of London, was everywhere received with
+the acclamations and rejoicing of the people, while he, the king, was a
+prisoner in his palace. It was a gnawing pain for him to know that Henry
+Howard, Earl of Surrey, was praised as the handsomest and greatest man
+of England; that he was called the noblest poet; the greatest scholar;
+while yet he, the king, had also composed his poems and written his
+learned treatises, aye, even a particular devout book, which he had
+printed for his people, and ordered them to read instead of the Bible.
+[Footnote: Burnet, vol. i, p. 95.]
+
+It was the Howards who everywhere disputed his fame. The Howards
+supplanted him in the favor of his people, and usurped the love and
+admiration which were due to the king alone, and which should be
+directed toward no one but him. He lay on his bed of pain, and without
+doubt the people would have forgotten him, if he had not by the block,
+the stake, and the scaffold, daily reminded them of himself. He lay on
+his bed of pain, while the duke, splendid and magnificent, exhibited
+himself to the people and transported them with enthusiasm by the
+lavish and kingly generosity with which he scattered his money among the
+populace.
+
+Yes, the Duke of Norfolk was the king's dangerous rival. The crown was
+not secure upon his head so long as the Howards lived. And who could
+conjecture whether in time to come, when Henry closed his eyes, the
+exultant love of the people might not call to the throne the Duke of
+Norfolk, or his noble son, the Earl of Surrey, instead of the rightful
+heir--instead of the little boy Edward, Henry's only son?
+
+When the king thought of that, he had a feeling as though a stream of
+fire were whirling up to his brain; and he convulsively clenched his
+hands, and screamed and roared that he would take vengeance--vengeance
+on those hated Howards, who wanted to snatch the crown from his son.
+
+Edward, the little boy of tender age--he alone was the divinely
+consecrated, legitimate heir to the king's crown. It had cost his father
+so great a sacrifice to give his people this son and successor! In order
+to do it, he had sacrificed Jane Seymour, his own beloved wife; he had
+let the mother be put to death, in order to preserve the son, the heir
+of his crown.
+
+And the people did not once thank the king for this sacrifice that Jane
+Seymour's husband had made for them. The people received with shouts the
+Duke of Norfolk, the father of that adulterous queen whom Henry loved
+so much that her infidelity had struck him like the stab of a poisoned
+dagger.
+
+These were the thoughts that occupied the king on his bed of pain, and
+upon which he dwelt with all the wilfulness and moodiness of a sick man.
+
+"We shall have to sacrifice these Howards to him!" said Earl Douglas to
+Gardiner, as they had just again listened to a burst of rage from their
+royal master. "If we would at last succeed in ruining the queen, we must
+first destroy the Howards."
+
+The pious bishop looked at him inquiringly, and in astonishment.
+
+Earl Douglas smiled. "Your highness is too exalted and noble to be
+always able to comprehend the things of this world. Your look, which
+seeks only God and heaven, does not always see the petty and pitiful
+things that happen here on the earth below."
+
+"Oh, but," said Gardiner, with a cruel smile, "I see them, and it charms
+my eye when I see how God's vengeance punishes the enemies of the Church
+here on earth. Set up then, by all means, a stake or a scaffold for
+these Howards, if their death can be to us a means to our pious and
+godly end. You are certain of my blessing and my assistance. Only I do
+not quite comprehend how the Howards can stand in the way of our plots
+which are formed against the queen, inasmuch as they are numbered among
+the queen's enemies, and profess themselves of the Church in which alone
+is salvation."
+
+"The Earl of Surrey is an apostate, who has opened his ear and heart to
+the doctrines of Calvin!"
+
+"Then let his head fall, for he is a criminal before God, and no one
+ought to have compassion on him! And what is there that we lay to the
+charge of the father?"
+
+"The Duke of Norfolk is well-nigh yet more dangerous than his son; for
+although a Catholic, he has not nevertheless the right faith; and his
+soul is full of unholy sympathy and injurious mildness. He bewails those
+whose blood is shed because they were devoted to the false doctrine of
+the priests of Baal; and-he calls us both the king's blood-hounds."
+
+"Well, then," cried Gardiner with an uneasy, dismal smile, "we will
+show him that he has called us by the right name; we will rend him in
+pieces!"
+
+"Besides, as we have said, the Howards stand in the way of our schemes
+in relation to the queen," said Earl Douglas, earnestly. "The king's
+mind is so completely filled with this one hatred and this one jealousy,
+that there is no room in it for any other feeling, for any other hate.
+It is true he signs often enough these death-warrants which we lay
+before him; but he does it, as the lion, with utter carelessness and
+without anger, crushes the little mouse that is by chance under his
+paws. But if the lion is to rend in pieces his equal, he must beforehand
+be put into a rage. When he is raging, then you must let him have his
+prey. The Howards shall be his first prey. But, then, we must exert
+ourselves, that when the lion again shakes his mane his wrath may fall
+upon Catharine Parr and the Seymours."
+
+"The Lord our God will be with us, and enlighten us, that we may find
+the right means to strike His enemies a sure blow!" exclaimed Gardiner,
+devoutly folding his hands.
+
+"I believe the right means are already found," said Earl Douglas, with a
+smile; "and even before this day descends to its close, the gates of the
+Tower will open to receive this haughty and soft-hearted Duke of Norfolk
+and this apostate Earl Surrey. Perchance we may even succeed in striking
+at one blow the queen together with the Howards. See! an equipage stops
+before the grand entrance, and I see the Duchess of Norfolk and her
+daughter, the Duchess of Richmond, getting out of the carriage. Only
+see! they are making signs to us. I have promised to conduct these two
+noble and pious ladies to the king, and I shall do so. Whilst we are
+there, pray for us, your highness, that our words, like well-aimed
+arrows, may strike the king's heart, and then rebound upon the queen and
+the Seymours!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. THE ACCUSATION.
+
+
+In vain had the king hoped to master his pains, or at least to forget
+them, while he tried to sleep. Sleep had fled from the king's couch; and
+as he now sat in his rolling-chair, sad, weary, and harassed with pain,
+he thought, with gloomy spite, that the Duke of Norfolk told him but
+yesterday that sleep was a thing under his control, and he could summon
+it to him whenever it seemed good to him. This thought made him raving
+with anger; and grinding his teeth, he muttered: "He can sleep; and I,
+his lord and king--I am a beggar that in vain whines to God above for
+a little sleep, a little forgetfulness of his pains! But it is this
+traitorous Norfolk that prevents me from sleeping. Thoughts of him keep
+me awake and restless. And I cannot crush this traitor with these hands
+of mine; I am a king, and yet so powerless and weak, that I can find
+no means of accusing this traitor, and convicting him of his sinful
+and blasphemous deeds. Oh, where may I find him--that true friend, that
+devoted servant, who ventures to understand my unuttered thoughts, and
+fulfil the wishes to which I dare not give a name?"
+
+Just as he was thus thinking, the door behind him opened and in walked
+Earl Douglas. His countenance was proud and triumphant, and so wild a
+joy gleamed from his eyes that even the king was surprised at it.
+
+"Oh," said he, peevishly, "you call yourself my friend; and you are
+cheerful, Douglas, while your king is a poor prisoner whom the gout has
+chained with brazen bands to this chair."
+
+"You will recover, my king, and go forth from this imprisonment as
+the conqueror, dazzling and bright, that by his appearance under God's
+blessing treads all his enemies in the dust--that triumphs over all
+those who are against him, and would betray their king!"
+
+"Are there, then, any such traitors, who threaten their king?" asked
+Henry, with a dark frown.
+
+"Ay, there are such traitors!"
+
+"Name them to me!" said the king, trembling with passionate impatience.
+"Name them to me, that my arm may crush them and my avenging justice
+overtake the heads of the guilty."
+
+"It is superfluous to mention them, for you, King Henry, the wise and
+all-knowing--you know their names."
+
+And bending down closer to the king's ear, Earl Douglas continued: "King
+Henry, I certainly have a right to call myself your most faithful and
+devoted servant, for I have read your thoughts. I have understood the
+noble grief that disturbs your heart, and banishes sleep from your eyes
+and peace from your soul. You saw the foe that was creeping in the dark;
+you heard the low hiss of the serpent that was darting his venomous
+sting at your heel. But you were so much the noble and intrepid king,
+that you would not yourself become the accuser--nay, you would not once
+draw back the foot menaced by the serpent. Great and merciful, like God
+Himself, you smiled upon him whom you knew to be your enemy. But I, my
+king--I have other duties. I am like the faithful dog, that has eyes
+only for the safety of his master, and falls upon every one that comes
+to menace him. I have seen the serpent that would kill you, and I will
+bruise his head!"
+
+"And what is the name of this serpent of which you speak?" asked
+the king; and his heart beat so boisterously that he felt it on his
+trembling lips.
+
+"It is called," said Earl Douglas, earnestly and solemnly--"it is called
+Howard!"
+
+The king uttered a cry, and, forgetting his gout and his pains, arose
+from his chair.
+
+"Howard!" said he, with a cruel smile. "Say you that a Howard threatens
+our life? Which one is it? Name me the traitor!"
+
+"I name them both--father and son! I name the Duke of Norfolk and the
+Earl of Surrey! I say that they both are traitors, who threaten the life
+and honor of my king, and with blasphemous arrogance dare stretch out
+their hands even to the crown!"
+
+"Ah, I knew it, I knew it!" screamed the king. "And it was this that
+made me sleepless, and ate into my body like red-hot iron."
+
+And as he fastened on Douglas his eyes flashing with rage, he asked,
+with a grim smile: "Can you prove that these Howards are traitors? Can
+you prove that they aim at my crown?"
+
+"I hope to be able to do so," said Douglas. "To be sure, there are no
+great convincing facts--"
+
+"Oh," said the king, interrupting him with a savage laugh, "there is no
+need of great facts. Give into my hand but a little thread, and I will
+make out of it a cord strong enough to haul the father and son up to the
+gallows at one time."
+
+"Oh, for the son there is proof enough," said the earl, with a smile:
+"and as regards the father, I will produce your majesty some accusers
+against him, who will be important enough to bring the duke also to the
+block. Will you allow me to bring them to you immediately?"
+
+"Yes, bring them, bring them!" cried the king. "Every minute is precious
+that may lead these traitors sooner to their punishment."
+
+Earl Douglas stepped to the door and opened it. Three veiled female
+figures entered and bowed reverentially.
+
+"Ah," whispered the king, with a cruel smile, as he sank back again into
+his chair, "they are the three Fates that spin the Howards' thread of
+life, and will now, it is to be hoped, break it off. I will furnish them
+with the scissors for it; and if they are not sharp enough, I will, with
+my own royal hands, help them to break the thread."
+
+"Sire," said Earl Douglas, as, at a sign from him, the three women
+unveiled themselves--"sire, the wife, the daughter, and the mistress of
+the Duke of Norfolk have come to accuse him of high treason. The mother
+and the sister of the Earl of Surrey are here to charge him with a crime
+equally worthy of death."
+
+"Now verily," exclaimed the king, "it must be a grievous and blasphemous
+sin which so much exasperates the temper of these noble women, and makes
+them deaf to the voice of nature!"
+
+"It is indeed such a sin," said the Duchess of Norfolk, in a solemn
+tone; and, approaching a few paces nearer to the king, she continued:
+"Sire, I accuse the duke, my divorced husband, of high treason and
+disloyalty to his king. He has been so bold as to appropriate your own
+royal coat-of-arms; and on his seal and equipage, and over the entrance
+of his palace, are displayed the arms of the kings of England."
+
+"That is true," said the king, who, now that he was certain of
+the destruction of the Howards, had regained his calmness and
+self-possession, and perfectly reassumed the air of a strict, impartial
+judge. "Yes, he bears the royal arms on his shield, but yet, if we
+remember rightly, the crown and paraph of our ancestor Edward the Third
+are wanting."
+
+"He has now added this crown and this paraph to his coat-of-arms," said
+Miss Holland. "He says he is entitled to them; for that, like the
+king, he also is descended in direct line from Edward the Third; and,
+therefore, the royal arms belong likewise to him."
+
+"If he says that, he is a traitor who presumes to call his king and
+master his equal," cried the king, coloring up with a grim joy at now at
+length having his enemy in his power.
+
+"He is indeed a traitor," continued Miss Holland. "Often have I heard
+him say he had the same right to the throne of England as Henry the
+Eighth; and that a day might come when he would contend with Henry's son
+for that crown."
+
+"Ah," cried the king, and his eyes darted flashes so fierce that even
+Earl Douglas shrank before them, "ah, he will contend with my son for
+the crown of England! It is well, now; for now it is my sacred duty, as
+a king and as a father, to crush this serpent that wants to bite me on
+the heel; and no compassion and no pity ought now to restrain me longer.
+And were there no other proofs of his guilt and his crime than these
+words that he has spoken to you, yet are they sufficient, and will rise
+up against him, like the hangman's aids who are to conduct him to the
+block."
+
+"But there are yet other proofs," said Miss Holland, laconically.
+
+The king was obliged to unbutton his doublet. It seemed as though joy
+would suffocate him.
+
+"Name them!" commanded he.
+
+"He dares deny the king's supremacy; he calls the Bishop of Rome the
+sole head and holy Father of the Church."
+
+"Ah, does he so?" exclaimed the king, laughing. "Well, we shall see now
+whether this holy Father will save this faithful son from the scaffold
+which we will erect for him. Yes, yes, we must give the world a new
+example of our incorruptible justice, which overtakes every one, however
+high and mighty he may be, and however near our throne he may stand.
+Really, really, it grieves our heart to lay low this oak which we had
+planted so near our throne, that we might lean upon it and support
+ourselves by it; but justice demands this sacrifice, and we will make
+it--not in wrath and spite, but only to meet the sacred and painful duty
+of our royalty. We have greatly loved this duke, and it grieves us to
+tear this love from our heart."
+
+And with his hand, glittering with jewels, the king wiped from his eyes
+the tears which were not there.
+
+"But how?" asked the king, then, after a pause, "will you have the
+courage to repeat your accusation publicly before Parliament? Will you,
+his wife, and you, his mistress, publicly swear with a sacred oath to
+the truth of your declaration?"
+
+"I will do so," said the duchess, solemnly, "for he is no longer my
+husband, no longer the father of my children, but simply the enemy of my
+king; and to serve him is my most sacred duty."
+
+"I will do so," cried Miss Holland, with a bewitching smile; "for he
+is no longer my lover, but only a traitor, an atheist, who is audacious
+enough to recognize as the holy head of Christendom that man at Rome who
+has dared to hurl his curse against the sublime head of our king. It is
+this, indeed, that has torn my heart from the duke, and that has made me
+now hate him as ardently as I once loved him."
+
+With a gracious smile, the king presented both his hands to the two
+women. "You have done me a great service to-day, my ladies," said he,
+"and I will find a way to reward you for it. I will give you, duchess,
+the half of his estate, as though you were his rightful heir and lawful
+widow. And you, Miss Holland, I will leave in undisputed possession of
+all the goods and treasures that the enamored duke has given you."
+
+The two ladies broke out into loud expressions of thanks and into
+enthusiastic rapture over the liberal and generous king, who was so
+gracious as to give them what they already had, and to bestow on them
+what was already their own property.
+
+"Well, and are you wholly mute, my little duchess," asked the king after
+a pause, turning to the Duchess of Richmond, who had withdrawn to the
+embrasure of a window.
+
+"Sire," said the duchess, smiling, "I was only waiting for my cue."
+
+"And this cue is--"
+
+"Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey! As your majesty knows, I am a merry and
+harmless woman; and I understand better how to laugh and joke than to
+talk much seriously. The two noble and fair ladies have accused the
+duke, my father; and they have done so in a very dignified and solemn
+manner. I wish to accuse my brother, Henry Howard; but you must exercise
+forbearance, if my words sound less solemn and elevated. They have told
+you, sire, that the Duke of Norfolk is a traitor and a criminal who
+denominates the Pope of Rome, and not you, my exalted king, the head of
+the Church. Now, the Earl of Surrey is neither a traitor nor a papist;
+and he has neither devised criminal plots against the throne of England,
+nor has he denied the supremacy of the king. No, sire, the Earl of
+Surrey is no traitor and no papist!"
+
+The duchess paused, and looked with a malicious and droll smile into the
+astonished faces of those present.
+
+A dark frown gathered on the king's brow, and his eyes, which just
+before had looked so cheerful, were now fixed with an angry expression
+on the young duchess.
+
+"Why, then, my lady, have you made your appearance here?" asked he.
+"Why have you come here, if you have nothing further to say than what I
+already know--that the Earl of Surrey is a very loyal subject, and a
+man without any ambition, who neither courts the favor of my people nor
+thinks of laying his traitorous hands on my crown?"
+
+The young duchess shook her head with a smile. "I know not whether he
+does all that," said she. "I have indeed heard that he said, with bitter
+scorn, that you, my king, wanted to be the protector of religion, yet
+you yourself were entirely without religion and without belief. Also, he
+of late broke out into bitter curses against you, because you had robbed
+him of his field-marshal's staff, and given it to Earl Hertford, that
+noble Seymour. Also, he meant to see whether the throne of England were
+so firm and steady that it had no need of his hand and his arm to prop
+it. All that I have of course heard from him; but you are right, sire,
+it is unimportant--it is not worth mentioning, and therefore I do not
+even make it as an accusation against him."
+
+"Ah, you are always a mad little witch, Rosabella!" cried the king, who
+had regained his cheerfulness. "You say you will not accuse him, and yet
+you make his head a plaything that you poise upon your crimson lips. But
+take care, my little duchess--take care, that this head does not fall
+from your lips with your laughing, and roll down to the ground; for I
+will not stop it--this head of the Earl of Surrey, of whom you say that
+he is no traitor."
+
+"But is it not monotonous and tiresome, if we accuse the father and son
+of the same crime?" asked the duchess, laughing. "Let us have a little
+variation. Let the duke be a traitor; the son, my king, is by far a
+worse criminal!"
+
+"Is there, then, a still worse and more execrable crime than to be a
+traitor to his king and master, and to speak of the anointed of the Lord
+without reverence and love?"
+
+"Yes, your majesty, there is a still worse crime; and of that I accuse
+the Earl of Surrey. He is an adulterer!"
+
+"An adulterer!" repeated the king, with an expression of abhorrence.
+"Yes, my lady, you are right; that is a more execrable and unnatural
+crime, and we shall judge it strictly. For it shall not be said that
+modesty and virtue found no protector in the king of this land, and that
+he will not as a judge punish and crash all those who dare sin against
+decency and morals. Oh, the Earl of Surrey is an adulterer, is he?"
+
+"That is to say, sire, he dares with his sinful love to pursue a
+virtuous and chaste wife. He dares to raise his wicked looks to a woman
+who stands as high above him as the sun above mortals, and who, at least
+by the greatness and high position of her husband, should be secure from
+all impure desires and lustful wishes."
+
+"Ah," cried the king, indignantly, "I see already whither that tends. It
+is always the same accusation; and now I say, as you did just now, let
+us have a little variation! The accusation I have already often heard;
+but the proofs are always wanting."
+
+"Sire, this time, it may be, we can give the proofs," said the duchess,
+earnestly. "Would you know, my noble king, who the Geraldine is to whom
+Henry Howard addresses his love-songs? Shall I tell you the real name
+of this woman to whom, in the presence of your sacred person and of your
+whole court, he uttered his passionate protestations of love and his
+oath of eternal faithfulness? Well, now, this Geraldine--so adored, so
+deified--is the queen!"
+
+"That is not true!" cried the king, crimson with anger; and he clenched
+his hands so firmly about the arms of his chair that it cracked. "That
+is not true, my lady!"
+
+"It is true!" said the duchess, haughtily and saucily. "It is true,
+sire, for the Earl of Surrey has confessed to me myself that it is the
+queen whom he loves, and that Geraldine is only a melodious appellation
+for Catharine."
+
+"He has confessed it to you yourself?" inquired the king, with gasping
+breath. "Ah, he dares love his king's wife? Woe to him, woe!"
+
+He raised his clenched fist threateningly to heaven, and his eyes darted
+lightning. "But how!" said he, after a pause--"has he not recently read
+before us a poem to his Geraldine, in which he thanks her for her love,
+and acknowledges himself eternally her debtor for the kiss she gave
+him?"
+
+"He has read before your majesty such a poem to Geraldine."
+
+The king uttered a low cry, and raised himself in his seat. "Proofs,"
+said he, in a hoarse, hollow voice--"proofs--or, I tell you, your own
+head shall atone for this accusation!"
+
+"This proof, your majesty, I will give you!" said Earl Douglas,
+solemnly. "It pleases your majesty, in the fulness of your gentleness
+and mercy, to want to doubt the accusation of the noble duchess. Well,
+now, I will furnish you infallible proof that Henry Howard, Earl of
+Surrey, really loves the queen, and that he really dares to extol and
+adore the king's wife as his Geraldine. You shall with your own ears,
+sire, hear how Earl Surrey swears his love to the queen."
+
+The scream which the king now uttered was so frightful, and gave
+evidence of so much inward agony and rage, that it struck the earl dumb,
+and made the cheeks of the ladies turn pale.
+
+"Douglas, Douglas, beware how you rouse the lion!" gasped the king. "The
+lion might rend you yourself in pieces!"
+
+"This very night I will give you the proof that you demand, sire. This
+very night you shall hear how Earl Surrey, sitting at the feet of his
+Geraldine, swears to her his love."
+
+"It is well!" said the king. "This night, then! Woe to you, Douglas, if
+you cannot redeem your word!"
+
+"I will do so, your majesty. For this, it is only necessary that you
+will be graciously pleased to swear to me that you will not, by a sigh
+or a breath, betray yourself. The earl is suspicious; and the fear of
+an evil conscience has sharpened his ear. He would recognize you by your
+sigh, and his lips would not speak those words and avowals which you
+desire to hear."
+
+"I swear to you that I will not by any sigh or breath betray my
+presence!" said the king, solemnly. "I swear this to you by the
+holy mother of God! But now let that suffice. Air--air--I suffocate!
+Everything swims before my eyes. Open the window, that a little air may
+flow in! Ah! that is good! This air at least is pure, and not infected
+with sin and slander!"
+
+And the king had Earl Douglas roll him to the opened window, and
+inspired in long draughts that pure fresh air. Then he turned to the
+ladies with an agreeable smile.
+
+"My ladies," said he, "I thank you! You have to-day shown yourselves my
+true and devoted friends! I shall ever remember it, and I beg of you,
+if at any time you need a friend and protector, to apply to us with all
+confidence. We shall never forget what great service you have to-day
+rendered us."
+
+He nodded to them in a friendly manner, whilst, with a majestic wave of
+the hand, he dismissed them, and concluded the audience.
+
+"And now, Douglas," exclaimed the king, vehemently, as soon as the
+ladies had retired--"now I have had enough of this dreadful torture! Oh,
+you say I am to punish the traitors--these Surreys--and you inflict on
+me the most frightful pains of the rack!"
+
+"Sire, there was no other means of delivering up this Surrey to you. You
+were wishing that he were a criminal; and I shall prove to you that he
+is so."
+
+"Oh, I shall then be able at least to tread his hated head under my
+feet," said the king, grinding his teeth. "I shall no more tremble
+before this malicious enemy, who goes about among my people with his
+hypocritical tongue, while I, tortured with pain, sit in the dungeon of
+my sickroom. Yes, yes, I thank you, Douglas, that you will hand him over
+to my arm of vengeance; and my soul is full of joy and serenity at it.
+Ah, why were you obliged to cloud this fair, this sublime hour? Why was
+it necessary to weave the queen into this gloomy web of guilt and crime?
+Her cheerful smile and her radiant looks have ever been an enjoyment so
+dear to my eyes."
+
+"Sire, I do not by any means say that the queen is guilty. Only there
+was no other means to prove to you Earl Surrey's guilt than that you
+should hear for yourself his confession of love to the queen."
+
+"And I will hear it!" cried the king, who had now already overcome the
+sentimental emotion of his heart.
+
+"Yes, I will have full conviction of Surrey's guilt; and woe to the
+queen, should I find her also guilty! This night, then, earl! But
+till then, silence and secrecy! We will have father and son seized and
+imprisoned at the same hour; for otherwise the imprisonment of the one
+might easily serve as a warning to the other, and he might escape my
+just wrath. Ah, they are so sly--these Howards--and their hearts are so
+full of cunning and malice! But now they shall escape me no more; now
+they are ours! How it does me good to think that! And how briskly
+and lightly my heart leaps! It is as though a stream of new life were
+rushing through my veins, and a new power were infused into my blood.
+Oh, it was these Howards that made me sick. I shall be well again when I
+know that they are in the Tower. Yes, yes, my heart leaps with joy, and
+this is to be a happy and blessed day. Call the queen hither to me,
+that I may once more enjoy her rosy face before I make it turn pale with
+terror. Yes, let the queen come, and let her adorn herself; I want to
+see her once more in the full splendor of her youth and her royalty,
+before her star goes out in darkness. I will once more delight myself
+with her before I make her weep. Ah, know you, Douglas, that there is no
+enjoyment keener, more devilish, and more heavenly, than to see such a
+person who smiles and suspects nothing, while she is already condemned;
+who still adorns her head with roses, while the executioner is already
+sharpening the axe that is to lay that head low; who still has hopes of
+the future, and of joy and happiness, while her hour of life has already
+run out; while I have already bidden her stop and descend into the
+grave! So, call the queen to me; and tell her that we are in a merry
+mood, and want to jest and laugh with her! Call all the ladies and lords
+of our court; and have the royal saloons opened; and let them be radiant
+with the brilliancy of the lights; and let us have music--loud, crashing
+music--for we want at least to make this a merry day for us since it
+seems as though we should have a sad and unhappy night. Yes, yes, a
+merry day we will have; and after that, let come what come may! The
+saloons shall resound with laughter and joyfulness; and naught but
+rejoicing and fun shall be heard in the great royal saloons. And invite
+also the Duke of Norfolk, my noble cousin, who shares with me my royal
+coat-of-arms. Yes, invite him, that I may enjoy once more his haughty
+and imposing beauty and grandeur before this august sun is extinguished
+and leaves us again in night and darkness. Then invite also Wriothesley,
+the high chancellor, and let him bring with him a few gallant and brave
+soldiers of our body-guard. They are to be the noble duke's suite, when
+he wishes to leave our feast and go homeward--homeward--if not to his
+palace, yet to the Tower, and to the grave. Go, go, Douglas, and attend
+to all this for me! And send me here directly my merry fool, John
+Heywood. He must pass away the time for me till the feast begins. He
+must make me laugh and be gay."
+
+"I will go and fulfil your orders, sire," said Earl Douglas. "I will
+order the feast, and impart your commands to the queen and your court.
+And first of all, I will send John Heywood to you. But pardon me, your
+majesty, if I venture to remind you that you have given me your royal
+word not to betray our secret by a single syllable, or even by a sigh."
+
+"I gave my word, and I will keep it!" said the king. "Go now, Earl
+Douglas, and do what I have bidden you!"
+
+Wholly exhausted by this paroxysm of cruel delight, the king sank back
+in his seat, and moaning and groaning he rubbed his leg, the piercing
+pains of which he had for a moment forgotten, but which now reminded him
+of their presence with so much the more cruel fury.
+
+"Ah, ah!" moaned the king. "He boasts of being able to sleep when he
+pleases. Well, this time we will be the one to lull this haughty earl to
+sleep. But it will be a sleep out of which he is never to awake again!"
+
+While the king thus wailed and suffered, Earl Douglas hastened with
+quick, firm step through the suite of royal apartments. A proud,
+triumphant smile played about his lips, and a joyful expression of
+victory flashed from his eyes.
+
+"Triumph! triumph! we shall conquer!" said he, as he now entered his
+daughter's chamber and extended his hand to Lady Jane. "Jane, we have at
+last reached the goal, and you will soon be King Henry's seventh wife!"
+
+A rosy shimmer flitted for a moment over Lady Jane's pale, colorless
+cheeks, and a smile played about her lips--a smile, however, which was
+more sad than loud sobs could have been.
+
+"Ah," said she in a low tone, "I fear only that my poor head will be too
+weak to wear a royal crown."
+
+"Courage, courage, Jane, lift up your head, and be again my strong,
+proud daughter!"
+
+"But, I suffer so much, my father," sighed she. "It is hell that burns
+within me!"
+
+"But soon, Jane, soon you shall feel again the bliss of heaven! I had
+forbidden you to grant Henry Howard a meeting, because it might bring us
+danger. Well, then, now your tender heart shall be satisfied. To-night
+you shall embrace your lover again!"
+
+"Oh," murmured she, "he will again call me his Geraldine, and it will
+not be I, but the queen, that he kisses in my arms!"
+
+"Yes, to-day, it will still be so, Jane; but I swear to you that to-day
+is the last time that you are obliged to receive him thus."
+
+"The last time that I see him?" asked Jane, with an expression of alarm.
+
+"No, Jane, only the last time that Henry Howard loves in you the queen,
+and not you yourself."
+
+"Oh, he will never love me!" murmured she, sadly.
+
+"He will love you, for you it will be that will save his life. Hasten,
+then. Jane, haste! Write him quickly one of those tender notes that you
+indite with so masterly a hand. Invite him to a meeting to-night at the
+usual time and place."
+
+"Oh, I shall at last have him again!" whispered Lady Jane; and she
+stepped to the writing-table and with trembling hand began to write.
+
+But suddenly she stopped, and looked at her father sharply and
+suspiciously.
+
+"You swear to me, my father, that no danger threatens him if he comes?"
+
+"I swear to you, Jane, that you shall be the one to save his life!
+I swear to you, Jane, that you shall take vengeance on the
+queen--vengeance for all the agony, the humiliation and despair that you
+have suffered by her. To-day she is yet Queen of England! To-morrow she
+will be nothing more than a criminal, who sighs in the confinement of
+the Tower for the hour of her execution. And you will be Henry's seventh
+queen. Write, then, my daughter, write! And may love dictate to you the
+proper words!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. THE FEAST OF DEATH.
+
+
+For a long time the king had not appeared in such good spirits as on
+this festive evening. For a long time he had not been so completely the
+tender husband, the good-natured companion, the cheerful bon-vivant.
+
+The pains of his leg seemed to have disappeared, and even the weight of
+his body seemed to be less burdensome than usual, for more than once
+he rose from his chair, and walked a few steps through the brilliantly
+lighted saloon, in which the ladies and lords of his court, in festive
+attire, were moving gently to and fro; in which music and laughter
+resounded. How tender he showed himself toward the queen to-day; with
+what extraordinary kindness he met the Duke of Norfolk; with what
+smiling attention, he listened to the Earl of Surrey, as he, at the
+king's desire, recited some new sonnets to Geraldine!
+
+This marked preference for the noble Howards enraptured the Roman
+Catholic party at court, and filled it with new hopes and new
+confidence.
+
+But one there was who did not allow himself to be deceived by this mask
+which King Henry had to-day put on over his wrathful face.
+
+John Heywood had faith neither in the king's cheerfulness nor in his
+tenderness. He knew the king; he was aware that those to whom he was
+most friendly often had the most to fear from him. Therefore, he watched
+him; and he saw, beneath this mask of friendliness, the king's real
+angry countenance sometimes flash out in a quick, hasty look.
+
+The resounding music and the mad rejoicing no more deceived John
+Heywood. He beheld Death standing behind this dazzling life; he smelt
+the reek of corruption concealed beneath the perfume of these brilliant
+flowers.
+
+John Heywood no longer laughed and no longer chatted. He watched.
+
+For the first time in a long while the king did not need to-day the
+exciting jest and the stinging wit of his fool in order to be cheerful
+and in good humor.
+
+So the fool had time and leisure to be a reasonable and observant man;
+and he improved the time.
+
+He saw the looks of mutual understanding and secure triumph that Earl
+Douglas exchanged with Gardiner, and it made him mistrustful to notice
+that the favorites of the king, at other times so jealous, did not seem
+to be at all disturbed by the extraordinary marks of favor which the
+Howards were enjoying this evening.
+
+Once he heard how Gardiner asked Wriothesley, as he passed by, "And the
+soldiers of the Tower?" and how he replied just as laconically, "They
+stand near the coach, and wait."
+
+It was, therefore, perfectly clear that somebody would be committed
+to prison this very day. There was, therefore, among the laughing,
+richly-attired, and jesting guests of this court, one who this very
+night, when he left these halls radiant with splendor and pleasure, was
+to behold the dark and gloomy chambers of the Tower.
+
+The only question was, who that one was for whom the brilliant comedy of
+this evening was to be changed to so sad a drama.
+
+John Heywood felt his heart oppressed with an unaccountable
+apprehension, and the king's extraordinary tenderness toward the queen
+terrified him.
+
+As now he smiled on Catharine, as he now stroked her cheeks, so had the
+king smiled on Anne Boleyn in the same hour that he ordered her arrest;
+so had he stroked Buckingham's cheek on the same day that he signed his
+death-warrant.
+
+The fool was alarmed at this brilliant feast, resounding music, and the
+mad merriment of the king. He was horrified at the laughing faces and
+frivolous jests, which came streaming from all those mirthful lips.
+
+O Heaven! they laughed, and death was in the midst of them; they
+laughed, and the gates of the Tower were already opened to admit one
+of those merry guests of the king into that house which no one in those
+days of Henry the Eighth left again, save to go to the stake or to
+ascend the scaffold!
+
+Who was the condemned? For whom were the soldiers below at the carriage
+waiting? John Heywood in vain racked his brain with this question.
+
+Nowhere could he spy a trace that might lead him on the right track;
+nowhere a clew that might conduct him through this labyrinth of horrors.
+
+"When you are afraid of the devil, you do well to put yourself under his
+immediate protection," muttered John Heywood; and sad and despondent at
+heart, he crept behind the king's throne and crouched down by it on the
+ground.
+
+John Heywood had such a little, diminutive form, and the king's
+throne was so large and broad, that it altogether concealed the little
+crouching fool.
+
+No one had noticed that John Heywood was concealed there behind the
+king. Nobody saw his large, keen eyes peeping out from behind the throne
+and surveying and watching the whole hall.
+
+John Heywood could see everything and hear everything going on in the
+vicinity of the king. He could observe every one who approached the
+queen.
+
+He saw Lady Jane likewise, who was standing by the queen's seat. He saw
+how Earl Douglas drew near his daughter, and how she turned deadly pale
+as he stepped up to her.
+
+John Heywood held his breath and listened.
+
+Earl Douglas stood near his daughter, and nodded to her with a peculiar
+smile. "Go, now, Jane, go and change your dress. It is time. Only see
+how impatiently and longingly Henry Howard is already looking this way,
+and with what languishing and enamored glances he seems to give a hint
+to the queen. Go then, Jane, and think of your promise."
+
+"And will you, my father, also think of your promise?" inquired Lady
+Jane, with trembling lips. "Will no danger threaten him?"
+
+"I will, Jane. But now make haste, my daughter, and be prudent and
+adroit."
+
+Lady Jane bowed, and murmured a few unintelligible words. Then she
+approached the queen, and begged permission to retire from the feast,
+because a severe indisposition had suddenly overtaken her.
+
+Lady Jane's countenance was so pale and deathlike, that the queen might
+well believe in the indisposition of her first maid of honor, and she
+allowed her to retire. Lady Jane left the hall. The queen continued the
+conversation with Lord Hertford, who was standing by her. It was a very
+lively and warm conversation, and the queen therefore did not heed
+what was passing around her; and she heard nothing of the conversation
+between the king and Earl Douglas.
+
+John Heywood, still crouching behind the king's throne, observed
+everything and heard every word of this softly whispered conversation.
+
+"Sire," said Earl Douglas, "it is late and the hour of midnight is
+drawing nigh. Will your majesty be pleased to conclude the feast? For
+you well know that at mid-night we must be over there in the green
+summer-house, and it is a long way there."
+
+"Yes, yes, at midnight!" muttered the king. "At midnight the carnival
+is at an end; and we shall tear off our mask, and show our wrathful
+countenance to the criminals! At midnight we must be over in the green
+summer-house. Yes, Douglas, we must make haste; for it would be cruel to
+let the tender Surrey wait still longer. So we will give his Geraldine
+liberty to leave the feast; and we ourselves must begin our journey.
+Ah, Douglas, it is a hard path that we have to tread, and the furies and
+gods of vengeance bear our torches. To work, then--to work!"
+
+The king arose from his seat, and stepped to the queen, to whom he
+presented his hand with a tender smile.
+
+"My lady, it is late," said he; "and we, who are king of so many
+subjects--we are, nevertheless, in turn, the subject of a king. This is
+the physician, and we must obey him. He has ordered me to seek my couch
+before midnight, and, as a loyal subject must do, I obey. We wish you,
+therefore, a good-night, Kate; and may your beautiful eyes on the morrow
+also shine as starlike as they do to-night."
+
+"They will shine to-morrow as to-night, if my lord and husband is still
+as gracious to me to-morrow as to-day," said Catharine, with perfect
+artlessness and without embarrassment, as she gave her hand to the
+king. Henry cast on her a suspicious, searching look, and a peculiar,
+malicious expression was manifested in his face.
+
+"Do you believe then, Kate, that we can ever be ungracious to you?"
+asked he.
+
+"As to that, I think," said she, with a smile, "that even the sun does
+not always shine; and that a gloomy night always succeeds his splendor."
+
+The king did not reply. He looked her steadily in the face, and his
+features suddenly assumed a gentler expression.
+
+Perhaps he had compassion on his young wife. Perhaps he felt pity for
+her youth and her enchanting smile, which had so often revived and
+refreshed his heart.
+
+Earl Douglas at least feared so.
+
+"Sire," said he, "it is late. The hour of midnight is drawing nigh."
+
+"Then let us go," exclaimed the king, with a sigh. "Yes once again,
+good-night, Kate! Nay, do not accompany me! I will leave the hall quite
+unobserved; and I shall be pleased, if my guests will still prolong
+the fair feast till morning. All of you remain here! No one but Douglas
+accompanies me."
+
+"And your brother, the fool!" said John Heywood, who long before had
+come out of his hiding-place and was now standing by the king. "Yes,
+come, brother Henry; let us quit this feast. It is not becoming for
+wise men of our sort to grant our presence still longer to the feast of
+fools. Come to your couch, king, and I will lull your ear to sleep with
+the sayings of my wisdom, and enliven your soul with the manna of my
+learning."
+
+While John Heywood thus spoke, it did not escape him that the features
+of the earl suddenly clouded and a dark frown settled on his brow.
+
+"Spare your wisdom for to-day, John," said the king; "for you would
+indeed be preaching only to deaf ears. I am tired, and I require not
+your erudition, but sleep. Good-night, John."
+
+The king left the hall, leaning on Earl Douglas's arm.
+
+"Earl Douglas does not wish me to accompany the king," whispered John
+Heywood. "He is afraid the king might blab out to me a little of that
+diabolical work which they will commence at midnight. Well, I call the
+devil, as well as the king, my brother, and with his help I too will be
+in the green-room at midnight. Ah, the queen is retiring; and there is
+the Duke of Norfolk leaving the hall. I have a slight longing to see
+whether the duke goes hence luckily and without danger, or if the
+soldiers who stand near the coach, as Wriothesley says, will perchance
+be the duke's bodyguard for this night."
+
+Slipping out of the hall with the quickness of a cat, John Heywood
+passed the duke in the anteroom and hurried on to the outer gateway,
+before which the carriages were drawn up.
+
+John Heywood leaned against a pillar and watched. A few minutes, and
+the duke's tall and proud form appeared in the entrance-hall; and the
+footman, hurrying forward, called his carriage.
+
+The carriage rolled up; the door was opened.
+
+Two men wrapped in black mantles sat by the coachman; two others stood
+behind as footmen, while a fifth was by the open door of the carriage.
+
+The duke first noticed him as his foot had already touched the step of
+the carriage.
+
+"This is not my equipage! These are not my people!" said he; and he
+tried to step back. But the pretended servant forced him violently into
+the carriage and shut the door. "Forward!" ordered he. The carriage
+rolled on. A moment still, John Heywood saw the duke's pale face appear
+at the open carriage window, and it seemed to him as though he were
+stretching out his arms, calling for help--then the carriage disappeared
+in the night. "Poor duke!" murmured John Heywood. "The gates of the
+Tower are heavy, and your arm will not be strong enough to open them
+again, when they have once closed behind you. But it avails nothing to
+think more about him now. The queen is also in danger. Away, then, to
+the queen!"
+
+With fleet foot John Heywood hastened back into the castle. Through
+passages and corridors he slipped hurriedly along.
+
+Now he stood in the corridor which led to the apartments of the queen.
+
+"I will constitute her guard to-night," muttered John Heywood, as he hid
+himself in one of the niches in the corridor. "The fool by his prayers
+will keep far from the door of his saint the tricks of the devil, and
+protect her from the snares which the pious Bishop Gardiner and the
+crafty courtier Douglas want to lay for her feet. My queen shall not
+fall and be ruined. The fool yet lives to protect her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. THE QUEEN
+
+
+From the niche in which John Heywood had hid himself he could survey the
+entire corridor and all the doors opening into it--could see everything
+and hear everything without being himself seen, for the projecting
+pilaster completely shaded him.
+
+So John Heywood stood and listened. All was quiet in the corridor. In
+the distance was now and then heard the deadened sound of the music; and
+the confused hum of many voices from the festive halls forced its way to
+the listener's ear.
+
+This was the only thing that John Heywood perceived. All else was still.
+But this stillness did not last long. The corridor was lighted up, and
+the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps was heard.
+
+It was the gold-laced lackeys, who bore the large silver candelabra to
+light the queen, who, with her train of ladies, was passing through the
+corridor.
+
+She looked wondrously beautiful. The glare of the candles borne before
+her illumined her countenance, which beamed with cheerfulness. As
+she passed the pillar behind which John Heywood was standing, she was
+talking in unrestrained gayety with her second maid of honor; and a
+clear and lively laugh rang from her lips, which disclosed both rows
+of her dazzling white teeth. Her eyes sparkled; her checks were flushed
+with a rich red; bright as stars glittered the diamonds in the diadem
+that encircled her lofty brow; like liquid gold shone her dress of gold
+brocade, the long trail of which, trimmed with black ermine, was borne
+by two lovely pages.
+
+Arrived at the door of her bed-chamber, the queen dismissed her pages
+and lackeys, and permitted only the maid of honor to cross the threshold
+of her chamber with her.
+
+In harmless gossip the pages glided down the corridor and the staircase.
+Then came the lackeys who bore the candelabra. They also left the
+corridor.
+
+Now all was quiet again. Still John Heywood stood and listened, firmly
+resolved to speak to the queen yet that night, even should he be obliged
+to wake her from sleep. Only he wanted to wait till the maid of honor
+also had left the queen's room.
+
+Now the door opened, and the maid of honor came out. She crossed the
+corridor to that side where her own apartments were situated. John
+Heywood heard her open the door and then slide the bolt on the inside.
+
+"Now but a brief time longer, and I will go to the queen," muttered John
+Heywood.
+
+He was just going to leave his lurking-place, when he perceived a noise
+as if a door were slowly and cautiously opened.
+
+John Heywood cowered again close behind the pillar, and held his breath
+to listen.
+
+A bright light fell over the corridor. A dress came rustling nearer and
+nearer.
+
+John Heywood gazed astounded and amazed at the figure, which just
+brushed past without seeing him.
+
+That figure was Lady Jane Douglas--Lady Jane, who, on account of
+indisposition, had retired from the feast in order to betake herself
+to rest. Now, when all rested, she watched--when all laid aside their
+festive garments, she had adorned herself with the same. Like the queen,
+she wore a dress of gold brocade, trimmed with ermine, and, like her, a
+diadem of diamonds adorned Lady Jane's brow.
+
+Now she stood before the queen's door and listened. Then a fierce sneer
+flitted across her deathly pale face, and her dark eyes flashed still
+more.
+
+"She sleeps," muttered she. "Only sleep, queen--sleep till we shall come
+to wake you! Sleep, so that I can wake for you."
+
+She raised her arm threateningly toward the door, and wildly shook her
+head. Her long black ringlets encircled and danced around her sullen
+brow like the snakes of the furies; and pale and colorless, and with
+demon-like beauty, she resembled altogether the goddess of vengeance, in
+scornful triumph preparing to tread her victim beneath her feet.
+
+With a low laugh she now glided adown the corridor, but not to that
+staircase yonder, but farther down to the end, where on the wall hung
+a life-size picture of Henry the Sixth. She pressed on a spring; the
+picture flew open, and through the door concealed behind it Lady Jane
+left the corridor.
+
+"She is going to the green-room to a meeting with Henry Howard!"
+whispered John Heywood, who now stepped forth from behind the pillar.
+"Oh, now I comprehend it all; now the whole of this devilish plot is
+clear to me; Lady Jane is Earl Surrey's lady-love, and they want to make
+the king believe that it is the queen. Doubtless this Surrey is with
+them in the conspiracy, and perhaps he will call Jane Douglas by the
+name of the queen. They will let the king see her but a moment. She
+wears a gold brocade dress and a diamond diadem like the queen; and
+thereby they hope to deceive Henry. She has the queen's form precisely;
+and everybody knows the astonishing similarity and likeness of Lady
+Jane's voice to that of the queen. Oh, oh, it is a tolerably cunning
+plot! But nevertheless you shall not succeed, and you shall not yet
+gain the victory. Patience, only patience! We likewise will be in the
+green-room, and face to face with this royal counterfeit we will place
+the genuine queen!"
+
+With hurried step John Heywood also left the corridor, which was now
+lonely and still, for the queen had gone to rest.
+
+Yes, the queen slept, and yet over yonder in the green-room everything
+was prepared for her reception.
+
+It was to be a very brilliant and extraordinary reception; for the king,
+in his own person, had betaken himself to that wing of the castle, and
+the chief master of ceremonies, Earl Douglas, had accompanied him.
+
+To the king, this excursion, which he had to make on foot, had been very
+troublesome; and this inconvenience had made him only still more
+furious and excited, and the last trace of compassion for his queen had
+disappeared from the king's breast, for on Catharine's account he had
+been obliged to make this long journey to the green-room; and with a
+grim joy Henry thought only how terrible was to be his punishment for
+Henry Howard and also for Catharine.
+
+Now that Earl Douglas had brought him hither, the king no longer had any
+doubts at all of the queen's guilt. It was no longer an accusation--it
+was proof. For never in the world would Earl Douglas have dared to bring
+him, the king, hither, if he were not certain that he would give him
+here infallible proofs.
+
+The king, therefore, no longer doubted; at last Henry Howard was in his
+power, and he could no more escape him. So he was certain of being able
+to bring these two hated enemies to the block, and of feeling his sleep
+no longed disturbed by thoughts of his two powerful rivals.
+
+The Duke of Norfolk had already passed the gates of the Tower, and his
+son must soon follow him thither.
+
+At this thought the king felt an ecstasy so savage and bloodthirsty,
+that he wholly forgot that the same sword that was to strike Henry
+Howard's head was drawn on his queen also.
+
+They were now standing in the green-room, and the king leaned panting
+and moaning on Earl Douglas's arm.
+
+The large wide room, with its antique furniture and its faded glory, was
+only gloomily and scantily lighted in the middle by the two wax candles
+of the candelabrum that Earl Douglas had brought with him; while further
+away it was enveloped in deep gloom, and seemed to the eye through this
+gloom to stretch out to an interminable length.
+
+"Through the door over there comes the queen," said Douglas; and he
+himself shrank at the loud sound of his voice, which in the large,
+desolate room became of awful fulness. "And that, there, is Henry
+Howard's entrance. Oh, he knows that path very thoroughly; for he has
+often enough already travelled it in the dark night, and his foot no
+longer stumbles on any stone of offence!"
+
+"But he will perchance stumble on the headsman's block!" muttered the
+king, with a cruel laugh.
+
+"I now take the liberty of asking one question more," said Douglas;
+and the king did not suspect how stormily the earl's heart beat at this
+question. "Is your majesty satisfied to see the earl and the queen
+make their appearance at this meeting? Or, do you desire to listen to a
+little of the earl's tender protestations?"
+
+"I will hear not a little, but all!" said the king. "Ah, let us allow
+the earl yet to sing his swan-like song before he plunges into the sea
+of blood!"
+
+"Then," said Earl Douglas, "then we must put out this light, and your
+majesty must be content merely to hear the guilty ones, and not to see
+them also. We will then betake ourselves to the boudoir here, which I
+have opened for this purpose, and in which is an easy-chair for your
+majesty. We will place this chair near the open door, and then your
+majesty will be able to hear every word of their tender whisperings."
+
+"But how shall we, if we extinguish this our only light, at last attain
+to a sight of this dear loving pair, and be able to afford them the
+dramatic surprise of our presence?"
+
+"Sire, as soon as the Earl of Surrey enters, twenty men of the king's
+bodyguard will occupy the anteroom through which the earl must pass;
+and it needs but a call from you to have them enter the hall with their
+torches. I have taken care also that before the private backgate of the
+palace two coaches stand ready, the drivers of which know very well the
+street that leads to the Tower!"
+
+"Two coaches?" said the king, laughing. "Ah, ah, Douglas, how cruel we
+are to separate the tender, loving pair on this journey which is yet to
+be their last! Well, perhaps we can compensate them for it, and
+allow these turtledoves to make the last trip--the trip to the
+stake--together. No, no, we will not separate them in death. Together
+they may lay their heads on the block."
+
+The king laughed, quite delighted with his jest, while, leaning on the
+earl's arm, he crossed to the little boudoir on the other side, and took
+his place in the armchair set near the door.
+
+"Now we must extinguish the light; and may it please your majesty to
+await in silence the things that are to come."
+
+The earl extinguished the light, and deep darkness and a grave-like
+stillness now followed.
+
+But this did not last long. Now was heard quite distinctly the sound of
+footsteps. They came nearer and nearer--now a door was heard to open and
+shut again, and it was as though some one were creeping softly along on
+his toes in the hall.
+
+"Henry Howard!" whispered Douglas.
+
+The king could scarcely restrain the cry of savage, malicious delight
+that forced its way to his lips.
+
+The hated enemy was then in his power; he was convicted of the crime; he
+was inevitably lost.
+
+"Geraldine!" whispered a voice, "Geraldine!"
+
+And as if his low call had already been sufficient to draw hither the
+loved one, the secret door here quite close to the boudoir opened.
+The rustling of a dress was very distinctly heard, and the sound of
+footsteps.
+
+"Geraldine!" repeated Earl Surrey.
+
+"Here I am, my Henry!"
+
+With an exclamation of delight, the woman rushed forward toward the
+sound of the loved voice.
+
+"The queen!" muttered Henry; and in spite of himself he felt his heart
+seized with bitter grief.
+
+He saw with his inward eye how they held each other in their embrace. He
+heard their kisses and the low whisper of their tender vows, and all
+the agonies of jealousy and wrath filled his soul. But yet the king
+prevailed upon himself to be silent and swallow down his rage. He wanted
+to hear everything, to know everything.
+
+He clenched his hands convulsively, and pressed his lips firmly together
+to hold in his panting breath. He wanted to hear.
+
+How happy they both were! Henry had wholly forgotten that he had come
+to reproach her for her long silence; she did not think about this being
+the last time she might see her lover.
+
+They were with each other, and this hour was theirs. What did the whole
+world matter to them? What cared they whether or not mischief and ruin
+threatened them hereafter?
+
+They sat by each other on the divan, quite near the boudoir. They jested
+and laughed; and Henry Howard kissed away the tears that the happiness
+of the present caused his Geraldine to shed.
+
+He swore to her eternal and unchanging love. In blissful silence she
+drank in the music of his words; and then she reiterated, with jubilant
+joy, his vows of love.
+
+The king could scarcely restrain his fury.
+
+The heart of Earl Douglas leaped with satisfaction and gratification.
+"A lucky thing that Jane has no suspicion of our presence," thought
+he--"otherwise she would have been less unrestrained and ardent, and the
+king's ear would have imbibed less poison."
+
+Lady Jane thought not at all of her father; she scarcely remembered that
+this very night would destroy her hated rival the queen.
+
+Henry Howard had called her his Geraldine only. Jane had entirely forgot
+that it was not she to whom her lover had given this name.
+
+But he himself finally reminded her of it.
+
+"Do you know, Geraldine," said Earl Surrey--and his voice, which had
+been hitherto so cheerful and sprightly, was now sad--"do you know,
+Geraldine, that I have had doubts of you? Oh, those were frightful,
+horrible hours; and in the agony of my heart I came at last to the
+resolution of going to the king and accusing myself of this love that
+was consuming my heart. Oh, fear naught! I would not have accused you.
+I would have even denied that love which you have so often and with such
+transporting reality sworn to me. I would have done it in order to see
+whether my Geraldine could at last gain courage and strength to lover.
+He saw how he pressed her hands to his lips; how he put his hand to her
+head to raise it from the floor."
+
+The king was speechless with rage. He could only lift his arm to beckon
+the soldiers to approach; to point to Henry Howard, who had not yet
+succeeded in raising the queen's head from the floor.
+
+"Arrest him!" said Earl Douglas, lending words to the king's mute sign.
+"In the king's name arrest him, and conduct him to the Tower!"
+
+"Yes, arrest him!" said the king; and, as with youthful speed he walked
+up to Henry Howard and put his hand heavily on his shoulder, he
+with terrible calmness continued: "Henry Howard, your wish shall be
+fulfilled; you shall mount the scaffold for which you have so much
+longed!"
+
+The earl's noble countenance remained calm and unmoved; his bright
+beaming eye fearlessly encountered the eye of the king flashing with
+wrath.
+
+"Sire," said he, "my life is in your hand, and I very well know that you
+will not spare it. I do not even ask you to do so. But spare this noble
+and beautiful woman, whose only crime is that she has followed the voice
+of her heart. Sire, I alone am the guilty one. Punish me, then--torture
+me, if you like--but be merciful to her."
+
+The king broke out into a loud laugh. "Ah, he begs for her!" said
+he. "This little Earl Surrey presumes to think that his sentimental
+love-plaint can exercise an influence on the heart of his judge! No,
+no, Henry Howard; you know me better. You say, indeed, that I am a cruel
+man, and that blood cleaves to my crown. Well, now, it is our pleasure
+to set in our crown a new blood-red ruby; and if we want to take it from
+Geraldine's heart's blood, your sonnets will not hinder us from doing
+so, my good little earl. That is all the reply I have to make to you;
+and I think it will be the last time that we shall meet on earth!"
+
+"There above we shall see each other again, King Henry of England!"
+said Earl Surrey, solemnly. "There. But still this hour was hers, and
+she would enjoy it. She clung fast to his breast; she drew him with
+irresistible force to her heart, which now trembled no longer for love,
+but from a nameless anxiety.
+
+"Let us fly! Let us fly!" repeated she, breathlessly. "See! This hour is
+yet ours. Let us avail ourselves of it; for who knows whether the next
+will still belong to us?"
+
+"No! it is no longer yours," yelled the king, as he sprang like a roused
+lion from his seat. "Your hours are numbered, and the next already
+belongs to the hangman!"
+
+A piercing shriek burst from Geraldine's lips. Then was heard a dull
+fall.
+
+"She has fainted," muttered Earl Douglas.
+
+"Geraldine, Geraldine, my loved one!" cried Henry Howard. "My God, my
+God! she is dying! You have killed her! Woe to you!"
+
+"Woe to yourself!" said the king, solemnly. "Here with the light! Here,
+you folks!"
+
+The door of the anteroom opened, and in it appeared four soldiers with
+torches in their hands.
+
+"Light the candles, and guard the door!" said the king, whose dazzled
+eyes were not yet able to bear this bright glare of light which now
+suddenly streamed through the room.
+
+The soldiers obeyed his orders. A pause ensued. The king had put his
+hand before his eyes, and was struggling for breath and self-control.
+
+When at length he let his hand glide down, his features had assumed a
+perfectly calm, almost a serene expression.
+
+With a hasty glance he surveyed the room. He saw the queen in her dress
+glistening with gold; he saw how she lay on the floor, stretched at full
+length, her face turned to the ground, motionless and rigid.
+
+He saw Henry Howard, who knelt by his beloved and was busy about her
+with all the anxiety and agony of an acknowledge of her love openly and
+frankly; whether her heart had the power to burst that iron band which
+the deceitful rules of the world had placed around it; whether she
+would acknowledge her lover when he was willing to die for her. "Yes,
+Geraldine, I wanted to do it, that I might finally know which feeling
+is stronger in you--love or pride--and whether you could then still
+preserve the mask of indifference, when death was hovering over your
+lover's head. Oh, Geraldine, I should deem it a fairer fate to die
+united with you, than to be obliged to still longer endure this life of
+constraint and hateful etiquette."
+
+"No, no," said she, trembling, "we will not die. My God, life is indeed
+so beautiful when you are by my side! And who knows whether a felicitous
+and blissful future may not still await us?"
+
+"Oh, should we die, then should we be certain of this blissful future,
+my Geraldine. There, above, there is no more separation--no more
+renunciation for us. There above, you are mine, and the bloody image of
+your husband no longer stands between us."
+
+"It shall no longer do so, even here on earth," whispered Geraldine.
+"Come, my beloved; let us fly far, far hence, where no one knows
+us--where we can cast from us all this hated splendor, to live for each
+other and for love."
+
+She threw her arms about her lover, and in the ecstasy of her love she
+had wholly forgotten that she could never indeed think to flee with him,
+that he belonged to her only so long as he saw her not.
+
+An inexplicable anxiety overpowered her heart; and in this anxiety she
+forgot everything--even the queen and the vengeance she had vowed.
+
+She now remembered her father's words, and she trembled for her lover's
+life.
+
+If now her father had not told her the truth--if now he had
+notwithstanding sacrificed Henry Howard in order to ruin the queen--if
+she was not able to save him, and through her fault he were to perish on
+the scaffold--above Henry the Eighth will no more be the judge, but
+the condemned criminal; "and your bloody and accursed deeds will witness
+against you!"
+
+The king laughed. "You avail yourself of your advantage," said he.
+"Because you have nothing more to lose and the scaffold is sure of you,
+you do not stick at heaping up the measure of your sins a little more,
+and you revile your legitimate, God-appointed king! But you should bear
+in mind, earl, that before the scaffold there is yet the rack, and that
+it is very possible indeed that a painful question might there be put
+to the noble Earl Surrey, to which his agonies might prevent him from
+returning an answer. Now, away with you! We have nothing more to say to
+each other on earth!"
+
+He motioned to the soldiers, who approached the Earl of Surrey. As they
+reached their hands toward him, he turned on them a look so proud and
+commanding that they involuntarily recoiled a step.
+
+"Follow me!" said Henry Howard, calmly; and, without even deigning the
+king a single look more, with head proudly erect, he walked to the door.
+
+Geraldine still lay on the ground--her face turned to the floor. She
+stirred not. She seemed to have fallen into a deep swoon.
+
+Only as the door with a sullen sound closed behind Earl Surrey, a low
+wail and moan was perceived--such as is wont to struggle forth at the
+last hour from the breast of the dying.
+
+The king did not heed it. He still gazed, with eyes stern and flashing
+with anger, toward the door through which Earl Surrey had passed.
+
+"He is unyielding," muttered he. "Not even the rack affrights him;
+and in his blasphemous haughtiness he moves along in the midst of the
+soldiers, not as a prisoner, but as a commander. Oh, these Howards are
+destined to torment me; and even their death will scarcely be a full
+satisfaction to me."
+
+"Sire," said Earl Douglas, who had observed the king with a keen,
+penetrating eye, and knew that he had now reached the height of
+his wrath, at which he shrank from no deed of violence and no
+cruelty--"sire, you have sent Earl Surrey to the Tower. But what shall
+be done with the queen, who lies there on the floor in a swoon?"
+
+The king roused himself from his reverie; and his bloodshot eyes were
+fixed on Geraldine's motionless form with so dark an expression of hate
+and rage, that Earl Douglas exultingly said to himself: "The queen is
+lost! He will be inexorable!"
+
+"Ah, the queen!" cried Henry, with a savage laugh. "Yea, verily, I
+forgot the queen. I did not think of this charming Geraldine! But you
+are right, Douglas; we must think of her and occupy ourselves a little
+with her! Did you not say that a second coach was ready? Well, then, we
+will not hinder Geraldine from accompanying her beloved. She shall be
+where he is--in the Tower, and on the scaffold! We will therefore
+wake this sentimental lady and show her the last duty of a cavalier by
+conducting her to her carriage!"
+
+He was about to approach the figure of the queen lying on the floor.
+Earl Douglas held him back.
+
+"Sire," said he, "it is my duty--as your faithful subject, who loves
+you and trembles for your welfare--it is my duty to implore you to spare
+yourself and preserve your precious and adored person from the venomous
+sting of anger and grief. I conjure you, therefore, do not deign to
+look again on this woman, who has so deeply injured you. Give me your
+orders--what am I to do with her--and allow me first of all to accompany
+you to your apartments."
+
+"You are right," said the king, "she is not worthy of having my eyes
+rest on her again; and she is even too contemptible for my anger!
+We will call the soldiers that they may conduct this traitoress and
+adulteress to the tower, as they have done her paramour."
+
+"Yet for that there is needed still a formality. The queen will not be
+admitted into the Tower without the king's written and sealed order."
+
+"Then I will draw up that order."
+
+"Sire, in that cabinet yonder may be found the necessary
+writing-materials, if it please your majesty."
+
+The king leaned in silence on the earl's arm, and allowed himself to be
+led again into the cabinet.
+
+With officious haste Earl Douglas made the necessary arrangements. He
+rolled the writing-table up to the king; he placed the large sheet of
+white paper in order, and slipped the pen into the king's hand.
+
+"What shall I write?" asked the king, who, by the exertion of his
+night's excursion, and of his anger and vexation, began at length to be
+exhausted.
+
+"An order for the queen's imprisonment, sire."
+
+The king wrote. Earl Douglas stood behind him, with eager attention, in
+breathless expectation, his look steadily fixed on the paper over which
+the king's hand, white, fleshy, and sparkling with diamonds, glided
+along in hasty characters.
+
+He had at length reached his goal. When at last he should hold in his
+hand the paper which the king was then writing--when he had induced
+Henry to return to his apartments before the imprisonment of the queen
+had taken place--then was he victorious. Not that woman there would he
+then imprison; but, with the warrant in his hand, he would go to the
+real queen, and take her to the Tower.
+
+Once in the Tower, the queen could no longer defend herself; for the
+king would see her no more; and if before the Parliament she protested
+her innocence in ever so sacred oaths, still the king's testimony must
+convict her; for he had himself surprised her with her paramour.
+
+No, there was no escape for the queen. She had once succeeded in
+clearing herself of an accusation, and proving her innocence, by a
+rebutting alibi. But this time she was irretrievably lost, and no alibi
+could deliver her.
+
+The king completed his work and arose, whilst Douglas, at his command,
+was employed in setting the king's seal to the fatal paper.
+
+From the hall was heard a slight noise, as though some person were
+cautiously moving about there.
+
+Earl Douglas did not notice it; he was just in the act of pressing the
+signet hard on the melted sealing-wax.
+
+The king heard it, and supposed that it was Geraldine, and that she was
+just waking from her swoon and rising.
+
+He stepped to the door of the hall, and looked toward the place where
+she was lying. But no--she had not yet risen; she still lay stretched at
+full length on the floor.
+
+"She has come to; but she still pretends to be in a swoon," thought the
+king; and he turned to Douglas.
+
+"We are done," said he; "the warrant for imprisonment is prepared, and
+the sentence of the adulterous queen is spoken. We have done with her
+forever; and never shall she again behold our face, or again hear our
+voice. She is sentenced and damned, and the royal mercy has nothing
+more to do with this sinner. A curse on the adulteress! A curse on
+the shameless woman who deceived her husband, and gave herself up to a
+traitorous paramour! Woe to her, and may shame and disgrace forever mark
+her name, which--"
+
+Suddenly the king stopped and listened. The noise that he had heard
+just, before was now repeated louder and quicker; it came nearer and
+nearer.
+
+And now the door opened and a figure entered--a figure which made the
+king stare with astonishment and admiration. It came nearer and nearer,
+light, graceful, and with the freshness of youth; a gold-brocade dress
+enveloped it; a diadem of diamonds sparkled on the brow; and brighter
+yet than the diamonds beamed the eyes.
+
+No, the king was not mistaken. It was the queen, She was standing
+before him--and yet she still lay motionless and stiff upon the floor
+yonder.
+
+The king uttered a cry, and, turning pale, reeled a step backward.
+
+"The queen!" exclaimed Douglas, in terror; and he trembled so violently
+that the paper in his hand rattled and fluttered.
+
+"Yes, the queen!" said Catharine, with a haughty smile. "The queen, who
+comes to scold her husband, that, contrary to his physician's orders, he
+still refrains from his slumbers at so late an hour of the night."
+
+"And the fool!" said John Heywood, as with humorous pathos he stepped
+forward from behind the queen--"the fool, who comes to ask Earl Douglas
+how he dared deprive John Heywood of his office, and usurp the place
+of king's fool to Henry, and deceive his most gracious majesty with all
+manner of silly pranks and carnival tricks."
+
+"And who"--asked the king, in a voice quivering with rage, fastening his
+flashing looks on Douglas with an annihilating expression--"who, then,
+is that woman there? Who has dared with such cursed mummery to deceive
+the king, and calumniate the queen?"
+
+"Sire," said Earl Douglas, who very well knew that his future and
+that of his daughter depended on the present moment, and whom this
+consciousness had speedily restored to his self-possession and
+calmness--"sire, I beseech your majesty for a moment of private
+explanation; and I shall be entirely successful in vindicating myself."
+
+"Do not grant it him, brother Henry," said John Heywood; "he is a
+dangerous juggler; and who knows whether he may not yet, in his private
+conversation, convince you that he is king, and you nothing more than
+his lickspittle, fawning, hypocritical servant Earl Archibald Douglas."
+
+"My lord and husband, I beg you to hear the earl's justification," said
+Catharine, as she extended her hand to the king with a bewitching smile.
+
+"It would be cruel to condemn him unheard, I will hear him, but it shall
+be done in your presence, Kate, and you yourself shall decide whether or
+not his justification is sufficient."
+
+"No indeed, my husband; let me remain an entire stranger to this night's
+conspiracy, so that spite and anger may not fill my heart and rob me of
+the supreme confidence which I need, to be able to walk on at your side
+happy and smiling in the midst of my enemies."
+
+"You are right, Kate," said the king, thoughtfully. "You have many
+enemies at our court; and we have to accuse ourselves that we have not
+always succeeded in stopping our ear to their malicious whisperings, and
+in keeping ourselves pure from the poisonous breath of their calumny.
+Our heart is still too artless, and we cannot even yet comprehend that
+men are a disgusting, corrupt race, which one should tread beneath his
+feet, but never take to his heart. Come, Earl Douglas, I will hear you;
+but woe to you, if you are unable to justify yourself!"
+
+He retired to the embrasure of the large window of the boudoir. Earl
+Douglas followed him thither, and let the heavy velvet curtain drop
+behind them.
+
+"Sire," said he, hardily and resolutely, "the question now is this:
+Whose head would you rather give over to the executioner, mine or the
+Earl of Surrey's? You have the choice between the two. You are aware
+that I have ventured for a moment to deceive you. Well, send me to the
+Tower then, and set free the noble Henry Howard, that he may henceforth
+disturb your sleep and poison your days; that he may further court the
+love of the people, and perhaps some day rob your son of the throne that
+belongs to him. Here is my head, sire; it is forfeited to the headsman's
+axe, and Earl Surrey is free!"
+
+"No, he is not free, and never shall be!" said the king, grinding his
+teeth.
+
+"Then, my king, I am justified; and instead of being angry with me, you
+will thank me? It is true I have played a hazardous game, but I did so
+in the service of my king. I did it because I loved him, and because I
+read on your lofty clouded brow the thoughts that begirt with darkness
+my master's soul, and disturbed the sleep of his nights. You wanted to
+have Henry Howard in your power; and this crafty and hypocritical earl
+knew how to conceal his guilt so securely under the mask of virtue and
+loftiness of soul! But I knew him, and behind this mask I had seen his
+face distorted with passion and crime. I wanted to unmask him; but for
+this, it was necessary that I should deceive first him, and then for the
+hour even yourself. I knew that he burned with an adulterous love for
+the queen, and I wanted to avail myself of the madness of this passion,
+in order to bring him surely and unavoidably to a richly-deserved
+punishment. But I would not draw the pure and exalted person of the
+queen into this net with which we wanted to surround Earl Surrey. I was
+obliged, then, to seek a substitute for her; and I did so. There was
+at your court a woman whose whole heart belongs, after God, to the king
+alone; and who so much adores him, that she would be ready at any hour
+gladly to sacrifice for the king her heart's blood, her whole being--ay,
+if need be, even her honor itself--a woman, sire, who lives by your
+smile, and worships you as her redeemer and savior--a woman whom you
+might, as you pleased, make a saint or a strumpet; and who, to please
+you, would be a shameless Phyrne or a chaste veiled nun."
+
+"Tell me her name, Douglas," said the king, "tell me it! It is a rare
+and precious stroke of fortune to be so loved; and it would be a sin not
+to want to enjoy this good fortune."
+
+"Sire, I will tell you her name when you have first forgiven me," said
+Douglas, whose heart leaped for joy, and who well understood that the
+king's anger was already mollified and the danger now almost overcome.
+"I said to this woman: 'You are to do the king a great service; you are
+to deliver him from a powerful and dangerous foe! You are to save him
+from Henry Howard!' 'Tell me what I must do!' cried she, her looks
+beaming with joy. 'Henry Howard loves the queen. You must be the queen
+to him. You must receive his letters, and answer them in the queen's
+name. You must grant him interviews by night, and, favored by the
+darkness of the night, make him believe that it is the queen whom he
+holds in his arms. He must be convinced that the queen is his lady-love;
+and in his thoughts, as in his deeds, he must be placed before the king
+as a traitor and criminal whose head is forfeited to the headsman's axe.
+One day we will let the king be a witness of a meeting that Henry Howard
+believes he has with the queen; it will then be in his power to punish
+his enemy for his criminal passion, which is worthy of death!' And as
+I thus spoke to the woman, sire, she said with a sad smile: 'It is a
+disgraceful and dishonorable part that you assign me; but I undertake
+it, for you say I may thereby render a service to the king. I shall
+disgrace myself for him; but he will perhaps bestow upon me in return a
+gracious smile; and then I shall be abundantly rewarded.'"
+
+"But this woman is an angel!" cried the king, ardently--"an angel whom
+we should kneel to and adore. Tell me her name, Douglas!"
+
+"Sire, as soon as you have forgiven me! You know now all my guilt and
+all my crime. For, as I bade that noble woman, so it came to pass, and
+Henry Howard has gone to the Tower in the firm belief that it was the
+queen whom he just now held in his arms."
+
+"But why did you leave me in this belief, Douglas? Why did you fill my
+heart with wrath against the noble and virtuous queen also?"
+
+"Sire, I dared not reveal the deception to you before you had sentenced
+Surrey, for your noble and just moral sense would have been reluctant to
+punish him on account of a crime that he had not committed; and in
+your first wrath you would also have blamed this noble woman who has
+sacrificed herself for her king."
+
+"It is true," said the king, "I should have misjudged this noble woman,
+and, instead of thanking her, I should have destroyed her."
+
+"Therefore, my king, I quietly allowed you to make out an order for
+the queen's incarceration. But you remember well, sire, I begged you
+to return to your apartments before the queen was arrested. Well, now,
+there I should have disclosed to you the whole secret, which I could not
+tell you in the presence of that woman. For she would die of shame
+if she suspected that you knew of her love for the king, so pure and
+self-sacrificing, and cherished in such heroic silence."
+
+"She shall never know it, Douglas! But now at length satisfy my desire.
+Tell me her name."
+
+"Sire, you have forgiven me, then? You are no longer angry with me that
+I dared to deceive you?"
+
+"I am no longer angry with you, Douglas; for you have acted rightly. The
+plan, which you have contrived and carried out with such happy results,
+was as crafty as it was daring."
+
+"I thank you, sire; and I will now tell you the name. That woman, sire,
+who at my wish gave herself up a sacrifice to this adulterous earl, who
+endured his kisses, his embraces, his vows of love, in order to render a
+service to her king--that woman was my daughter, Lady Jane Douglas!"
+
+"Lady Jane!" cried the king. "No, no, this is a new deception. That
+haughty, chaste, and unapproachable Lady Jane--that wonderfully
+beautiful marble statue really has then a heart in her breast, and that
+heart belongs to me? Lady Jane, the pure and chaste virgin, has made
+for me this prodigious sacrifice, of receiving this hated Surrey as her
+lover, in order, like a second Delilah, to deliver him into my hand? No,
+Douglas, you are lying to me. Lady Jane has not done that!"
+
+"May it please your majesty to go yourself and take a look at that
+fainting woman, who was to Henry Howard the queen."
+
+The king did not reply to him; but he drew back the curtain and
+reentered the cabinet, in which the queen was waiting with John Heywood.
+
+Henry did not notice them. With youthful precipitation he crossed the
+cabinet and the hall. Now he stood by the figure of Geraldine still
+lying on the floor.
+
+She was no longer in a swoon. She had long since regained her
+consciousness; and terrible were the agonies and tortures that rent her
+heart. Henry Howard had incurred the penalty of the headsman's axe, and
+it was she that had betrayed him.
+
+But her father had sworn to her that she should save her lover.
+
+She durst not die then. She must live to deliver Henry Howard.
+
+There were burning, as it were, the fires of hell in her poor heart;
+but she was not at liberty to heed these pains. She could not think of
+herself--only of him--of Henry Howard, whom she must deliver, whom she
+must save from an ignominious death.
+
+For him she sent up her fervent prayers to God; for him her heart
+trembled with anxiety and agony, as the king now advanced to her, and,
+bending down, gazed into her eyes with a strange expression, at once
+scrutinizing and smiling.
+
+"Lady Jane," said he then, as he presented her his hand, "arise from the
+ground and allow your king to express to you his thanks for your sublime
+and wonderful sacrifice! Verily, it is a fair lot to be a king; for then
+one has at least the power of punishing traitors, and of rewarding those
+that serve us. I have to-day done the one, and I will not neglect to do
+the other also. Stand up, then, Lady Jane; it does not become you to lie
+on your knees before me."
+
+"Oh, let me kneel, my king," said she, passionately; "let me beseech
+you for mercy, for pity! Have compassion, King Henry--compassion on the
+anxiety and agony which I endure. It is not possible that this is all a
+reality! that this juggling is to be changed into such terrible earnest!
+Tell me, King Henry--I conjure you by the agonies which I suffer for
+your sake--tell me, what will you do with Henry Howard? Why have you
+sent him to the Tower?"
+
+"To punish the traitor as he deserves," said the king, as he cast a dark
+and angry look across at Douglas, who had also approached his daughter,
+and was now standing close by her.
+
+Lady Jane uttered a heartrending cry, and sank down again, senseless and
+completely exhausted.
+
+The king frowned. "It is possible," said he--"and I almost believe
+it--that I have been deceived in many ways this evening, and that now
+again my guilelessness has been played upon in order to impose upon me
+a charming story. However, I have given my word to pardon; and it shall
+not be said that Henry the Eighth, who calls himself God's vicegerent,
+has ever broken his word; nor even that he has punished those whom he
+has assured of exemption from punishment. My Lord Douglas, I will fulfil
+my promise. I forgive you."
+
+He extended his hand to Douglas, who kissed it fervently. The king bent
+down closer to him. "Douglas," whispered he, "you are as cunning as a
+serpent; and I now see through your artfully-woven web! You wanted
+to destroy Surrey, but the queen was to sink into the abyss with him.
+Because I am indebted to you for Surrey, I forgive you what you have
+done to the queen. But take heed to yourself, take heed that I do not
+meet you again on the same track; do not ever try again, by a look, a
+word, ay, even by a smile, to cast suspicion on the queen. The slightest
+attempt would cost you your life! That I swear to you by the holy mother
+of God; and you know that I have never yet broken that oath. As regards
+Lady Jane, we do not want to consider that she has misused the name of
+our illustrious and virtuous consort in order to draw this lustful and
+adulterous earl into the net which you had set for him; she obeyed your
+orders, Douglas; and we will not now decide what other motives besides
+have urged her to this deed. She may settle that with God and her own
+conscience, and it does not behoove us to decide about it."
+
+"But it behooves me, perhaps, my husband, to ask by what right Lady Jane
+has dared to appear here in this attire, and to present to a certain
+degree a counterfeit of her queen?" asked Catharine in a sharp tone. "I
+may well be allowed to ask what has made my maid of honor, who left the
+festive hall sick, now all at once so well that she goes roaming about
+the castle in the night time, and in a dress which seems likely to be
+mistaken for mine? Sire, was this dress perchance a craftily-devised
+stratagem, in order to really confound us with one another? You are
+silent, my lord and king. It is true, then, they have wanted to carry
+out a terrible plot against me; and, without the assistance of my
+faithful and honest friend, John Heywood, who brought me here, I should
+without doubt be now condemned and lost, as the Earl of Surrey is."
+
+"Ah, John, it was you then that brought a little light into this
+darkness?" cried the king, with a cheerful laugh, as he laid his hand on
+Heywood's shoulder. "Now, verily, what the wise and prudent did not see,
+that the fool has seen through!"
+
+"King Henry of England," said John Heywood, solemnly, "many call
+themselves wise, and yet they are fools; and many assume the mask of
+folly, because fools are allowed to be wise."
+
+"Kate," said the king, "you are right; this was a bad night for you, but
+God and the fool have saved you and me. We will both be thankful for
+it. But it is well if you do as you before wished, and ask and inquire
+nothing more concerning the mysteries of this night. It was brave in you
+to come here, and I will be mindful of it. Come, my little queen, give
+me your arm and conduct me to my apartments. I tell you, child, it gives
+me joy to be able to lean on your arm, and see your dear sprightly face
+blanched by no fear or terrors of conscience. Come, Kate, you alone
+shall lead me, and to you alone will I trust myself."
+
+"Sire, you are too heavy for the queen," said the fool, as he put his
+neck under the other arm. "Let me share with her the burden of royalty."
+
+"But before we go," said Catharine, "I have, my husband, one request.
+Will you grant it?"
+
+"I will grant you everything that you may ask, provided you will not
+require me to send you to the Tower."
+
+"Sire, I wish to dismiss my maid of honor, Lady Jane Douglas, from
+my service--that is all," said the queen, as her eyes glanced with an
+expression of contempt, and yet at the same time of pain, at the form of
+her friend of other days, prostrate on the floor.
+
+"She is dismissed!" said the king. "You will choose another maid of
+honor to-morrow. Come, Kate!"
+
+And the king, supported by his consort and John Heywood, left the room
+with slow and heavy steps.
+
+Earl Douglas watched them with a sullen, hateful expression. As the door
+closed after them he raised his arm threateningly toward heaven, and his
+trembling lips uttered a fierce curse and execration.
+
+"Vanquished! vanquished again!" muttered he, gnashing his teeth.
+"Humbled by this woman whom I hate, and whom I will yet destroy! Yes,
+she has conquered this time; but we will commence the struggle anew, and
+our envenomed weapon shall nevertheless strike her at last!"
+
+Suddenly he felt a hand laid heavily on his shoulder, and a pair of
+glaring, flaming eyes gazed at him.
+
+"Father," said Lady Jane, as she threw her right hand threateningly
+toward heaven--"father, as true as there is a God above us, I will
+accuse you yourself to the king as a traitor--I will betray to him all
+your accursed plots--if you do not help me to deliver Henry Howard!"
+
+Her father looked with an expression almost melancholy in her face,
+painfully convulsed and pale as marble. "I will help you!" said he. "I
+will do it, if you will help me also, and further my plans."
+
+"Oh, only save Henry Howard, and I will sign myself away to the devil
+with my heart's blood!" said Jane Douglas, with a horrible smile.
+"Save his life, or, if you have not the power to do that, then at least
+procure me the happiness of being able to die with him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. UNDECEIVED.
+
+
+Parliament, which had not for a long time now ventured to offer any
+further opposition to the king's will--Parliament had acquiesced in his
+decree. It had accused Earl Surrey of high treason; and, on the sole
+testimony of his mother and his sister, he had been declared guilty of
+lese majeste and high treason. A few words of discontent at his removal
+from office, some complaining remarks about the numerous executions that
+drenched England's soil with blood--that was all that the Duchess of
+Richmond had been able to bring against him. That he, like his father,
+bore the arms of the Kings of England--that was the only evidence of
+high treason of which his mother the Duchess of Norfolk could charge
+him. [Footnote: Tytler, p. 402. Burnet, vol. i, p. 95.]
+
+These accusations were of so trivial a character, that the Parliament
+well knew they were not the ground of his arrest, but only a pretext for
+it--only a pretext, by which the king said to his pliant and trembling
+Parliament: "This man is innocent; but I will that you condemn him, and
+therefore you will account the accusation sufficient."
+
+Parliament had not the courage to oppose the king's will. These members
+of Parliament were nothing more than a flock of sheep, who, in trembling
+dread of the sharp teeth of the dog, go straight along the path which
+the dog shows them.
+
+The king wanted them to condemn the Earl of Surrey, and they condemned
+him.
+
+They summoned him before their judgment-seat, and it was in vain that
+he proved his innocence in a speech spirited and glowing with eloquence.
+These noble members of Parliament would not see that he was innocent.
+
+It is true, indeed, there were a few who were ashamed to bow their heads
+so unreservedly beneath the king's sceptre, which dripped with blood
+like a headsman's axe. There were still a few to whom the accusation
+appeared insufficient; but they were outvoted; and in order to give
+Parliament a warning example, the king, on the very same day, had these
+obstinate ones arrested and accused of some pretended crime. For this
+people, enslaved by the king's cruelty and savage barbarity, were
+already so degenerate and debased in self-consciousness, that men were
+always and without trouble found, who, in order to please the king and
+his bloodthirstiness and sanctimonious hypocrisy, degraded themselves
+to informers, and accused of crime those whom the king's dark frown had
+indicated to them as offenders.
+
+So Parliament had doomed the Earl of Surrey to die, and the king had
+signed his death-warrant.
+
+Early next morning he was to be executed; and in the Tower-yard the
+workmen were already busy in erecting the scaffold on which the noble
+earl was to be beheaded.
+
+Henry Howard was alone in his cell. He had done with life and earthly
+things. He had set his house in order and made his will; he had written
+to his mother and sister, and forgiven them for their treachery and
+accusation; he had addressed a letter to his father, in which he
+exhorted him, in words as noble as they were touching, to steadfastness
+and calmness, and bade him not to weep for him, for death was his
+desire, and the grave the only refuge for which he longed.
+
+He had then, as we have said, done with life; and earthly things no
+longer disturbed him. He felt no regret and no fear. Life had left him
+nothing more to wish; and he almost thanked the king that he would so
+soon deliver him from the burden of existence.
+
+The future had nothing more to offer him; why then should he desire
+it? Why long for a life which could be for him now only an isolated,
+desolate, and gloomy one? For Geraldine was lost to him! He knew not her
+fate; and no tidings of her had penetrated to him through the solitary
+prison walls. Did the queen still live? Or had the king in his wrath
+murdered her on that very night when Henry was carried to the Tower, and
+his last look beheld his beloved lying at her husband's feet, swooning
+and rigid.
+
+What had become of the queen--of Henry Howard's beloved Geraldine? He
+knew nothing of her. He had hoped in vain for some note, some message
+from her; but he had not dared to ask any one as to her fate. Perhaps
+the king desisted from punishing her likewise. Perhaps his murderous
+inclination had been satisfied by putting Henry Howard to death; and
+Catharine escaped the scaffold. It might, therefore, have been ruinous
+to her, had he, the condemned, inquired after her. Or, if she had gone
+before him, then he was certain of finding her again, and of being
+united with her forevermore beyond the grave.
+
+He believed in a hereafter, for he loved; and death did not affright
+him, for after death came the reunion with her, with Geraldine, who
+either was already waiting for him there above, or would soon follow
+him.
+
+Life had nothing more to offer him. Death united him to his beloved. He
+hailed death as his friend and savior, as the priest who was to unite
+him to his Geraldine. He heard the great Tower clock of the prison which
+with threatening stroke made known the hour; and each passing hour he
+hailed with a joyous throb of the heart. The evening came and deep night
+descended upon him--the last night that was allotted to him-the last
+night that separated him from his Geraldine.
+
+The turnkey opened the door to bring the earl a light, and to ask
+whether he had any orders to give. Heretofore it had been the king's
+special command not to allow him a light in his cell; and he had spent
+these six long evenings and nights of his imprisonment in darkness. But
+to-day they were willing to give him a light; to-day they were willing
+to allow him everything that he might still desire. The life which he
+must leave in a few hours was to be once more adorned for him with all
+charms and enjoyments which he might ask for. Henry Howard had but to
+wish, and the jailer was ready to furnish him everything.
+
+But Henry Howard wished for nothing; he demanded nothing, save that they
+would leave him alone-save that they would remove from his prison this
+light which dazzled him, and which opposed to his enrapturing dreams the
+disenchanting reality.
+
+The king, who had wanted to impose a special punishment in condemning
+him to darkness--the king had, contrary to his intention, become thereby
+his benefactor. For with darkness came dreams and fantasies. With the
+darkness came Geraldine.
+
+When night and silence were all around him, then there was light within;
+and an enchanting whisper and a sweet, enticing voice resounded within
+him. The gates of his prison sprang open, and on the wings of thought
+Henry Howard soared away from that dismal and desolate place. On the
+wings of thought he came to her--to his Geraldine.
+
+Again she was by him, in the large, silent hall. Again night lay upon
+them, like a veil concealing, blessing, and enveloping them;--and threw
+its protection over their embraces and their kisses. Solitude allowed
+him to hear again the dear music of her voice, which sang for him so
+enchanting a melody of love and ecstasy.
+
+Henry Howard must be alone, so that he can hear his Geraldine. Deep
+darkness must surround him, so that his Geraldine can come to him.
+
+He demanded, therefore, for his last night, nothing further than to be
+left alone, and without a light. The jailer extinguished the light and
+left the cell. But he did not shove the great iron bolt across the
+door. He did not put the large padlock on it, but he only left the door
+slightly ajar, and did not lock it at all.
+
+Henry Howard took no notice of this. What cared he, whether this gate
+was locked or no-he who no longer had a desire for life and freedom!
+
+He leaned back on his seat, and dreamed with eyes open. There below in
+the yard they were working on the scaffold which Henry Howard was to
+ascend as soon as day dawned. The dull monotony of the strokes of the
+hammers fell on his ear. Now and then the torches, which lighted the
+workmen at their melancholy task, allowed to shine up into his cell a
+pale glimmer of light, which danced on the walls in ghost-like shapes.
+
+"There are the ghosts of all those that Henry has put to death," thought
+Henry Howard; "they gather around me; like will-o'-the-wisps, they
+dance with me the dance of death, and in a few hours I shall be forever
+theirs."
+
+The dull noise of hammers and saws continued steadily on, and Henry
+Howard sank deeper and deeper in reverie.
+
+He thought, he felt, and desired nothing but Geraldine. His whole soul
+was concentrated in that single thought of her. It seemed to him he
+could bid his spirit see her, as though he could command his senses
+to perceive her. Yes, she was there; he felt-he was conscious of her
+presence. Again he lay at her feet, and leaned his head on her knee, and
+listened again to those charming revelations of her love.
+
+Completely borne away from the present, and from existence, he saw, he
+felt, only her. The mystery of love was perfected, and, under the veil
+of night, Geraldine had again winged her way to him, and he to her.
+
+A happy smile played about his lips, which faltered forth rapturous
+words of greeting. Overcome by a wonderful hallucination, he saw his
+beloved approaching him; he stretched out his arms to clasp her; and it
+did not arouse him when he felt instead of her only the empty air.
+
+"Why do you float away from me again, Geraldine?" asked he, in a
+low tone. "Wherefore do you withdraw from my arms, to whirl with the
+will-o'-the-wisps in the death-dance? Come, Geraldine, come; my soul
+burns for you. My heart calls you with its last faltering throb. Come,
+Geraldine, oh, come!"
+
+What was that? It was as though the door were gently opened, and the
+latch again gently fastened. It was as though a foot were moving softly
+over the floor-as though the shape of a human form shaded for a moment
+the flickering light which danced around the walls.
+
+Henry Howard saw it not.
+
+He saw naught but his Geraldine, whom he with so much fervency and
+longing wished by his side. He spread his arms; he called her with all
+the ardor, all the enthusiasm of a lover.
+
+Now he uttered a cry of ecstasy. His prayer of love was answered. The
+dream had become a reality. His arms no longer clasped the empty air;
+they pressed to his breast the woman whom he loved, and for whom he was
+to die.
+
+He pressed his lips to her mouth and she returned his kisses. He threw
+his arms around her form, and she pressed him fast, fast to her bosom.
+
+Was this a reality? Or was it madness that was creeping upon him and
+seizing upon his brain, and deceiving him with fantasies so enchanting?
+
+Henry Howard shuddered as he thought this, and, falling upon his knees,
+he cried in a voice trembling with agony and love: "Geraldine, have pity
+on me! Tell me that this is no dream, that I am not mad--that you are
+really--you are Geraldine--you--the king's consort, whose knees I now
+clasp! Speak, oh speak, my Geraldine!"
+
+"I am she!" softly whispered she. "I am Geraldine--am the woman whom you
+love, and to whom you have sworn eternal truth and eternal love! Henry
+Howard, my beloved, I now remind you of your oath! Your life belongs to
+me. This you have vowed, and I now come to demand of you that which is
+my own!"
+
+"Ay, my life belongs to you, Geraldine! But it is a miserable,
+melancholy possession, which you will call yours only a few hours
+longer."
+
+She threw her arms closely around his neck; she raised him to her heart;
+she kissed his mouth, his eyes. He felt her tears, which trickled like
+hot fountains over his face; he heard her sighs, which struggled from
+her breast like death-groans.
+
+"You must not die!" murmured she, amid her tears. "No, Henry, you must
+live, so that I too can live; so that I shall not become mad from agony
+and sorrow for you! My God, my God, do you not then feel how I love you?
+Know you not, then, that your life is my life, and your death my death?"
+
+He leaned his head on her shoulder, and, wholly intoxicated with
+happiness, he scarcely heard what she was speaking.
+
+She was again there! What cared he for all the rest?
+
+"Geraldine," softly whispered he, "do you recollect still how we first
+met each other? how our hearts were united in one throb, how our lips
+clung to each other in one kiss? Geraldine, my life, my loved one, we
+then swore that naught could separate us, that our love should survive
+the grave! Geraldine, do you remember that still?"
+
+"I remember it, my Henry! But you shall not die yet; and not in death,
+but in life, shall your love for me be proved! Ay, we will live, live!
+And your life shall be my life, and where you are, there will I be also!
+Henry, do you remember that you vowed this to me with a solemn oath!"
+
+"I remember it, but I cannot keep my word, my Geraldine! Hear you how
+they are sawing and hammering there below? Know you what that indicates,
+dearest?"
+
+"I know it, Henry! It is the scaffold that they are building there
+below. The scaffold for you and me. For I too will die if you will not
+live; and the axe that seeks your neck shall find mine also, if you wish
+not that we both live!"
+
+"Do I wish it! But how can we, beloved?"
+
+"We can, Henry, we can! All is ready for the flight! It is all arranged,
+everything prepared! The king's signet-ring has opened to me the gates
+of the prison; the omnipotence of gold has won over your jailer. He
+will not see it, when two persons instead of one leave this dungeon.
+Unmolested and without hinderance, we will both leave the Tower by ways
+known only to him, over secret corridors and staircases, and will go
+aboard a boat which is ready to take us to a ship, which lies in the
+harbor prepared to sail, and which as soon as we are aboard weighs
+anchor and puts to sea with us. Come, Henry, come! Lay your arm in mine,
+and let us leave this prison!"
+
+She threw both her arms around his neck, and drew him forward. He
+pressed her fast to his heart and whispered: "Yes, come, come, my
+beloved! Let us fly! To you belongs my life, you alone!"
+
+He raised her up in his arms, and hastened with her to the door. He
+pushed it hastily open with his foot and hurried forward down the
+corridor; but having arrived just at the first turn he reeled back in
+horror.
+
+Before the door wore standing soldiers with shouldered arms. There
+stood also the lieutenant of the Tower, and two servants behind him
+with lighted candles. Geraldine gave a scream, and with anxious haste
+rearranged the thick veil that had slipped from her head.
+
+Henry Howard also had uttered a cry, but not on account of the soldiers
+and the frustrated flight.
+
+His eyes, stretched wide open, stared at this figure at his side, now so
+closely veiled.
+
+It seemed to him as though like a spectre a strange face had risen up
+close by him--as though it were not the beloved head of the queen that
+rested there on his shoulder. He had seen this face only as a vision, as
+the fantasy of a dream; but he knew with perfect certainty that it was
+not her countenance, not the countenance of his Geraldine.
+
+The lieutenant of the Tower motioned to his servants, and they carried
+the lighted candles into the earl's cell.
+
+Then he gave Henry Howard his hand and silently led him back into the
+prison.
+
+Henry Howard exhibited no reluctance to follow him; but his hand had
+seized Geraldine's arm, and he drew her along with him; his eye rested
+on her with a penetrating expression, and seemed to threaten her.
+
+They were now again in the room which they had before left with such
+blessed hopes.
+
+The lieutenant of the Tower motioned to the servants to retire, then
+turned with solemn earnestness to Earl Surrey.
+
+"My lord," said he, "it is at the king's command that I bring you these
+lights. His majesty knows all that has happened here this night. He knew
+that a plot was formed to rescue you; and while they believed they were
+deceiving him, the plotters themselves were deceived. They had succeeded
+under various artful false pretences in influencing the king to give his
+signet-ring to one of his lords. But his majesty was already warned,
+and he already knew that it was not a man, as they wanted to make him
+believe, but a woman, who came, not to take leave of you, but to deliver
+you from prison.--My lady, the jailer whom you imagined that you had
+bribed was a faithful servant of the king. He betrayed your plot to me;
+and it was I who ordered him to make a show of favoring your deed. You
+will not be able to release Earl Surrey; but if such is your command, I
+will myself see you to the ship that lies in the harbor for you ready to
+sail. No one will hinder you, my lady, from embarking on it; Earl Surrey
+is not permitted to accompany you!--My lord, soon the night is at an
+end, and you know that it will be your last night. The king has ordered
+that I am not to prevent this lady, if she wishes to spend this night
+with you in your room. But she is allowed to do so only on the condition
+that the lights in your room remain burning. That is the king's express
+will, and these are his own words: 'Tell Earl Surrey that I allow him to
+love his Geraldine, but that he is to open his eyes to see her! That he
+may see, you will give him a light; and I command him not to extinguish
+it so long as Geraldine is with him. Otherwise he may confound her with
+another woman; for in the dark one cannot distinguish even a harlequin
+from a queen!'--You have now to decide, my lord, whether this lady
+remains with you, or whether she goes, and the light shall be put out!"
+
+"She shall remain with me, and I very much need the light!" said Earl
+Surrey; and his penetrating look rested steadily on the veiled figure,
+which shook at his words, as if in an ague.
+
+"Have you any other wish besides this, my lord?"
+
+"None, save that I may be left alone with her."
+
+The lieutenant bowed and left the room.
+
+They wore now alone again, and stood confronting each other in silence.
+Naught was heard but the beating of their hearts, and the sighs of
+anguish that burst from Geraldine's trembling lips.
+
+It was an awful, a terrible pause. Geraldine would gladly have given her
+life could she thereby have extinguished the light and veiled herself in
+impenetrable darkness.
+
+But the earl would see. With an angry, haughty look, he stepped up
+to her, and, as with commanding gesture lie raised his arm, Geraldine
+shuddered and submissively bowed her head.
+
+"Unveil your face!" said he, in a tone of command. She did not stir. She
+murmured a prayer, then raised her clasped hands to Henry and in a low
+moan, said: "Mercy! mercy!"
+
+He extended his hand and seized the veil.
+
+"Mercy!" repeated she, in a voice of still deeper supplication--of still
+greater distress.
+
+But he was inexorable. He tore the veil from her face and stared at her.
+Then with a wild shriek he reeled back and covered his face with his
+hands.
+
+Jane Douglas durst not breathe or stir. She was pale as marble; her
+large, burning eyes were fastened with an unutterable expression of
+entreaty upon her lover, who stood before her with covered head, and
+crushed with anguish. She loved him more than her life, more than her
+eternal salvation; and yet she it was that had brought him to this hour
+of agony.
+
+At length Earl Surrey let his hands fall from his face, and with a
+fierce movement dashed the tears from his eyes.
+
+As he looked at her, Jane Douglas wholly involuntarily sank upon her
+knees, and raised her hands imploringly to him. "Henry Howard," said
+she, in a low whisper, "I am Geraldine! Me have you loved; my letters
+have you read with ecstasy, and to me have you often sworn that you
+loved my mind yet more than my appearance. And often has my heart been
+filled with rapture, when you told me you would love me however my face
+might change, however old age or sickness might alter my features. You
+remember, Henry, how I once asked you whether you would cease to love
+me, if now God suddenly put a mask before my face, so that you could not
+recognize my features. You replied to me: 'Nevertheless, I should love
+and adore you; for what in you ravishes me, is not your face, but you
+yourself--yourself with your glorious being and nature. It is your soul
+and your heart which can never change, which lie before me like a holy
+book, clear and bright!' That was your reply to me then, as you swore
+to love me eternally. Henry Howard, I now remind you of your oath! I am
+your Geraldine. It is the same soul, the same heart; only God has put a
+mask upon my face!"
+
+Earl Surrey had listened to her with eager attention, with increasing
+amazement.
+
+"It is she! It is really!" cried he, as she ceased. "It is Geraldine!"
+
+And wholly overcome, wholly speechless with anguish, he sank into a
+seat.
+
+Geraldine flew to him; she crouched at his feet; she seized his drooping
+hand and covered it with kisses. And amid streaming tears, often
+interrupted by her sighs and her sobs, she recounted to him the sad and
+unhappy history of her love; she unveiled before him the whole web of
+cunning and deceit, that her father had drawn around them both. She laid
+her whole heart open and unveiled before him. She told him of her love,
+of her agonies, of her ambition, and her remorse. She accused herself;
+but she pleaded her love as an excuse, and with streaming tears,
+clinging to his knees, she implored him for pity, for forgiveness.
+
+He thrust her violently from him, and stood up in order to escape
+her touch. His noble countenance glowed with anger: his eyes darted
+lightning; his long flowing hair shaded his lofty brow and his face like
+a sombre veil. He was beautiful in his wrath, beautiful as the archangel
+Michael trampling the dragon beneath his feet. And thus he bent down
+his head toward her; thus he gazed at her with flashing and contemptuous
+looks.
+
+"I forgive you?" said he. "Never will that be! Ha, shall I forgive
+you?--you, who have made my entire life a ridiculous lie, and
+transformed the tragedy of my love into a disgusting farce? Oh,
+Geraldine, how I have loved you; and now you have become to me a
+loathsome spectre, before which my soul shudders, and which I must
+execrate! You have crushed my life, and even robbed my death of its
+sanctity; for now it is no longer the martyrdom of my love, but only the
+savage mockery of my credulous heart. Oh, Geraldine, how beautiful it
+would have been to die for you!--to go to death with your name upon
+my lips!--to bless you!--to thank you for my happy lot, as the axe was
+already uplifted to smite off my head! How beautiful to think that death
+does not separate us, but is only the way to an eternal union; that we
+should lose each other but a brief moment here, to find each other again
+forevermore!"
+
+Geraldine writhed at his feet like a worm trodden upon; and her groans
+of distress and her smothered moans were the heartrending accompaniment
+of his melancholy words.
+
+"But that is now all over!" cried Henry Howard; and his face, which was
+before convulsed with grief and agony, now glowed again with wrath. "You
+have poisoned my life and my death; and I shall curse you for it, and my
+last word will be a malediction on the harlequin Geraldine!"
+
+"Have pity!" groaned Jane. "Kill me, Henry; stamp my head beneath your
+feet; only let this torture end!"
+
+"Nay, no pity!" yelled he, wildly; "no pity for this impostor, who has
+stolen my heart and crept like a thief into my love! Arise, and leave
+this room; for you fill me with horror; and when I behold you, I feel
+only that I must curse you! Ay, a curse on you and shame, Geraldine!
+Curse on the kisses that I have impressed on your lips--on the tears of
+rapture that I have wept on your bosom. When I ascend the scaffold, I
+will curse you, and my last words shall be: 'Woe to Geraldine!--for she
+is my murderess!'"
+
+He stood there before her with arm raised on high, proud and great in
+his wrath. She felt the destroying lightning of his eyes, though she
+durst not look up at him, but lay at his feet moaning and convulsed, and
+concealing her face in her veil, as she shuddered at her own picture.
+
+"And this be my last word to you Geraldine," said Henry Howard, panting
+for breath: "Go hence under the burden of my curse, and live--if you
+can!"
+
+She unveiled her head, and raised her countenance toward him. A
+contemptuous smile writhed about her deathly pale lips. "Live!" said
+she. "Have we not sworn to die with each other? Your curse does not
+release me from my oath, and when you descend into the grave, Jane
+Douglas will stand upon its brink, to wail and weep until you make a
+little place for her there below; until she has softened your heart and
+you take her again, as your Geraldine, into your grave. Oh, Henry! in
+the grave, I no longer wear the face of Jane Douglas--that hated face,
+which I would tear with my nails. In the grave, I am Geraldine again.
+There I may again lie close to your heart, and again you will say to
+me: 'I love not your face and your external form! I love you yourself;
+I love your heart and mind; and that can never change; and can never be
+otherwise!'"
+
+"Silence!" said he, roughly; "silence, if you do not want me to run
+mad! Cast not my own words in my face. They defile me, for falsehood has
+desecrated and trodden them in the mire. No! I will not make room for
+you in my grave. I will not again call you Geraldine. You are Jane
+Douglas, and I hate you, and I hurl my curse upon your criminal head! I
+tell you--"
+
+He suddenly paused, and a slight convulsion ran through his whole frame.
+
+Jane Douglas uttered a piercing scream, and sprang from her knees.
+
+Day had broken; and from the prison-tower sounded the dismal, plaintive
+stroke of the death-bell.
+
+"Do you hear, Jane Douglas?" said Surrey. "That bell summons me to
+death. You it is that has poisoned my last hour. I was happy when I
+loved you. I die in despair, for I despise and hate you."
+
+"No, no, you dare not die!" cried she, clinging to him with passionate
+anguish. "You dare not go to the grave with that fierce curse upon your
+lips. I cannot be your murderess. Oh, it is not possible that they will
+put you to death--you, the beautiful, the noble and the virtuous Earl
+Surrey. My God, what have you done to excite their wrath? You are
+innocent; and they know it. They cannot execute you; for it would be
+murder! You have committed no offence; you have been guilty of nothing;
+no crime attaches to your noble person. It is indeed no crime to love
+Jane Douglas, and me have you loved--me alone."
+
+"No, not you," said he proudly; "I have nothing to do with Lady Jane
+Douglas. I loved the queen, and I believed she returned my love. That is
+my crime."
+
+The door opened: and in solemn silence the lieutenant of the Tower
+entered with the priests and his assistants. In the door was seen the
+bright-red dress of the headsman, who was standing upon the threshold
+with face calm and unmoved.
+
+"It is time!" solemnly said the lieutenant.
+
+The priest muttered his prayers, and the assistants swung their censers.
+Without, the death-bell kept up its wail; and from the court was heard
+the hum of the mob, which, curious and bloodthirsty as it ever is, had
+streamed hither to behold with laughing mouth the blood of the man who
+but yesterday was its favorite.
+
+Earl Surrey stood there a moment in silence. His features worked and
+were convulsed, and a deathlike pallor covered his cheeks.
+
+He trembled, not at death, but at dying. It seemed to him that he
+already felt on his neck the cold broad-axe which that frightful man
+there held in his hand. Oh, to die on the battle-field--what a boon it
+would have been! To come to an end on the scaffold--what a disgrace was
+this!
+
+"Henry Howard, my son, are you prepared to die?" asked the priest. "Have
+you made your peace with God? Do you repent of your sins, and do you
+acknowledge death as a righteous expiation and punishment? Do you
+forgive your enemies, and depart hence at peace with yourself and with
+mankind?"
+
+"I am prepared to die," said Surrey, with a proud smile; "the other
+questions, my father, I will answer to my God."
+
+"Do you confess that you were a wicked traitor? And do you beg the
+forgiveness of your noble and righteous, your exalted and good king, for
+the blasphemous injury to his sacred majesty?"
+
+Earl Surrey looked him steadily in the eye. "Do you know what crime I am
+accused of?"
+
+The priest cast down his eyes, and muttered a few unintelligible words.
+
+With a haughty movement of the head, Henry Howard turned from the priest
+to the lieutenant of the Tower.
+
+"Do you know my crime, my lord?" said he.
+
+But the lord lieutenant also dropped his eyes, and remained silent.
+
+Henry Howard smiled. "Well, now, I will tell you. I have, as it becomes
+me, my father's son, borne the arms of our house on my shield and over
+the entrance of my palace, and it has been discovered that the king
+bears the same arms that we do. That is my high treason! I have said
+that the king is deceived in many of his servants, and often promotes
+his favorites to high honors which they do not deserve. That is my
+offence against his majesty; and it is that for which I shall lay my
+head upon the block. [Footnote: These two insignificant accusations were
+the only points that could be made out against the Earl of Surrey.
+Upon these charges, brought by his mother and sister, he was
+executed.--Tytler, p. 492; Burnet, vol. I, p. 75; Leti, vol. I, p. 108.]
+But make yourself easy; I shall myself add to my crimes one more, so
+that they may be grievous enough to make the conscience of the righteous
+and generous king quiet. I have given up my heart to a wretched and
+criminal love, and the Geraldine whom I have sung in many a poem,
+and have celebrated even before the king, was nothing but a miserable
+coquettish strumpet!"
+
+Jane Douglas gave a scream, and sank upon the ground as if struck by
+lightning.
+
+"Do you repent of this sin, my son?" asked the priest. "Do you turn your
+heart away from this sinful love, in order to turn it to God?"
+
+"I not only repent of this love, but I execrate it! and now, my father,
+let us go; for you see, indeed, my lord is becoming impatient. He bears
+in mind that the king will find no rest until the Howards also have gone
+to rest. Ah, King Henry! King Henry! Thou callest thyself the mighty
+king of the world, and yet thou tremblest before the arms of thy
+subject! My lord, if you go to the king to-day, give him Henry Howard's
+greeting; and tell him, I wish his bed may be as easy to him as the
+grave will be to me. Now, come, my lords! It is time."
+
+With head proudly erect and calm step, he turned to the door. But now
+Jane Douglas sprang from the ground; now she rushed to Henry Howard and
+clung to him with all the might of her passion and agony. "I leave you
+not!" cried she, breathless and pale as death. "You dare not repulse me,
+for you have sworn that we shall live and die together."
+
+He hurled her from him in fierce wrath, and drew himself up before her,
+lofty and threatening.
+
+"I forbid you to follow me!" cried he, in a tone of command. She reeled
+back against the wall and looked at him, trembling and breathless.
+
+He was still lord over her soul; she was still subject to him in love
+and obedience. She could not therefore summon up courage to defy his
+command.
+
+She beheld him as he left the room and passed down the corridor with his
+dreadful train; she heard their footsteps gradually die away; and then
+suddenly in the yard sounded the hollow roll of the drum.
+
+Jane Douglas fell on her knees to pray, but her lips trembled so much
+that she could find no words for her prayer.
+
+The roll of the drum ceased in the court below, and only the death-bell
+still continued to wail and wail. She heard a voice speaking loud and
+powerful words.
+
+It was his voice; it was Henry Howard that was speaking. And now again
+the hollow roll of the drums drowned his voice.
+
+"He dies! He dies, and I am not with him!" cried she, with a shriek; and
+she gathered herself up, and as if borne by a whirlwind she dashed out
+of the room, through the corridor, and down the stairs.
+
+There she stood in the court. That dreadful black pile above there, in
+the midst of this square crowded with men--that was the scaffold.
+Yonder she beheld him prostrate on his knees. She beheld the axe in the
+headsman's hand; she saw him raise it for the fatal stroke.
+
+She was a woman no longer, but a lioness! Not a drop of blood was in her
+cheeks. Her nostrils were expanded and her eyes darted lightning.
+
+She drew out a dagger that she had concealed in her bosom, and made a
+path through the amazed, frightened, yielding crowd.
+
+With one spring she had rushed up the steps of the scaffold. She now
+stood by him on the top of it--close by that kneeling figure.
+
+There was a flash through the air. She heard a peculiar whiz--then a
+hollow blow. A red vapor-like streak of blood spurted up, and covered
+Jane Douglas with its crimson flood.
+
+"I come, Henry, I come!" cried she, with a wild shout. "I shall be with
+thee in death!" And again there was a flash through the air. It was the
+dagger that Jane Douglas plunged into her heart.
+
+She had struck well. No sound--no groan burst from her lips. With a
+proud smile she sank by her lover's headless corpse, and with a last
+dying effort she said to the horrified headsman: "Let me share his
+grave! Henry Howard, in life and in death I am with thee!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. NEW INTRIGUES.
+
+
+Henry Howard was dead; and now one would have thought the king might
+be satisfied and quiet, and that sleep would no longer flee from his
+eyelids, since Henry Howard, his great rival, had closed his eyes
+forever; since Henry Howard was no longer there, to steal away his
+crown, to fill the world with the glory of his deeds, to dim the genius
+of the king by his own fame as a poet.
+
+But the king was still dissatisfied. Sleep still fled from his couch.
+
+The cause of this was that his work was only just half done. Henry
+Howard's father, the Duke of Norfolk, still lived. The cause of this
+was, that the king was always obliged to think of this powerful rival;
+and these thoughts chased sleep from his eyelids. His soul was sick of
+the Howards; therefore his body suffered such terrible pains. If the
+Duke of Norfolk would close his eyes in death, then would the king
+also be able to close his again in refreshing sleep! But this court of
+peers--and only by such a court could the duke be judged--this court of
+peers was so slow and deliberate! It worked far less rapidly, and
+was not near so serviceable, as the Parliament which had so quickly
+condemned Henry Howard. Why must the old Howard bear a ducal title? Why
+was he not like his son, only an earl, so that the obedient Parliament
+might condemn him?
+
+That was the king's inextinguishable grief, his gnawing pain, which made
+him raving with fury and heated his blood, and thereby increased the
+pains of his body.
+
+He raved and roared with impatience. Through the halls of his palace
+resounded his savage vituperation. It made every one tremble and quake,
+for no one was sure that it was not he that was to fall that day
+a victim to the king's fury. No one could know whether the king's
+ever-increasing thirst for blood would not that day doom him.
+
+With the most jealous strictness the king, from his sick-couch, watched
+over his royal dignity; and the least fault against that might arouse
+his wrath and bloodthirstiness. Woe to those who wanted still to
+maintain that the pope was the head of the Church! Woe to those who
+ventured to call God the only Lord of the Church, and honored not the
+king as the Church's holy protector! The one, like the other, were
+traitors and sinners, and he had Protestants and Roman Catholics alike
+executed, however near they stood to his own person, and however closely
+he was otherwise bound to them.
+
+Whoever, therefore, could avoid it, kept himself far from the dreaded
+person of the king; and whoever was constrained by duty to be near him,
+trembled for his life, and commended his soul to God.
+
+There were only four persons who did not fear the king, and who seemed
+to be safe from his destroying wrath. There was the queen, who nursed
+him with devoted attention, and John Heywood, who with untiring zeal
+sustained Catharine in her difficult task, and who still sometimes
+succeeded in winning a smile from the king. There were, furthermore,
+Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and Earl Douglas.
+
+Lady Jane Douglas was dead. The king had therefore forgiven her father,
+and again shown himself gracious and friendly to the deeply-bowed
+earl. Besides, it was such an agreeable and refreshing feeling to the
+suffering king to have some one about him who suffered yet more than he
+himself! It comforted him to know that there could be agonies yet more
+horrible than those pains of the body under which he languished. Earl
+Douglas suffered these agonies; and the king saw with a kind of delight
+how his hair turned daily more gray, and his features became more
+relaxed and feeble. Douglas was younger than the king, and yet how
+old and gray his face was beside the king's well-fed and blooming
+countenance!
+
+Could the king have seen the bottom of his soul, he would have had less
+sympathy with Earl Douglas's sorrow.
+
+He considered him only as a tender father mourning the death of his
+only child. He did not suspect that it was less the father that Jane's
+painful death had smitten, than the ambitious man, the fanatical Roman
+Catholic, the enthusiastic disciple of Loyola, who with dismay saw
+all his plans frustrated, and the moment drawing nigh when he would be
+divested of that power and consideration which he enjoyed in the secret
+league of the disciples of Jesus. With him, therefore, it was less the
+daughter, for whom he mourned, than the king's seventh wife. And that
+Catharine wore the crown, and not his daughter--not Jane Douglas--his it
+was that he could never forgive the queen.
+
+He wanted to take vengeance on the queen for Jane's death; he wanted to
+punish Catharine for his frustrated hopes, for his desires that she
+had trampled upon. But Earl Douglas durst not himself venture to make
+another attempt to prejudice the king's mind against his consort. Henry
+had interdicted him from it under the penalty of his wrath. With words
+of threatening, he had warned him from such an attempt; and Earl Douglas
+very well knew that King Henry was inflexible in his determination,
+when the matter under consideration was the execution of a threatened
+punishment, Yet what Douglas durst not venture, that Gardiner could
+venture--Gardiner, who, thanks to the capriciousness of the sick king,
+had for the few days past enjoyed again the royal favor so unreservedly
+that the noble Archbishop Cranmer had received orders to leave the court
+and retire to his episcopal residence at Lambeth.
+
+Catharine had seen him depart with anxious forebodings; for Cranmer had
+ever been her friend and her support. His mild and serene countenance
+had ever been to her like a star of peace in the midst of this
+tempest-tossed and passion-lashed court life; and his gentle and noble
+words had always fallen like a soothing balm on her poor trembling
+heart.
+
+She felt that with his departure she lost her noblest support, her
+strengthening aid, and that she was now surrounded only by enemies and
+opponents. True, she still had John Heywood, the faithful friend, the
+indefatigable servant; but since Gardiner had exercised his sinister
+influence over the king's mind, John Heywood durst scarcely risk himself
+in Henry's presence. True, she had also Thomas Seymour, her lover;
+but she knew and felt that she was everywhere surrounded by spies and
+eavesdroppers, and that now it required nothing more than an interview
+with Thomas Seymour--a few tender words--perchance even only a look full
+of mutual understanding and love, in order to send him and her to the
+scaffold.
+
+She trembled not for herself, but for her lover. That made her cautious
+and thoughtful. That gave her courage never to show Thomas Seymour
+other than a cold, serious face; never to meet him otherwise than in the
+circle of her court; never to smile on him; never to give him her hand.
+
+She was, however, certain of her future. She knew that a day would come
+on which the king's death would deliver her from her burdensome grandeur
+and her painful royal crown; when she should be free--free to give her
+hand to the man whom alone on earth she loved, and to become his wife.
+
+She waited for that day, as the prisoner does for the hour of his
+release; but like him she knew that a premature attempt to escape from
+her dungeon would bring her only ruin and death, and not freedom.
+
+She must be patient and wait. She must give up all personal intercourse
+with her lover; and even his letters John Heywood could bring her but
+very seldom, and only with the greatest caution. How often already had
+not John Heywood conjured her to give up this correspondence also! how
+often had he not with tears in his eyes besought her to renounce this
+love, which might one day be her ruin and her death! Catharine laughed
+at his gloomy forebodings, and opposed to his dark prophecies a bravery
+reliant on the future, the joyous courage of her love.
+
+She would not die, for happiness and love were awaiting her; she would
+not renounce happiness and love, for the sake of which she could endure
+this life in other respects--this life of peril, of resignation, of
+enmity, and of hatred.
+
+But she wanted to live in order to be happy hereafter. This thought made
+her brave and resolute; it gave her courage to defy her enemies with
+serene brow and smiling lip; it enabled her to sit with bright eye and
+rosy cheeks at the side of her dreaded and severe husband, and, with
+cheerful wit and inexhaustible good-humor, jest away the frown from his
+brow, and vexation from his soul.
+
+But just because she could do this, she was a dangerous antagonist to
+Douglas and Gardiner. Just on that account, it was to be their highest
+effort to destroy this beautiful young woman, who durst defy them and
+weaken their influence with the king. If they could but succeed in
+rendering the king's mind more and more gloomy; if they could but
+completely fill him again with fanatical religious zeal; then, and then
+only, could they hope to attain their end; which end was this: to bring
+back the king as a contrite, penitent, and humble son of the only saving
+mother Church, and to make him again, from a proud, vain, and imperious
+prince, an obedient and submissive son of the pope.
+
+The king was to renounce this vain and blasphemous arrogance of wishing
+to be himself head of his Church. He was to turn away from the spirit of
+novelty and heresy, and again become a faithful and devout Catholic.
+
+But in order that they might attain this end, Catharine must be removed
+from him; he must no longer behold her rosy and beautiful face, and no
+longer allow himself to be diverted by her sensible discourse and her
+keen wit.
+
+"We shall not be able to overthrow the queen," said Earl Douglas to
+Gardiner, as the two stood in the king's anteroom, and as Catharine's
+cheerful chit-chat and the king's merry laugh came pealing to them
+from the adjoining room. "No, no, Gardiner, she is too powerful and too
+crafty. The king loves her very much; and she is such an agreeable and
+refreshing recreation to him."
+
+"Just on that account we must withdraw her from him," said Gardiner,
+with a dark frown. "He must turn away his heart from this earthly love;
+and after we shall have mortified this love in him, this savage and
+arrogant man will return to us and to God, contrite and humble." But we
+shall not be able to mortify it, friend. It is so ardent and selfish a
+love.
+
+"So much the greater will be the triumph, if our holy admonitions are
+successful in touching his heart, Douglas. It is true he will suffer
+very much if he is obliged to give up this woman. But he needs precisely
+this suffering in order to become contrite and penitent. His mind must
+first be entirely darkened, so that we can illuminate it with the light
+of faith. He must first be rendered perfectly isolated and comfortless
+in order to bring him back to the holy communion of the Church, and to,
+find him again accessible to the consolations of that faith which alone
+can save."
+
+"Ah," sighed Douglas, "I fear that this will be a useless struggle. The
+king is so vain of his self-constituted high-priesthood!"
+
+"But he is such a weak man, and such a great sinner!" said Gardiner,
+with a cold smile. "He trembles so much at death and God's judgment,
+and our holy mother the Church can give him absolution, and by her
+holy sacraments render death easy to him. He is a wicked sinner and has
+stings of conscience. This it is that will bring him back again to the
+bosom of the Catholic Church."
+
+"But when will that come to pass? The king is sick, and any day may put
+an end to his life. Woe to us, if he die before he has given the power
+into our hands, and nominated us his executors! Woe to us, if the queen
+is appointed regent, and the king selects the Seymours as her ministers!
+Oh, my wise and pious father, the work that you wish to do must be done
+soon, or it must remain forever unaccomplished."
+
+"It shall be done this very day," said Gardiner, solemnly; and bending
+down closer to the earl's ear, he continued: "we have lulled the queen
+into assurance and self-confidence, and by this means she shall be
+ruined this very day. She relies so strongly on her power over the
+king's disposition, that she often summons up courage even to contradict
+him, and to set her own will in opposition to his. That shall be her
+ruin this very day! For mark well, earl; the king is now again like a
+tiger that has been long fasting. He thirsts for blood! The queen has
+an aversion to human blood, and she is horrified when she hears of
+executions. So we must manage that these opposing inclinations may come
+into contact, and contend with each other."
+
+"Oh, I understand now," whispered Douglas; "and I bow in reverence
+before the wisdom of your highness. You will let them both contend with
+their own weapons."
+
+"I will point out a welcome prey to his appetite for blood, and give her
+silly compassion an opportunity to contend with the king for his prey.
+Do you not think, earl, that this will be an amusing spectacle, and one
+refreshing to the heart, to see how the tiger and dove struggle with
+each other? And I tell you the tiger thirsts so much for blood! Blood is
+the only balm that he applies to his aching limbs, and by which alone
+he imagines that he can restore peace and courage to his tortured
+conscience and his dread of death. Ah, ha! we have told him that, with
+each new execution of a heretic, one of his great sins would be blotted
+out, and that the blood of the Calvinists serves to wash out of his
+account-book some of his evil deeds. He would be so glad to be able to
+appear pure and guiltless before the tribunal of his God! Therefore
+he needs very much heretical blood. But hark--the hour strikes which
+summons me to the royal chamber! There has been enough of the queen's
+laughing and chit-chat. We will now endeavor to banish the smile forever
+from her face. She is a heretic; and it is a pious work, well pleasing
+to God, if we plunge her headlong into ruin!"
+
+"May God be with your highness, and assist you by His grace, that you
+may accomplish this sublime work!"
+
+"God will be with us, my son, since for Him it is that we labor and
+harass ourselves. To His honor and praise we bring these misbelieving
+heretics to the stake, and make the air re-echo with the agonizing
+shrieks of those who are racked and tortured. That is music well
+pleasing to God; and the angels in heaven will triumph and be glad when
+the heretical and infidel Queen Catharine also has to strike up this
+music of the damned. Now I go to the holy labor of love and godly wrath.
+Pray for me, my son, that I may succeed. Remain here in the anteroom,
+and await my call; perhaps we shall need you. Pray for us, and with us.
+Ah, we still owe this heretical queen a grudge for Anne Askew. To-day
+we will pay her. Then she accused us, to-day we will accuse her, and God
+and His host of saints and angels are with us."
+
+And the pious and godly priest crossed himself, and with head humbly
+bowed and a soft smile about his thin, bloodless lips, strode through
+the hall in order to betake himself to the king's chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. THE KING AND THE PRIEST.
+
+
+"God bless and preserve your majesty!" said Gardiner as he entered, to
+the king, who just then was sitting with the queen at the chess-board.
+With frowning brow and compressed lips he looked over the game, which
+stood unfavorable for him, and threatened him with a speedy checkmate.
+
+It was not wise in the queen not to let the king win; for his
+superstitious and jealous temper looked upon such a won game of chess as
+withal an assault on his own person. And he who ventured to conquer
+him at chess was always to Henry a sort of traitor that threatened his
+kingdom, and was rash enough to attempt to seize the crown.
+
+The queen very well knew that, but--Gardiner was right--she was too
+self-confident. She trusted a little to her power over the king; she
+imagined he would make an exception in her favor. And it was so dull to
+be obliged ever to be the losing and conquered party at this game; to
+permit the king always to appear as the triumphant victor, and to bestow
+on his game praise which he did not deserve. Catharine wanted to allow
+herself for once the triumph of having beaten her husband. She fought
+him man to man; she irritated him by the ever-approaching danger. The
+king, who at the beginning had been cheerful, and laughed when Catharine
+took up one of his pieces--the king now no longer laughed. It was
+no more a game. It was a serious struggle; and he contended with his
+consort for the victory with impassioned eagerness. Catharine did not
+even see the clouds which were gathering on the king's brow. Her looks
+were directed only to the chess-board; and, breathless with expectation
+and glowing with eagerness, she considered the move she was about to
+make.
+
+But Gardiner was very well aware of the king's secret anger; and he
+comprehended that the situation was favorable for him.
+
+With soft, sneaking step he approached the king, and, standing behind
+him, looked over the game.
+
+"You are checkmated in four moves, my husband!" said the queen with a
+cheerful laugh, as she made her move.
+
+A still darker frown gathered on the king's brow, and his lips were
+violently compressed.
+
+"It is true, your majesty," said Gardiner. "You will soon have to
+succumb. Danger threatens you from the queen."
+
+Henry gave a start, and turned his face to Gardiner with an expression
+of inquiry. In his exasperated mood against the queen, the crafty
+priest's ambiguous remark struck him with double keenness.
+
+Gardiner was a very skilful hunter; the very first arrow that he
+shot had hit. But Catharine, too, had heard it whiz. Gardiner's slow,
+ambiguous words had startled her from her artless security; and as she
+now looked into the king's glowing, excited face, she comprehended her
+want of prudence.
+
+But it was too late to remedy it. The king's checkmate was unavoidable;
+and Henry himself had already noticed his defeat.
+
+"It is all right!" said the king, impetuously. "You have won, Catharine,
+and, by the holy mother of God! you can boast of the rare good fortune
+of having vanquished Henry of England!"
+
+"I will not boast of it, my noble husband!" said she, with a smile. "You
+have played with me as the lion does with the puppy, which he does not
+crush only because he has compassion on him, and he pities the poor
+little creature. Lion, I thank you. You have been magnanimous to-day.
+You have let me win."
+
+The king's face brightened a little. Gardiner saw it. He must prevent
+Catharine from following up her advantage further.
+
+"Magnanimity is an exalted, but a very dangerous virtue," said
+he, gravely; "and kings above all things dare not exercise it; for
+magnanimity pardons crimes committed, and kings are not here to pardon,
+but to punish."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed," said Catharine; "to be able to be magnanimous is the
+noblest prerogative of kings; and since they are God's representatives
+on earth, they too must exercise pity and mercy, like God himself."
+
+The king's brow again grew dark, and his sullen looks stared at the
+chess-board.
+
+Gardiner shrugged his shoulders, and made no reply. He drew a roll of
+papers out of his gown and handed it to the king.
+
+"Sire," said he, "I hope you do not share the queen's views; else it
+would be bad for the quiet and peace of the country. Mankind cannot be
+governed by mercy, but only through fear. Your majesty holds the sword
+in his hands. If you hesitate to let it fall on evil-doers, they will
+soon wrest it from your hands, and you will be powerless!"
+
+"Those are very cruel words, your highness!" exclaimed Catharine,
+who allowed herself to be carried away by her magnanimous heart, and
+suspected that Gardiner had come to move the king to some harsh and
+bloody decision.
+
+She wanted to anticipate his design; she wanted to move the king to
+mildness. But the moment was unpropitious for her.
+
+The king, whom she had just before irritated by her victory over him,
+felt his vexation heightened by the opposition which she offered to
+the bishop; for this opposition was at the same time directed against
+himself. The king was not at all inclined to exercise mercy; it was,
+therefore, a very wicked notion of the queen's to praise mercy as the
+highest privilege of princes.
+
+With a silent nod of the head, he took the papers from Gardiner's hands,
+and opened them.
+
+"Ah," said he, running over the pages, "your highness is right; men do
+not deserve to be treated with mercy, for they are always ready to abuse
+it. Because we have for a few weeks lighted no fagot-piles and erected
+no scaffolds, they imagine that we are asleep; and they begin their
+treasonable and mischievous doings with redoubled violence, and raise
+their sinful fists against us, in order to mock us. I see here an
+accusation against one who has presumed to say that there is no king by
+the grace of God; and that the king is a miserable and sinful mortal,
+just as well as the lowest beggar. Well, we will concede this man his
+point--we will not be to him a king by the grace of God, but a king by
+the wrath of God! We will show him that we are not yet quite like the
+lowest beggar, for we still possess at least wood enough to build a pile
+of fagots for him."
+
+And as the king thus spoke, he broke out into a loud laugh, in which
+Gardiner heartily chimed.
+
+"Here I behold the indictment of two others who deny the king's
+supremacy," continued Henry, still turning over the leaves of the
+papers. "They revile me as a blasphemer, because I dare call myself
+God's representative--the visible head of His holy Church; they say that
+God alone is Lord of His Church, and that Luther and Calvin are more
+exalted representatives of God than the king himself. Verily we must
+hold our royalty and our God-granted dignity very cheap, if we should
+not punish these transgressors, who blaspheme in our sacred person God
+Himself."
+
+He continued turning over the leaves. Suddenly a deep flush of anger
+suffused his countenance, and a fierce curse burst from his lips. He
+threw the paper on the table, and struck it with his clenched fist. "Are
+all the devils let loose, then?" yelled he, in wrath. "Does sedition
+blaze so wildly in my land, that we have no longer the power to subdue
+it? Here a fanatical heretic on the public street has warned the people
+not to read that holy book which I myself, like a well-intentioned and
+provident father and guardian, wrote for my people, and gave it them
+that they might be edified and exalted thereby. And this book that felon
+has shown to the people, and said to them: 'You call that the king's
+book; and you are right; for it is a wicked book, a work of hell, and
+the devil is the king's sponsor!' Ah, I see well we must again show our
+earnest and angry face to this miserable, traitorous rabble, that it
+may again have faith in the king. It is a wretched, disgusting, and
+contemptible mob--this people! They are obedient and humble only when
+they tremble and feel the lash. Only when they are trampled in the dust,
+do they acknowledge that we are their master; and when we have racked
+them and burnt, they have respect for our excellency. We must, however,
+brand royalty on their bodies so that they may be sensible of it as a
+reality. And by the eternal God, we will do that! Give me the pen here
+that I may sign and ratify these warrants. But dip the pen well, your
+highness, for there are eight warrants, and I must write my name eight
+times. Ah, ah, it is a hard and fatiguing occupation to be a king, and
+no day passes without trouble and toil!"
+
+"The Lord our God will bless this toil to you!" said Gardiner, solemnly,
+as he handed the king the pen.
+
+Henry was preparing to write, as Catharine laid her hand on his, and
+checked him.
+
+"Do not sign them, my husband," said she, in a voice of entreaty. "Oh,
+by all that is sacred to you, I conjure you not to let yourself be
+carried away by your momentary vexation; let not the injured man be
+mightier in you than the righteous king. Let the sun set and rise
+on your wrath; and then, when you are perfectly calm, perfectly
+composed--then pronounce judgment on these accused. For consider it
+well, my husband, these are eight death-warrants that you are here about
+to sign; and with these few strokes of the pen, you will tear eight
+human beings from life, from family, and from the world; you will take
+from the mother, her son; from the wife, her husband; and from the
+infant children, their father. Consider it, Henry; it is so weighty a
+responsibility that God has placed in your hand, and it is presumptuous
+not to meet it in holy earnestness and undisturbed tranquillity of
+mind."
+
+"Now, by the holy mother!" cried the king, striking vehemently upon the
+table, "I believe, forsooth, you dare excuse traitors and blasphemers of
+their king! You have not heard then of what they are accused?"
+
+"I have heard it," said Catharine, more and more warmly; "I have heard,
+and I say, nevertheless, sign not those death-warrants, my husband. It
+is true these poor creatures have grievously erred, but they erred as
+human beings. Then let your punishment also be human. It is not wise, O
+king, to want to avenge so bitterly a trifling injury to your majesty.
+A king must be exalted above reviling and calumny. Like the sun, he must
+shine upon the just and the unjust, no one of whom is so mighty that
+he can cloud his splendor and dim his glory. Punish evil-doers and
+criminals, but be noble and magnanimous toward those who have injured
+your person."
+
+"The king is no person that can be injured!" said Gardiner. "The king is
+a sublime idea, a mighty, world-embracing thought. Whoever injures the
+king, has not injured a person, but a divinely instituted royalty--the
+universal thought that holds together the whole world!"
+
+"Whoever injures the king has injured God!" yelled the king; "and
+whoever seizes our crown and reviles us, shall have his hand struck off,
+and his tongue torn out, as is done to atheists and patricides!"
+
+"Well, strike off their hand then, mutilate them; but do not kill them!"
+cried Catharine, passionately. "Ascertain at least whether their crime
+is so grievous as they want to make you believe, my husband. Oh, it is
+so easy now to be accused as a traitor and atheist! All that is needed
+for it is an inconsiderate word, a doubt, not as to God, but to his
+priests and this Church which you, my king, have established; and of
+which the lofty and peculiar structure is to many so new and unusual
+that they ask themselves in doubt whether that is a Church of God or a
+palace of the king, and that they lose themselves in its labyrinthine
+passages, and wander about without being able to find the exit."
+
+"Had they faith," said Gardiner, solemnly, "they would not lose their
+way; and were God with them, the entrance would not be closed to them."
+
+"Oh, I well know that YOU are always inexorable!" cried Catharine,
+angrily. "But it is not to you either that I intercede for mercy, but
+to the king; and I tell you, sir bishop, it would be better for you, and
+more worthy of a priest of Christian love, if you united your prayers
+with mine, instead of wanting to dispose the king's noble heart to
+severity. You are a priest; and you have learned in your own life that
+there are many paths that lead to God, and that we, one and all, doubt
+and are perplexed which of them is right."
+
+"How!" screamed the king, as he rose from his seat and gazed at
+Catharine with angry looks. "You mean, then, that the heretics also may
+find themselves on a path that leads to God?"
+
+"I mean," cried she, passionately, "that Jesus Christ, too, was called
+an atheist, and executed. I mean that Stephen was stoned by Paul, and
+that, nevertheless, both are now honored as saints and prayed to as
+such. I mean, that Socrates was not damned because he lived before
+Christ, and so could not be acquainted with his religion; and that
+Horace and Julius Caesar, Phidias and Plato, must yet be called great
+and noble spirits, even though they were heathen. Yes, my lord and
+husband, I mean that it behooves us well to exercise gentleness in
+matters of religion, and that faith is not to be obtruded on men by main
+force as a burden, but is to be bestowed upon them as a benefit through
+their own conviction."
+
+"So you do not hold these eight accused to be criminals worthy of
+death?" asked Henry with studied calmness, and a composure maintained
+with difficulty.
+
+"No, my husband! I hold that they are poor, erring mortals, who seek the
+right path, and would willingly travel it; and who, therefore, ask in
+doubt all along, 'Is this the right way?'"
+
+"It is enough!" said the king, as he beckoned Gardiner to him, and,
+leaning on his arm, took a few steps across the room. "We will speak no
+more of these matters. They are too grave for us to wish to decide them
+in the presence of our gay young queen. The heart of woman is always
+inclined to gentleness and forgiveness. You should have borne that in
+mind, Gardiner, and not have spoken of these matters in the queen's
+presence."
+
+"Sire, it was, however, the hour that you appointed for consultation on
+these matters."
+
+"Was it the hour!" exclaimed the king, quickly. "Well, then we did
+wrong to devote it to anything else than grave employments; and you
+will pardon me, queen, if I beg you to leave me alone with the bishop.
+Affairs of state must not be postponed."
+
+He presented Catharine his hand, and with difficulty, and yet with a
+smiling countenance, conducted her to the door. As she stopped, and,
+looking him in the eye with an expression inquiring and anxious, opened
+her lips to speak to him, he made an impatient gesture with his hand,
+and a dark frown gathered on his brow.
+
+"It is late," said he, hastily, "and we have business of state."
+
+Catharine did not venture to speak; she bowed in silence and left the
+room. The king watched her with sullen brow and angry looks. Then he
+turned round to Gardiner.
+
+"Now," asked he, "what do you think of the queen?"
+
+"I think," said Gardiner, so slowly and so deliberately that each word
+had time to penetrate the king's sensitive heart like the prick of a
+needle--"I think that she does not deem them criminals that call the
+holy book which you have written a work of hell; and that she has a
+great deal of sympathy for those heretics who will not acknowledge your
+supremacy."
+
+"By the holy mother, I believe she herself would speak thus, and avow
+herself among my enemies, if she were not my wife!" cried the king, in
+whose heart rage began already to seethe like lava in a volcano.
+
+"She does it already, although she is your wife, sire! She imagines
+her exalted position renders her unamenable, and protects her from
+your righteous wrath; therefore she does what no one else dares do, and
+speaks what in the mouth of any other would be the blackest treason."
+
+"What does she? and what says she?" cried the king. "Do not hesitate to
+tell me, your highness. It behooves me well to know what my wife does
+and says."
+
+"Sire, she is not merely the secret patroness of heretics and reformers,
+but she is also a professor of their faith. She listens to their false
+doctrine with eager mind, and receives the cursed priests of this sect
+into her apartments, in order to hear their fanatical discourse and
+hellish inspiration. She speaks of these heretics as true believers and
+Christians; and denominates Luther the light that God has sent into
+the world to illuminate the gloom and falsehood of the Church with the
+splendor of truth and love--that Luther, sire, who dared write you such
+shameful and insulting letters, and ridiculed in such a brutal manner
+your royalty and your wisdom."
+
+"She is a heretic; and when you say that, you say everything!" screamed
+the king. The volcano was ripe for an eruption, and the seething lava
+must at last have an outlet. "Yes, she is a heretic!" repeated the king;
+"and yet we have sworn to exterminate these atheists from our land."
+
+"She very well knows that she is secure from your wrath," said Gardiner,
+with a shrug of his shoulders. "She relies on the fact that she is the
+queen, and that in the heart of her exalted husband love is mightier
+than the faith."
+
+"Nobody shall suppose that he is secure from my wrath, and no one shall
+rely on the security afforded him by my love. She is a proud, arrogant,
+and audacious woman!" cried the king, whose looks were just then
+fixed again on the chess-board, and whose spite was heightened by the
+remembrance of the lost game. "She ventures to brave us, and to have a
+will other than ours. By the holy mother, we will endeavor to break her
+stubbornness, and bend her proud neck beneath our will! Yes, I will
+show the world that Henry of England is still the immovable and
+incorruptible. I will give the heretics an evidence that I am in reality
+the defender and protector of the faith and of religion in my land, and
+that nobody stands too high to be struck by my wrath, and to feel the
+sword of justice on his neck. She is a heretic; and we have sworn to
+destroy heretics with fire and sword. We shall keep our oath."
+
+"And God will bless you with His blessing. He will surround your head
+with a halo of fame; and the Church will praise you as her most glorious
+pastor, her exalted head."
+
+"Be it so!" said the king, as with youthful alacrity he strode across
+the room; and, stepping to his writing-table, with a vigorous and fleet
+hand he wrote down a few lines. Gardiner stood in the middle of the room
+with his hands folded; and his lips murmured in an undertone a prayer,
+while his large flashing eyes were fastened on the king with a curious
+and penetrating expression.
+
+"Here, your highness," the king then said, "take this paper--take it
+and order everything necessary. It is an arrest-warrant; and before the
+night draws on, the queen shall be in the Tower."
+
+"Verily, the Lord is mighty in you!" cried Gardiner, as he took the
+paper; "the heavenly hosts sing their hallelujah and look down with
+rapture on the hero who subdues his own heart to serve God and the
+Church."
+
+"Take it and speed you!" said the king, hastily. "In a few hours
+everything must be done. Give Earl Douglas the paper, and bid him go
+with it to the lord-lieutenant of the Tower, so that he himself may
+repair hither with the yeomen of the guard. For this woman is yet a
+queen, and even in the criminal I will still recognize the queen. The
+lord-lieutenant himself must conduct her to the Tower. Hasten then, say
+I! But, hark you, keep all this a secret, and let nobody know anything
+of it till the decisive moment arrives. Otherwise her friends might take
+a notion to implore my mercy for this sinner; and I abhor this whining
+and crying. Silence, then, for I am tired and need rest and sleep. I
+have, as you say, just done a work well pleasing to God; perhaps He may
+send me, as a reward for it, invigorating and strengthening sleep, which
+I have now so long desired in vain."
+
+And the king threw back the curtains of his couch, and, supported by
+Gardiner, laid himself on the downy cushion.
+
+Gardiner drew the curtains again, and thrust the fatal paper into his
+pocket. Even in his hands it did not seem to him secure enough. What!
+might not some curious eye fasten on it, and divine its contents? Might
+not some impertinent and shameless friend of the queen snatch this paper
+from him, and carry it to her and give her warning? No, no, it was not
+secure enough in his hands. He must hide it in the pocket of his gown.
+There, no one could find it, no one discover it.
+
+So there he hid it. In the gown with its large folds it was safe; and,
+after he had thus concealed the precious paper, he left the room with
+rapid strides, in order to acquaint Earl Douglas with the glorious
+result of his plans.
+
+Not a single time did he look back. Had he done so, he would have
+sprung back into that room as a tiger pounces on his prey. He would have
+plunged, as the hawk stoops at the dove, at that piece of white paper
+that lay there on the floor, exactly on the spot where Gardiner was
+before standing when he placed into his pocket the arrest-warrant
+written by the king.
+
+Ah, even the gown of a priest is not always close enough to conceal a
+dangerous secret; and even the pocket of a bishop may sometimes have
+holes in it.
+
+Gardiner went away with the proud consciousness of having the order
+of arrest in his pocket; and that fatal paper lay on the floor in the
+middle of the king's chamber.
+
+Who will come to pick it up? Who will become the sharer of this
+dangerous secret? To whom will this mute paper proclaim the shocking
+news that the queen has fallen into disgrace, and is this very day to be
+dragged to the Tower as a prisoner?
+
+All is still and lonely in the king's apartment. Nothing is stirring,
+not even the heavy damask curtains of the royal couch.
+
+The king sleeps. Even vexation and anger are a good lullaby; they have
+so agitated and prostrated the king, that he has actually fallen asleep
+from weariness.
+
+Ah, the king should have been thankful to his wife for his vexation
+at the lost game of chess, and his wrath at Catharine's heretical
+sentiments. These had fatigued him; these had lulled him to sleep.
+
+The warrant of arrest still lay on the floor. Now, quite softly, quite
+cautiously, the door opens. Who is it that dares venture to enter the
+king's room unsummoned and unannounced?
+
+There are only three persons who dare venture that: the queen, Princess
+Elizabeth, and John Heywood the fool. Which of the three is it?
+
+It is Princess Elizabeth, who comes to salute her royal father. Every
+forenoon at this hour she had found the king in his room. Where was
+he then to-day? As she looked around the room with an inquiring and
+surprised air, her eye fell on that paper which lay there on the floor.
+She picked it up, and examined it with childish curiosity. What could
+this paper contain? Surely it was no secret--else, it would not lie here
+on the floor.
+
+She opened it and read. Her fine countenance expressed horror and
+amazement; a low exclamation escaped her lips. But Elizabeth had a
+strong and resolute soul; and the unexpected and the surprising did not
+dull her clear vision, nor cloud her sharp wit. The queen was in danger.
+The queen was to be imprisoned. THAT, this dreadful paper shrieked in
+her ear; but she durst not allow herself to be stunned by it. She must
+act; she must warn the queen.
+
+She hid the paper in her bosom, and light as a zephyr she floated away
+again out of the chamber.
+
+With flashing eyes and cheeks reddened by her rapid race Elizabeth
+entered the queen's chamber; with passionate vehemence she clasped her
+in her arms and tenderly kissed her.
+
+"Catharine, my queen, and my mother," said she, "we have sworn to stand
+by and protect each other when danger threatens us. Fate is gracious to
+me, for it has given into my hand the means of making good my oath
+this very day. Take that paper and read! It is an order for your
+imprisonment, made out by the king himself. When you have read it, then
+let us consider what is to be done, and how we can avert the danger from
+you."
+
+"An order of imprisonment!" said Catharine, with a shudder, as she read
+it. "An order of imprisonment--that is to say, a death-warrant! For when
+once the threshold of that frightful Tower is crossed, it denotes that
+it is never to be left again; and if a queen is arrested and accused,
+then is she also already condemned. Oh, my God, princess, do you
+comprehend that--to have to die while life still throbs so fresh and
+warm in our veins? To be obliged to go to death, while the future still
+allures us with a thousand hopes, a thousand wishes? My God, to have to
+descend into the desolate prison and into the gloomy grave, while the
+world greets us with alluring voices, and spring-tide has scarcely awoke
+in our heart!"
+
+Streams of tears burst from her eyes, and she hid her face in her
+trembling hands.
+
+"Weep not, queen," whispered Elizabeth, herself trembling and pale as
+death. "Weep not; but consider what is to be done. Each minute, and the
+danger increases; each minute brings the evil nearer to us."
+
+"You are right," said Catharine, as she again raised her head, and shook
+the tears from her eyes. "Yes, you are right; it is not time to weep and
+wail. Death is creeping upon me; but I--I will not die. I live still;
+and so long as there is a breath in me I will fight against death. God
+will assist me; God will help me to overcome this danger also, as I have
+already done so many others."
+
+"But what will you do? where can you begin? You know not the accusation.
+You know not who accuses you, nor with what you are charged."
+
+"Yet I suspect it!" said the queen, musingly. "When I now recall to mind
+the king's angry countenance, and the malicious smile of that malignant
+priest, I believe I know the accusation. Yes--everything is now clear to
+me. Ah, it is the heretic that they would sentence to death. Well, now,
+my lord bishop, I still live; and--we will see which of us two will gain
+the victory!"
+
+With proud step and glowing cheeks she hurried to the door. Elizabeth
+held her hack. "Whither are you going?" cried she, in astonishment.
+
+"To the king!" said she, with a proud smile. "He has heard the bishop;
+now he shall hear me also. The king's disposition is fickle and easily
+changed. We will now see which cunning is the stronger--the cunning of
+the priest or the cunning of the woman. Elizabeth, pray for me. I go to
+the king; and you will either see me free and happy, or never again."
+
+She imprinted a passionate kiss on Elizabeth's lips, and hurriedly left
+the chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. CHESS-PLAY.
+
+
+It was many days since the king had been as well as he was to-day. For a
+long time he had not enjoyed such refreshing sleep as on the day when he
+signed the warrant for the queen's imprisonment. But he thought nothing
+at all about it. Sleep seemed to have obliterated all recollection of it
+from his memory. Like an anecdote which you listen to, and smile at for
+the moment, but soon forget, so had the whole occurrence vanished
+again from him. It was an anecdote of the moment--a transient
+interlude--nothing further.
+
+The king had slept well, and he had no care for anything else. He
+stretched himself, and lay lounging on his couch, thinking with rapture
+how fine it would be if he could enjoy such sweet and refreshing repose
+every day, and if no bad dreams and no fear would frighten away sleep
+from his eyes. He felt very serene and very good-humored; and had any
+one now come to beg a favor of the king, he would have granted it in the
+first joy after such invigorating sleep. But he was alone; no one was
+with him; he must repress his gracious desires. But no. Was it not as
+though something were stirring and breathing behind the curtains?
+The king threw back the curtains, and a soft smile flitted over his
+features; for before his bed sat the queen. There she sat with rosy
+cheeks and sparkling eyes, and greeted him with a roguish smile.
+
+"Ah, Kate, it is you!" cried the king. "Well, now, I understand how it
+happened that I have had such a sound and refreshing sleep! You stood
+by as my good angel, and scared the pains and bad dreams away from my
+couch."
+
+And as he said this, he reached out his hand and tenderly stroked her
+velvet cheek. He did not at all recollect that he had already, as it
+were, devoted that charming head to the scaffold, and that in a few
+hours more those bright eyes were to behold naught but the night of
+the dungeon. Sleep, as we have said, had lulled to rest also the
+recollection of this; and the evil thoughts had not yet awoke again in
+him. To sign an order of arrest or a death-warrant was with the king
+such a usual and every-day matter, that it constituted no epoch in his
+life, and neither burdened him with troubles of conscience nor made his
+heart shudder and tremble.
+
+But Catharine thought of it, and as the king's hand stroked her cheek,
+it was as though death were just then touching her, never again to
+release her. However, she overcame this momentary horror, and had the
+courage to preserve her serene and innocent air.
+
+"You call me your good angel, my husband," said she, with a smile; "but
+yet I am nothing more than your little Puck, who bustles about you, and
+now and then makes you laugh with his drolleries."
+
+"And a dear little Puck you are, Katie," cried the king, who always
+gazed upon his wife's rosy and fresh countenance with real satisfaction.
+
+"Then I will prove myself this very day your Puck, and allow you no more
+repose on your couch," said she, as she made a mock effort to raise him
+up. "Do you know, my husband, why I came here? A butterfly has tapped
+at my window. Only think now, a butterfly in winter! That betokens that
+this time winter is spring; and the clerk of the weather above there has
+confounded January with March. The butterfly has invited us, king; and
+only see! the sun is winking into the window to us, and says we have but
+to come out, as he has already dried the walks in the garden below, and
+called forth a little grass on the plat. And your rolling chair stands
+all ready, my lord and husband, and your Puck, as you see, has already
+put on her furs, and clad herself in armor against the winter, which,
+however, is not there!"
+
+"Well, then, help me, my dearest Puck, so that I can arise, and obey
+the command of the butterfly and the sun and my lovely wife," cried
+the king, as he put his arm around Catharine's neck, and slowly raised
+himself from the couch.
+
+She busied herself about him with officious haste; she put her arm
+tenderly on his shoulder and supported him, and properly arranged for
+him the gold chain, which had slipped out of place on his doublet, and
+playfully plaited the lace ruff which was about his neck.
+
+"Is it your order, my husband, that your servants come?--the master of
+ceremonies, who, without doubt, awaits your back in the anteroom--the
+lord bishop--who a while ago made such a black-looking face at me? But
+how! my husband, your face, too, is now in an eclipse? How? Has your
+Puck perchance said something to put you out of tune?"
+
+"No, indeed!" said the king, gloomily; but he avoided meeting her
+smiling glance and looking in her rosy face.
+
+The evil thoughts had again awoke in him; and he now remembered the
+warrant of arrest that he had given Gardiner. He remembered it, and
+he regretted it. For she was so fair and lovely--his young queen; she
+understood so well by her jests to smooth away care from his brow, and
+affright vexation from his soul--she was such an agreeable and sprightly
+pastime, such a refreshing means of driving away ennui.
+
+Not for her sake did he regret what he had done, but only on his own
+account. From selfishness alone, he repented having issued that order
+for the queen's imprisonment. Catharine observed him. Her glance,
+sharpened by inward fear, read his thoughts on his brow, and understood
+the sigh which involuntarily arose from his breast.
+
+She again seized courage; she might succeed in turning away by a smile
+the sword that hung over her head.
+
+"Come, my lord and husband," said she, cheerfully, "the sun beckons to
+us, and the trees shake their heads indignantly because we are not yet
+there."
+
+"Yes, come, Kate," said the king, rousing himself with an effort from
+his brown study; "come, we will go down into God's free air. Perhaps
+He is nearer to us there, and may illuminate us with good thoughts and
+wholesome resolutions. Come, Kate."
+
+The queen gave him her arm, and, supported on it, the king advanced a
+few steps. But suddenly Catharine stood still; and as the king fastened
+on her his inquiring look, she blushed and cast down her eyes.
+
+"Well!" asked the king, "why do you linger?"
+
+"Sire, I was considering your words; and what you say about the sun and
+wholesome resolutions has touched my heart and startled my conscience.
+My husband, you are right; God is there without, and I dare not venture
+to behold the sun, which is God's eye, before I have made my confession
+and received absolution. Sire, I am a great sinner, and my conscience
+gives me no rest. Will you be my confessor, and listen to me?"
+
+The king sighed. "Ah," thought he, "she is hurrying to destruction, and
+by her own confession of guilt she will make it impossible for me to
+hold her guiltless!"
+
+"Speak!" said he aloud.
+
+"First," said she, with downcast eyes--"first, I must confess to you
+that I have to-day deceived you, my lord and king. Vanity and sinful
+pride enticed me to this; and childish anger made me consummate what
+vanity whispered to me. But I repent, my king; I repent from the bottom
+of my soul, and I swear to you, my husband--yes, I swear to you by all
+that is sacred to me, that it is the first and only time that I have
+deceived you. And never will I venture to do it again, for it is a
+dismal and awful feeling to stand before you with a guilty conscience."
+
+"And in what have you deceived us, Kate?" asked the king; and his voice
+trembled.
+
+Catharine drew from her dress a small roll of paper, and, humbly bowing,
+handed it to the king. "Take and see for yourself, my husband," said
+she.
+
+With hurried hand the king opened the paper, and then looked in utter
+astonishment, now at its contents, and now at the blushing face of the
+queen.
+
+"What!" said he, "you give me a pawn from the chess-board! What does
+that mean?"
+
+"That means," said she, in a tone of utter contrition--"that means, that
+I stole it from you, and thereby cheated you out of your victory. Oh,
+pardon me, my husband! but I could no longer endure to lose always, and
+I was afraid you would no more allow me the pleasure of playing with
+you, when you perceived what a weak and contemptible antagonist I am.
+And behold, this little pawn was my enemy! It stood near my queen and
+threatened her with check, while it discovered check to my king from
+your bishop. You were just going to make this move, which was to ruin
+me, when Bishop Gardiner entered. You turned away your eyes and saluted
+him. You were not looking on the game. Oh, my lord and husband, the
+temptation was too alluring and seductive; and I yielded to it. Softly
+I took the pawn from the board, and slipped it into my pocket. When
+you looked again at the game, you seemed surprised at first; but your
+magnanimous and lofty spirit had no suspicion of my base act; so you
+innocently played on; and so I won the game of chess. Oh, my king, will
+you pardon me, and not be angry with me?" The king broke out into a loud
+laugh, and looked with an expression of tenderness at Catharine, who
+stood before him with downcast eyes, abashed and blushing. This sight
+only redoubled his merriment, and made him again and again roar out with
+laughter.
+
+"And is that all your crime, Kate?" asked he, at length, drying his
+eyes. "You have stolen a pawn from me--this is your first and only
+deception?"
+
+"Is it not indeed great enough, sire? Did I not purloin it because I was
+so high-minded as to want to win a game of chess from you? Is not the
+whole court even now acquainted with my splendid luck? And does it not
+know that I have been the victor to-day, whilst yet I was not entitled
+to be so--whilst I deceived you so shamefully?"
+
+"Now, verily," said the king, solemnly, "happy are the men who are not
+worse deceived by their wives than you have deceived me to-day; and
+happy are the women whose confessions are so pure and innocent as yours
+have been to-day! Do but lift up your eyes again, my Katie; that sin is
+forgiven you; and by God and by your king it shall be accounted to you
+as a virtue."
+
+He laid his hand on her head, as if in blessing, and gazed at her long
+and silently. Then, said he, laughingly:
+
+"According to this, then, my Kate, I should have been the victor of
+to-day, and not have lost that game of chess."
+
+"No," said she, dolefully, "I must have lost it, if I had not stolen the
+pawn."
+
+Again the king laughed. Catharine said, earnestly:
+
+"Do but believe me, my husband, Bishop Gardiner alone was the cause of
+my fall. Because he was by, I did not want to lose. My pride revolted
+to think that this haughty and arrogant priest was to be witness of
+my defeat. In mind, I already saw the cold and contemptuous smile with
+which he would look down on me, the vanquished; and my heart rose in
+rebellion at the thought of being humbled before him. And now I have
+arrived at the second part of my fault which I want to confess to you
+to-day. Sire, I must acknowledge another great fault to you. I have
+grievously offended against you to-day, in that I contradicted you, and
+withstood your wise and pious words. Ah, my husband, it was not done
+to spite you, but only to vex and annoy the haughty priest. For I must
+confess to you, my king, I hate this Bishop of Winchester--ay, yet
+more--I have a dread of him; for my foreboding heart tells me that he
+is my enemy, that he is watching each of my looks, each of my words,
+so that he can make from them a noose to strangle me. He is the evil
+destiny that creeps up behind me and would one day certainly destroy me,
+if your beneficent hand and your almighty arm did not protect me.
+
+"Oh, when I behold him, my husband, I would always gladly fly to your
+heart, and say to you: 'Protect me, my king, and have compassion on me!
+Have faith in me and love me; for if you do not, I am lost! The evil
+fiend is there to destroy me.'"
+
+And, as she thus spoke, she clung affectionately to the king's side,
+and, leaning her head on his breast, looked up to him with a glance of
+tender entreaty and touching devotion.
+
+The king bent down and kissed her brow. "Oh, sancta simplicitas," softly
+murmured he--"she knows not how nigh she is to the truth, and how much
+reason she has for her evil forebodings!" Then he asked aloud: "So,
+Kate, you believe that Gardiner hates you?"
+
+"I do not believe it, I know it!" said she. "He wounds me whenever he
+can; and though his wounds are made only with pins, that comes only from
+this, that he is afraid that you might discover it if he drew a dagger
+on me, whilst you might not notice the pin with which he secretly wounds
+me. And what was his coming here to-day other than a new assault on me?
+He knows very well--and I have never made a secret of it--that I am an
+enemy to this Roman Catholic religion the pope of which has dared to
+hurl his ban against my lord and husband; and that I seek with lively
+interest to be instructed as to the doctrine and religion of the
+so-called reformers."
+
+"They say that you are a heretic," said the king, gravely.
+
+"Gardiner says that! But if I am so, you are so too, my king; for your
+belief is mine. If I am so, so too is Cranmer, the noble Archbishop
+of Canterbury; for he is my spiritual adviser and helper. But Gardiner
+wishes that I were a heretic, and he wants me likewise to appear so to
+you. See, my husband, why it was that he laid those eight death-warrants
+before you awhile ago. There were eight, all heretics, whom you were to
+condemn--not a single papist among them; and yet I know that the prisons
+are full of papists, who, in the fanaticism of their persecuted faith,
+have spoken words just as worthy of punishment as those unfortunate ones
+whom you were to-day to send from life to death by a stroke of your pen.
+Sire, I should have prayed you just as fervently, just as suppliantly,
+had they been papists whom you were to sentence to death! But Gardiner
+wanted a proof of my heresy; and therefore he selected eight heretics,
+for whom I was to oppose your hard decree."
+
+"It is true," said the king, thoughtfully; "there was not a single
+papist among them! But tell me, Kate--are you really a heretic, and an
+adversary of your king?"
+
+With a sweet smile she looked deep into his eyes, and humbly crossed her
+arms over her beautiful breast.
+
+"Your adversary!" whispered she. "Are you not my husband and my lord?
+Was not the woman made to be subject to the man? The man was created
+after the likeness of God, and the woman after the likeness of man. So
+the woman is only the man's second self; and he must have compassion
+on her in love; and he must give her of his spirit, and influence her
+understanding from his understanding. Therefore your duty is to instruct
+me, my husband; and mine is, to learn of you. And of all the women in
+the world, to no one is this duty made so easy as to me; for God has
+been gracious to me and given me as my husband a king whose prudence,
+wisdom, and learning are the wonder of all the world." [Footnote: The
+queen's own words, as they have been given by all historical writers.
+See on this point Burnet, vol. I, p. 84; Tytler, p. 413; Larrey's
+"Histoire d'Angleterre," vol. II, p. 201; Leti, vol. I, p. 154,
+(death-sign) Historical. The king's own words.] "What a sweet little
+flatterer you are, Kate!" said the king, with a smile; "and with what a
+charming voice you want to conceal the truth from us! The truth is, that
+you yourself are a very learned little body, who has no need at all
+to learn anything from others, but who would be well able to instruct
+others."
+
+"Oh, if it is so, as you say," cried Catharine, "well, then would I
+teach the whole world to love my king as I do, and to be subject to him
+in humility, faithfulness, and obedience, as I am."
+
+And as she thus spoke, she threw both her arms about the king's neck,
+and leaned her head with a languishing expression upon his breast.
+
+The king kissed her, and pressed her fast to his heart. He thought no
+longer of the danger that was hovering over Catharine's head; he thought
+only that he loved her, and that life would be very desolate, very
+tedious and sad without her.
+
+"And now, my husband," said Catharine, gently disengaging herself from
+him--"now, since I have confessed to you and received absolution from
+you--now let us go down into the garden, so that God's bright sun may
+shine into our hearts fresh and glad. Come, my husband, your chair is
+ready; and the bees and the butterflies, the gnats and the flies, have
+already practised a hymn, with which they are going to greet you, my
+husband."
+
+Laughing and jesting, she drew him along to the adjoining room, where
+the courtiers and the rolling-chair were standing ready; and the king
+mounted his triumphal car, and allowed himself to be rolled through
+the carpeted corridors, and down the staircases, transformed into broad
+inclined planes of marble, into the garden.
+
+The air had the freshness of winter and the warmth of spring. The grass
+like a diligent weaver was already beginning to weave a carpet over the
+black level of the square; and already here and there a tiny blossom,
+curious and bashful, was peeping out and appeared to be smiling in
+astonishment at its own premature existence. The sun seemed so warm and
+bright; the heavens were so blue!
+
+At the king's side went Catharine, with such rosy cheeks and sparkling
+eyes. Those eyes were always directed to her husband; and her charming
+prattle was to the king like the melodious song of birds, and made his
+heart leap for pleasure and delight. But how? What noise all at once
+drowned Catharine's sweet prattle? And what was it that flashed up there
+at the end of that large alley which the royal pair with their suite had
+just entered?
+
+It was the noise of soldiers advancing; and shining helmets and
+coats-of-mail flashed in the sunlight.
+
+One band of soldiers held the outlet from the alley; another advanced up
+it in close order. At their head were seen striding along Gardiner and
+Earl Douglas, and at their side the lieutenant of the Tower.
+
+The king's countenance assumed a lowering and angry expression and his
+cheeks were suffused with crimson. With the quickness of youth he rose
+from his chair, and, raised to his full height, he looked with flaming
+eyes at the procession.
+
+The queen seized his hand and pressed it to her breast.
+
+"Ah," said she, with a low whisper, "protect me, my husband, for fear
+already overpowers me again! It is my enemy--it is Gardiner--that comes,
+and I tremble."
+
+"You shall no longer tremble before him, Kate!" said the king. "Woe to
+them, that dare make King Henry's consort tremble! I will speak with
+Gardiner."
+
+And almost roughly pushing aside the queen, the king, utterly heedless
+in his violent excitement of the pain of his foot, went in a quick pace
+to meet the advancing troop.
+
+He ordered them by his gesture to halt, and called Gardiner and Douglas
+to him. "What want you here? And what means this strange array?" asked
+he, in a rough tone.
+
+The two courtiers stared at him with looks of amazement, and durst not
+answer him.
+
+"Well!" asked the king, with ever-rising wrath, "will you at length
+tell me by what right you intrude into my garden with an armed
+host--specially at the same hour that I am here with my consort?
+Verily, there is no sufficient excuse for such a gross violation of
+the reverence which you owe your king and master; and I marvel, my lord
+master of ceremonies, that you did not seek to prevent this indecorum!"
+
+Earl Douglas muttered a few words of apology, which the king did not
+understand, or did not want to understand.
+
+"The duty of a master of ceremonies is to protect his king from every
+annoyance, and you, Earl Douglas, offer it to me yourself. Perchance you
+want thereby to show that you are weary of your office. Well, then, my
+lord, I dismiss you from it, and that your presence may not remind me
+of this morning's transaction, you will leave the court and London!
+Farewell, my lord!"
+
+Earl Douglas, turning pale and trembling, staggered a few steps
+backward, and gazed at the king with astonishment. He wanted to speak,
+but Henry, with a commanding wave of the hand, bade him be silent.
+
+"And now for you, my lord bishop!" said the king, and his eyes were
+turned on Gardiner with an expression so wrathful and contemptuous, that
+he turned pale and looked down to the ground. "What means this strange
+train with which the priest of God approaches his royal master to-day?
+And under what impulse of Christian love are you going to hold to-day a
+heretic hunt in the garden of your king?"
+
+"Sire," said Gardiner, completely beside himself, "your majesty well
+knows why I come; it was at your majesty's command that I with Earl
+Douglas and the lieutenant of the Tower came, in order to--"
+
+"Dare not to speak further!" yelled the king, who became still more
+angry because Gardiner would not understand him and comprehend the
+altered state of his mind. "How dare you make a pretence of my commands,
+whilst I, full of just amazement, question you as to the cause of your
+appearance? That is to say, you want to charge your king with falsehood.
+You want to excuse yourself by accusing me. Ah, my worthy lord bishop,
+this time you are thwarted in your plan, and I disavow you and your
+foolish attempt. No! there is nobody here whom you shall arrest; and,
+by the holy mother of God, were your eyes not blind, you would have seen
+that here, where the king is taking an airing with his consort, there
+could be no one whom these catchpolls had to look for! The presence of
+the royal majesty is like the presence of God; it dispenses happiness
+and peace about it; and whoever is touched by his glory, is graced and
+sanctified thereby."
+
+"But, your majesty," screamed Gardiner, whom anger and disappointed hope
+had made forgetful of all considerations, "you wanted me to arrest the
+queen; you yourself gave me the order for it; and now when I come to
+execute your will--now you repudiate me."
+
+The king uttered a yell of rage, and with lifted arm moved some steps
+toward Gardiner.
+
+But suddenly he felt his arm held back. It was Catharine, who had
+hurried up to the king. "Oh, my husband," said she, in a low whisper,
+"whatever he may have done, spare him! Still he is a priest of the
+Lord; and so let his sacred robe protect him, though perchance his deeds
+condemn him!"
+
+"Ah, do you plead for him?" cried the king. "Really, my poor wife, you
+suspect not how little ground you have to pity him, and to beg my mercy
+for him. [Footnote: The king's own words,--See Leti, vol. I, p. 133,]
+But you are right. We will respect his cassock, and think no more of
+what a haughty and intriguing man is wrapped in it.--But beware, priest,
+that you do not again remind me of that. My wrath would then inevitably
+strike you; and I should have as little mercy for you as you say I ought
+to show to other evil-doers. And in as much as you are a priest, be
+penetrated with a sense of the gravity of your office and the sacredness
+of your calling. Your episcopal see is at Winchester, and I think your
+duties call you thither. We no longer need you, for the noble Archbishop
+of Canterbury is coming back to us, and will have to fulfil the duties
+of his office near us and the queen. Farewell!"
+
+He turned his back on Gardiner, and, supported on Catharine's arm,
+returned to his rolling-chair.
+
+"Kate," said he, "just now a lowering cloud stood in your sky, but,
+thanks to your smile and your innocent face, it has passed harmlessly
+over. We thinks we still owe you special thanks for this; and we would
+like to show you that by some office of love. Is there nothing that
+would give you special delight, Kate?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said she, with fervor. "Two great desires burn in my heart."
+
+"Then name them, Kate; and, by the mother of God, if it is in the power
+of a king to fulfil them, I will do it."
+
+Catharine seized his hand and pressed it to her heart.
+
+"Sire," said she, "they wanted to have you sign eight death-warrants
+to-day. Oh, my husband, make of these eight criminals eight happy,
+thankful subjects; teach them to love that king whom they have
+reviled--teach their children, their wives and mothers to pray for you,
+whilst you restore life and freedom to these fathers, these sons and
+husbands, and while you, great and merciful, like Deity, pardon them."
+
+"So shall it be!" cried the king, cheerfully. "Our hand shall have
+to-day no other work than to rest in yours; and we will spare it
+from making these eight strokes of the pen. The eight evil-doers are
+pardoned; and they shall be free this very day."
+
+With an exclamation of rapturous delight Catharine pressed Henry's hand
+to her lips, and her face shone with pure happiness.
+
+"And your second wish?" asked the king.
+
+"My second wish," said she, with a smile, "pleads for the freedom of a
+poor prisoner--for the freedom of a human heart, sire."
+
+The king laughed. "A human heart? Does that then run about on the
+street, so that it can be caught and made a prisoner of?"
+
+"Sire, you have found it, and incarcerated it in your daughter's bosom.
+You want to put Elizabeth's heart in fetters, and by an unnatural law
+compel her to renounce her freedom of choice. Only think--to want to
+bid a woman's heart, before she can love, to inquire first about the
+genealogical tree, and to look at the coat-of-arms before she notices
+the man!"
+
+"Oh, women, women, what foolish children you are, though!" cried the
+king, laughingly. "The question is about thrones, and you think about
+your hearts! But come, Kate, you shall still further explain that to me;
+and we will not take back our word, for we have given it you from a free
+and glad heart."
+
+He took the queen's arm, and, supported on it, walked slowly up the
+alley with her. The lords and ladies of the court followed them in
+silence and at a respectful distance; and no one suspected that this
+woman, who was stepping along so proud and magnificent, had but just now
+escaped an imminent peril of her life; that this man, who was leaning
+on her arm with such devoted tenderness, had but a few hours before
+resolved on her destruction. [Footnote: All this plot instigated by
+Gardiner against the queen is, in minutest details, historically true,
+and is found substantially the same in all historical works.] And whilst
+chatting confidentially together they both wandered through the avenues,
+two others with drooping head and pale face left the royal castle, which
+was to be to them henceforth a lost paradise. Sullen spite and raging
+hate were in their hearts, but yet they were obliged to endure in
+silence; they were obliged to smile and to seem harmless, in order not
+to prepare a welcome feast for the malice of the court. They felt the
+spiteful looks of all these courtiers, although they passed by them with
+down-cast eyes. They imagined they heard their malicious whispers,
+their derisive laughter; and it pierced their hearts like the stab of a
+dagger.
+
+At length they had surmounted it--at length the palace lay behind them,
+and they were at least free to pour out in words the agony that consumed
+them--free to be able to break out into bitter execrations, into curses
+and lamentations.
+
+"Lost! all is lost!" said Earl Douglas to himself in a hollow voice. "I
+am thwarted in all my plans. I have sacrificed to the Church my life,
+my means, ay, even my daughter, and it has all been in vain. And, like a
+beggar, I now stand on the street forsaken and without comfort; and our
+holy mother the Church will no longer heed the son who loved her
+and sacrificed himself for her, since he was so unfortunate, and his
+sacrifice unavailing."
+
+"Despair not!" said Gardiner, solemnly. "Clouds gather above us; but
+they are dispersed again. And after the day of storm, comes again the
+day of light. Our day also will come, my friend. Now, we go hence, our
+heads strewn with ashes, and bowed at heart; but, believe me, we shall
+one day come again with shining face and exultant heart; and the flaming
+sword of godly wrath will glitter in our hands, and a purple robe will
+enfold us, dyed in the blood of heretics whom we offer up to the Lord
+our God as a well-pleasing sacrifice. God spares us for a better time;
+and our banishment, believe me, friend, is but a refuge that God has
+prepared for us this evil time which we are approaching."
+
+"You speak of an evil time, and nevertheless you hope, your highness?"
+asked Douglas, gloomily.
+
+"And nevertheless I hope!" said Gardiner, with a strange and horrible
+smile, and, bending down closer to Douglas, he whispered: "the king has
+only a few days more to live. He does not suspect how near he is to his
+death, and nobody has the courage to tell him. But his physician has
+confided it to me. His vital forces are consumed, and death stands
+already before his door to throttle him."
+
+"And when he is dead," said Earl Douglas, shrugging his shoulders, "his
+son Edward will be king, and those heretical Seymours will control the
+helm of state! Call you that hope, your highness?"
+
+"I call it so."
+
+"Do you not know that Edward, young as he is, is nevertheless a
+fanatical adherent of the heretical doctrine, and at the same time a
+furious opponent of the Church in which alone is salvation?"
+
+"I know it, but I know also that Edward is a feeble boy; and there is
+current in our Church a holy prophecy which predicts that his reign is
+only of short duration. God only knows what his death will be, but the
+Church has often before seen her enemies die a sudden death. Death has
+been often before this the most effective ally of our holy mother the
+Church. Believe me, then, my son and hope, for I tell you Edward's rule
+will be of short duration. And after him she will ascend the throne, the
+noble and devout Mary, the rigid Catholic, who hates heretics as much
+as Edward loves them. Oh, friend, when Mary ascends the throne, we shall
+rise from our humiliation, and the dominion will be ours. Then will all
+England become, as it were, a single great temple, and the fagot-piles
+about the stake are the altars on which we will consume the heretics,
+and their shrieks of agony are the holy psalms which we will make them
+strike up to the honor of God and His holy Church. Hope for this time,
+for I tell you it will soon come."
+
+"If you say so, your highness, then it will come to pass," said Douglas,
+significantly. "I will then hope and wait. I will save myself from evil
+days in Scotland, and wait for the good."
+
+"And I go, as this king by the wrath of God has commanded, to my
+episcopal seat. The wrath of God will soon call Henry hence. May his
+dying hour be full of torment, and may the Holy Father's curse be
+realized and fulfilled in him! Farewell! We go with palms of peace
+forced on us; but we will return with the naming sword, and our hands
+will be dripping with heretic blood."
+
+They once more shook hands and silently departed, and before evening
+came on they had both left London. [Footnote: Gardiner's prophecy was
+soon fulfilled. A few days after Gardiner had fallen into disgrace
+Henry, the Eighth died, and his son Edward, yet a minor, ascended the
+throne. But his rule was of brief duration. After a reign of scarcely
+six years, he died a youth of the age of sixteen years, and his sister
+Mary, called the Catholic, ascended the throne. Her first act was
+to release Gardiner, who under Edward's reign had been confined as a
+prisoner in the Tower, and to appoint him her minister, and later, to
+the place of lord chancellor. He was one of the most furious persecutors
+of the Reformers. Once he said at a council in the presence of the
+bigoted queen; "These heretics have a soul so black that it can be
+washed clean only in their own blood." He it was, too, who urged the
+queen to such severe and odious measures against the Princess Elizabeth,
+and caused her to be a second time declared a bastard and unworthy
+of succeeding to the throne. When Mary died, Gardiner performed, in
+Westminster Abbey, where she was entombed, the service for the dead in
+the presence of her successor, Queen Elizabeth. Gardiner's discourse was
+an enthusiastic eulogium of the deceased queen, and he set forth, as her
+special merit, that she hated the heretics so ardently and had so many
+of them executed. He closed with an invective against the Protestants,
+in which he so little spared the young queen, and spoke of her in such
+injurious terms, that he was that very day committed to prison.--Leti.
+vol. I, p. 314.] A short time after this eventful walk in the garden of
+Whitehall, the queen entered the apartments of the Princess Elizabeth,
+who hastened to meet her with a burst of joy, and clasped her wildly in
+her arms.
+
+"Saved!" whispered she. "The danger is overcome, and again you are the
+mighty queen, the adored wife!"
+
+"And I have you to thank that I am so, princess! Without that warrant
+of arrest which you brought me, I was lost. Oh, Elizabeth, but what a
+martyrdom it was! To smile and jest, whilst my heart trembled with dread
+and horror; to appear innocent and unembarrassed, whilst it seemed to
+me as if I heard already the whiz of the axe that was about to strike my
+neck! Oh, my God, I passed through the agonies and the dread of a whole
+lifetime in that one hour! My soul has been harassed till it is wearied
+to death, and my strength is exhausted. I could weep, weep continually
+over this wretched, deceitful world, in which to wish right and to do
+good avail nothing; but in which you must dissemble and lie, deceive and
+disguise yourself, if you do not want to fall a victim to wickedness and
+mischief. But ah, Elizabeth, even my tears I dare shed only in secret,
+for a queen has no right to be melancholy. She must seem ever cheerful,
+ever happy and contented; and only God and the still, silent night know
+her sighs and her tears."
+
+"And you may let me also see them, queen," said Elizabeth, heartily;
+"for you well know you may trust and rely on me."
+
+Catharine kissed her fervently. "You have done me a great service
+to-day, and I have come," said she, "to thank you, not with sounding
+words only, but by deeds. Elizabeth, your wish will be fulfilled. The
+king will repeal the law which was to compel you to give your hand only
+to a husband of equal birth."
+
+"Oh," cried Elizabeth, with flashing eyes, "then I shall, perhaps, some
+day be able to make him whom I love a king." Catharine smiled. "You
+have a proud and ambitious heart," said she. "God has endowed you with
+extraordinary ability. Cultivate it and seek to increase it; for my
+prophetic heart tells me that you are destined to become, one day, Queen
+of England. [Footnote: Catharine's own words.--See Leti, vol. I, p.
+172.] But who knows whether then you will still wish to elevate him whom
+you now love, to be your husband? A queen, as you will be, sees with
+other eyes than those of a young, inexperienced maiden. Perchance I may
+not have done right in moving the king to alter this law; for I am
+not acquainted with the man that you love; and who knows whether he is
+worthy that you should bestow on him your heart, so innocent and pure?"
+
+Elizabeth threw both her arms about Catharine's neck, and clung tenderly
+to her. "Oh," said she, "he would be worthy to be loved even by you,
+Catharine; for he is the noblest and handsomest cavalier in the whole
+world; and though he is no king, yet he is a king's brother-in-law, and
+will some day be a king's uncle."
+
+Catharine felt her heart, as it were, convulsed, and a slight tremor ran
+through her frame. "And am I not to learn his name?" asked she.
+
+"Yes, I will tell you it now; for now there is no longer danger in
+knowing it. The name of him whom I love, queen, is Thomas Seymour."
+
+Catharine uttered a scream, and pushed Elizabeth passionately away from
+her heart. "Thomas Seymour?" cried she, in a menacing tone. "What! do
+you dare love Thomas Seymour?"
+
+"And why should I not dare?" asked the young girl in astonishment. "Why
+should I not give him my heart, since, thanks to your intercession, I
+am no longer bound to choose a husband of equal birth? Is not Thomas
+Seymour one of the first of this land? Does not all England look on
+him with pride and tenderness? Does not every woman to whom he deigns
+a look, feel herself honored? Does not the king himself smile and
+feel more pleased at heart, when Thomas Seymour, that young, bold, and
+spirited hero, stands by his side?"
+
+"You are right!" said Catharine, whose heart every one of these
+enthusiastic words, lacerated like the stab of a dagger--"yes, you are
+right. He is worthy of being loved by you--and you could hit upon no
+better choice. It was only the first surprise that made me see things
+otherwise than they are. Thomas Seymour is the brother of a queen: why
+then should he not also be the husband of a royal princess?"
+
+With a bashful blush, Elizabeth hid her smiling face in Catharine's
+bosom. She did not see with what an expression of alarm and agony the
+queen observed her; how her lips were convulsively compressed, and her
+cheeks covered with a death-like pallor.
+
+"And he?" asked she, in a low tone. "Does Thomas Seymour love you?"
+
+Elizabeth raised her head and looked at the questioner in amazement
+"How!" said she. "Is it possible, then, to love, if you are not loved?"
+
+"You are right," sighed Catharine. "One must be very humble and silly to
+be able to do that."
+
+"My God! how pale you are, queen!" cried Elizabeth, who just now noticed
+Catharine's pale face. "Your features are distorted; your lips tremble.
+My God! what does this mean?"
+
+"It is nothing!" said Catharine, with a smile full of agony. "The
+excitement and alarm of to-day have exhausted my strength. That is all.
+Besides, a new grief threatens us, of which you as yet know nothing.
+The king is ill. A sudden dizziness seized him, and made him fall almost
+lifeless at my side. I came to bring you the king's message; now duty
+calls me to my husband's sickbed. Farewell, Elizabeth."
+
+She waved a good-by to her with her hand, and with hurried step left the
+room. She summoned up courage to conceal the agonies of her soul, and to
+pass proud and stately through the halls. To the courtiers bowing before
+her, she would still be the queen, and no one should suspect what agony
+was torturing her within like flames of fire. But at last arrived at her
+boudoir--at last sure of being overheard and observed by no one--she was
+no longer the queen, but only the agonized, passionate woman.
+
+She sank on her knees, and cried, with a heart-rending wail of anguish:
+"My God, my God, grant that I may become mad, so that I may no longer
+know that he has forsaken me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. THE CATASTROPHE.
+
+
+After days of secret torture and hidden tears, after nights of sobbing
+anguish and wailing sorrow, Catharine had at last attained to inward
+peace; she had at last taken a firm and decisive resolution.
+
+The king was sick unto death; and however much she had suffered and
+endured from him, still he was her husband; and she would not stand
+by his deathbed as a perjured and deceitful woman; she would not be
+constrained to cast down her eyes before the failing gaze of the dying
+king. She would renounce her love--that love, which, however, had
+been as pure and chaste as a maiden's prayer--that love, which was as
+unapproachably distant as the blush of morn, and yet had stood above her
+so vast and brilliant, and had irradiated the gloomy pathway of her life
+with celestial light.
+
+She would make the greatest of sacrifices; she would give her lover
+to another. Elizabeth loved him. Catharine would not investigate and
+thoroughly examine the point, whether Thomas Seymour returned her love,
+and whether the oath he had taken to her, the queen, was really nothing
+more than a fancy of the brain, or a falsehood. No, she did not believe
+it; she did not believe that Thomas Seymour was capable of treachery,
+of double-dealing. But Elizabeth loved him; and she was young and
+beautiful, and a great future lay before her. Catharine loved Thomas
+Seymour strongly enough not to want to deprive him of this future, but
+gladly to present herself a sacrifice to the happiness of her lover.
+What was she--the woman matured in grief and suffering--in comparison
+with this youthful and fresh blossom, Elizabeth? What had she to offer
+her beloved further than a life of retirement, of love, and of quiet
+happiness? When once the king is dead and sets her free, Edward the
+Sixth ascends the throne; and Catharine then is nothing more than the
+forgotten and disregarded widow of a king; while Elizabeth, the king's
+sister, may perhaps bring a crown as her dower to him whom she loves.
+
+Thomas Seymour was ambitious. Catharine knew that. A day might come
+when he would repent of having chosen the widow of a king instead of the
+heiress to a throne.
+
+Catharine would anticipate that day. She would of her own free-will
+resign her lover to Princess Elizabeth. She had by a struggle brought
+her mind to this sacrifice; she had pressed her hands firmly on her
+heart, so as not to hear how it wailed and wept.
+
+She went to Elizabeth, and said to her with a sweet smile: "To-day
+I will bring your lover to you, princess. The king has fulfilled his
+promise. He has to-day with his last dying strength signed this act,
+which gives you liberty to choose your husband, not from the ranks of
+princes alone, but to follow your own heart in your choice. I will give
+this act to your lover, and assure him of my assistance and aid. The
+king is suffering very much to-day, and his consciousness fails more and
+more. But be certain, if he is in a condition to hear me, I will spend
+all my powers of persuasion in inclining him to your wish, and in moving
+him to give his consent to your marriage with Earl Sudley. I now go to
+receive the earl. So tarry in your room, princess, for Seymour will soon
+come to bring you the act."
+
+Whilst she thus spoke, it seemed to her as though her heart were pierced
+by red-hot daggers; as though a two-edged sword were cleaving her
+breast. But Catharine had a strong and courageous soul. She had sworn
+to herself to endure this torture to the end; and she endured it. No
+writhing of her lips, no sigh, no outcry, betrayed the pain that she was
+suffering. And if, indeed, her cheeks were pale, and her eye dim, they
+were so because she had spent nights watching by her husband's sick-bed,
+and because she was mourning for the dying king.
+
+She had the heroism to embrace tenderly this young maiden to whom she
+was just going to present her love as a sacrifice, and to listen with a
+smile to the enthusiastic words of gratitude, of rapture and expectant
+happiness which Elizabeth addressed to her.
+
+With tearless eyes and firm step she returned to her own apartments;
+and her voice did not at all tremble, as she bade the chamberlain in
+attendance to summon to her the master of horse, Earl Sudley. Only she
+had a feeling as though her heart was broken and crushed; and quite
+softly, quite humbly, she whispered: "I shall die when he is gone. But
+so long as he is here, I will live; and he shall not have a suspicion of
+what I suffer!"
+
+And while Catharine suffered so dreadfully, Elizabeth was jubilant with
+delight and rapture; for at last she stood at the goal of her wishes,
+and this very day she was to become the betrothed of her lover. Oh, how
+slow and sluggish crept those minutes along! How many eternities had she
+still to wait before he would come--he, her lover, and soon her husband!
+Was he already with the queen? Could she expect him already? She stood
+as if spellbound at the window, and looked down into the courtyard.
+Through that great gateway over there he must come; through that door
+yonder he must go, in order to reach the queen's apartments.
+
+She uttered an exclamation, and a glowing blush flitted across her
+face. There, there, he was. Yonder drew up his equipage; his gold-laced
+lackeys opened the door and he alighted. How handsome he was, and how
+magnificent to look upon! How noble and proud his tall figure! How
+regularly beautiful his fresh, youthful face! How saucy the haughty
+smile about his mouth; and how his eyes flamed and flashed and shone
+in wantonness and youthful happiness. His look glanced for a moment at
+Elizabeth's window. He saluted her, and then entered the door leading to
+the wing of the palace of Whitehall occupied by the queen. Elizabeth's
+heart beat so violently that she felt almost suffocated. Now he must
+have reached the great staircase--now he was above it--now he was
+entering the queen's apartments--he traverses the first, the second, the
+third chamber. In the fourth Catharine was waiting for him.
+
+Elizabeth would have given a year of her life to hear what Catharine
+would say to him, and what reply he would make to the surprising
+intelligence--a year of her life to be able to see his rapture, his
+astonishment, and his delight. He was so handsome when he smiled, so
+bewitching when his eyes blazed with love and pleasure.
+
+Elizabeth was a young, impulsive child. She had a feeling as if she must
+suffocate in the agony of expectation; her heart leaped into her
+mouth; her breath was stifled in her breast, she was so impatient for
+happiness.
+
+"Oh, if he does not come soon I shall die!" murmured she. "Oh, if I
+could only at least see him, or only hear him!" All at once she stopped;
+her eyes flashed up, and a bewitching smile flitted across her features.
+"Yes," said she, "I will see him, and I will hear him. I can do it, and
+I will do it. I have the key which the queen gave me, and which opens
+the door that separates my rooms from hers. With that key I may reach
+her bed-chamber, and next to the bed-chamber is her boudoir, in which,
+without doubt, she will receive the earl. I will enter quite softly,
+and, hiding myself behind the hanging which separates the bed-chamber
+from the boudoir, I shall be able to see him, and hear everything that
+he says!"
+
+She laughed out loud and merrily, like a child, and sprang for the key,
+which lay on her writing-table. Like a trophy of victory she swung it
+high above her on her hand and cried, "I will see him!" Then light,
+joyful, and with beaming eye, she left the room.
+
+She had conjectured rightly. Catharine received the earl in her boudoir.
+She sat on the divan standing opposite the door which led into the
+reception-room. That door was open, and so Catharine had a perfect view
+of the whole of that large space. She could see the earl as he traversed
+it. She could once more enjoy, with a rapture painfully sweet, his proud
+beauty, and let her looks rest on him with love and adoration. But at
+length he crossed the threshold of the boudoir; and now there was an end
+of her happiness, of her sweet dream, and of her hopes and her rapture.
+She was nothing more than the queen, the wife of a dying king; no longer
+Earl Seymour's beloved, no longer his future and his happiness.
+
+She had courage to greet him with a smile; and her voice did not tremble
+when she bade him shut the door leading into the hall, and drop the
+hanging. He did so, gazing at her with looks of surprise. He did not
+comprehend that she dared give him an interview; for the king was still
+alive, and even with his tongue faltering in death he might destroy them
+both.
+
+Why did she not wait till the morrow? On the morrow the king might be
+already dead; and then they could see each other without constraint and
+without danger. Then was she his, and naught could longer stand in
+the way between them and happiness. Now, when the king was near his
+death--now he loved her only--he loved but Catharine. His ambition had
+decided his heart. Death had become the judge over Seymour's double
+affection and divided heart, and with King Henry's death Elizabeth's
+star had also paled.
+
+Catharine was the widow of a king; and without doubt this tender husband
+had appointed his young and adored wife Regent during the minority
+of the Prince of Wales. Catharine then would have still five years of
+unlimited sway, of royal authority and sovereign power. If Catharine
+were his wife, then would he, Thomas Seymour, share this power; and the
+purple robes of royalty, which rested on her shoulders, would cover
+him also; and he would help her bear that crown which doubtless might
+sometimes press heavily on her tender brow. He would, in reality, be
+the regent, and Catharine would be so only in name. She, the Queen of
+England, and he, king of this queen. What a proud, intoxicating thought
+was that! And what plans, what hopes might not be twined with it! Five
+years of sway--was not that a time long enough to undermine the throne
+of the royal boy and to sap his authority? Who could conjecture whether
+the people, once accustomed to the regency of the queen, might not
+prefer to remain under her sceptre, instead of committing themselves to
+this feeble youth? The people must be constrained so to think, and to
+make Catharine, Thomas Seymour's wife, their reigning queen.
+
+The king was sick unto death, and Catharine was, without doubt, the
+regent--perchance some day the sovereign queen.
+
+Princess Elizabeth was only a poor princess, entirely without a prospect
+of the throne; for before her came Catharine, came Edward, and finally
+Mary, Elizabeth's eldest sister. Elizabeth had not the least prospect of
+the throne, and Catharine the nearest and best founded.
+
+Thomas Seymour pondered this as he traversed the apartments of the
+queen; and when he entered her presence, he had convinced himself that
+he loved the queen only, and that it was she alone whom he had always
+loved. Elizabeth was forgotten and despised. She had no prospect of the
+throne--why, then, should he love her?
+
+The queen, as we have said, ordered him to shut the door of the boudoir
+and to drop the hanging. At the same moment that he did this, the
+hanging of the opposite door, leading into the sleeping apartment,
+moved--perhaps only the draught of the closing door had done it. Neither
+the queen nor Seymour noticed it. They were both too much occupied with
+themselves. They saw not how the hanging again and again gently shook
+and trembled. They saw not how it was gently opened a little in the
+middle; nor did they see the sparkling eyes which suddenly peeped
+through the opening in the hanging; nor suspected they that it was the
+Princess Elizabeth who had stepped behind the curtain, the better to see
+and hear what was taking place in the boudoir.
+
+The queen had arisen and advanced a few steps to meet the earl. As she
+now stood before him--as their eyes met, she felt her courage sink and
+her heart fail.
+
+She was compelled to look down at the floor to prevent him from
+seeing the tears which involuntarily came into her eyes. With a
+silent salutation she offered him her hand. Thomas Seymour pressed it
+impulsively to his lips, and looked with passionate tenderness into her
+face. She struggled to collect all her strength, that her heart might
+not betray itself. With a hurried movement she withdrew her hand from
+him, and took from the table a roll of paper containing the new act of
+succession signed by the king.
+
+"My lord," said she, "I have called you hither, because I would like to
+intrust a commission to you. I beg you to carry this parchment to the
+Princess Elizabeth, and be pleased to deliver it to her. But before you
+do that, I will make you acquainted with its contents. This parchment
+contains a new law relative to the succession, which has already
+received the sanction of the king. By virtue of this, the royal
+princesses are no longer under the necessity of uniting themselves with
+a husband who is a sovereign prince, if they wish to preserve their
+hereditary claim on the throne unimpaired. The king gives the princesses
+the right to follow their own hearts; and their claim to the succession
+is not to suffer thereby, if the husband chosen is neither a king nor a
+prince. That, my lord, is the contents of this parchment which you are
+to carry to the princess, and without doubt you will thank me for making
+you the messenger of these glad tidings."
+
+"And why," asked he, in astonishment--"why does your majesty believe
+that this intelligence should fill me with special thankfulness?"
+
+She collected all her powers; she prayed to her own heart for strength
+and self-control.
+
+"Because the princess has made me the confidante of her love, and
+because I am consequently aware of the tender tie which binds you to
+her," said she, gently; and she felt that all the blood had fled from
+her cheeks.
+
+The earl looked into her face in mute astonishment. Then his inquiring
+and searching glance swept all around the room.
+
+"We are overheard, then?" asked he, in a low voice.
+
+"We are not alone?"
+
+"We are alone," said Catharine, aloud. "Nobody can hear us, and God
+alone is witness of our conversation."
+
+Elizabeth, who stood behind the hanging, felt her cheeks glow
+with shame, and she began to repent what she had done. But she was
+nevertheless, as it were, spellbound to that spot. It was certainly mean
+and unworthy of a princess to eavesdrop, but she was at that time but
+a young girl who loved, and who wanted to observe her lover. So she
+stayed; she laid her hand on her anxiously-throbbing heart, and murmured
+to herself: "What will he say? What means this anxious dread that comes
+over me?"
+
+"Well," said Thomas Seymour, in an entirely altered tone, "if we are
+alone, then this mask which hides my face may fall; then the cuirass
+which binds my heart may be loosened. Hail, Catharine, my star and my
+hope! No one, you say, hears us, save God alone; and God knows our love,
+and He knows with what longing, and what ecstasy, I have sighed for this
+hour--for this hour, which at length again unites me to you. My God, it
+is an eternity since I have seen you, Catharine; and my heart thirsted
+for you as a famishing man for a refreshing draught. Catharine, my
+beloved, blessed be you, that you have at last called me to you!"
+
+He opened his arms for her, but she repulsed him sharply. "You are
+mistaken in the name, earl," said she, bitterly. "You say Catharine, and
+mean Elizabeth! It is the princess that you love: to Elizabeth belongs
+your heart, and she has devoted her heart to you. Oh, earl, I will favor
+this love, and be certain I will not cease from prayer and supplication
+till I have inclined the king to your wishes, till he has given his
+consent to your marriage with the Princess Elizabeth."
+
+Thomas Seymour laughed. "This is a masquerade, Catharine; and you still
+wear a mask over your beautiful and charming face. Oh, away with that
+mask, queen! I want to behold you as you are. I want to see again your
+own beautiful self; I want to see the woman who belongs to me, and who
+has sworn to be mine, and who has, with a thousand sacred oaths, vowed
+to love me, to be true to me, and to follow me as her husband and her
+lord. Or how, Catharine! Can you have forgotten your oath? Can you have
+become untrue to your own heart? Do you want to cast me away, and throw
+me, like a ball of which you are tired, to another?"
+
+"Oh," said she, quite unconsciously, "I--I can never forget and never be
+untrue."
+
+"Well, then, my Catharine, the bride and wife of my future, what then
+are you speaking to me of Elizabeth?--of this little princess, who sighs
+for love as the flower-bud for the sun, and takes the first man whom
+she finds in her way for the sun after which she pines? What care we for
+Elizabeth, my Catharine? And what have we to do with that child in this
+hour of long-wished-for reunion?"
+
+"Oh, he calls me a child!" murmured Elizabeth. "I am nothing but a child
+to him!" And she pressed her hands on her mouth in order to repress her
+cry of anger and anguish, and to prevent them from hearing her teeth,
+which were chattering as though she were in a chill.
+
+With irresistible force Thomas Seymour drew Catharine into his arms.
+"Avoid me no longer," said he, in tender entreaty. "The hour has come
+which is finally to determine our destiny! The king is at the point of
+death, and my Catharine will at length be free--free to follow her own
+heart. At this hour I remind you of your oath! Do you remember
+still that day when you referred me to this hour? Do you still know,
+Catharine, how you vowed to be my wife and to receive me as the lord
+of your future? Oh, my beloved, that crown which weighed down your head
+will soon be taken away. Now I yet stand before you as your subject, but
+in a few hours it will be your lord and your husband that stands before
+you; and he will ask: 'Catharine, my wife, have you kept with me the
+faith you swore to me? Have you been guiltless of perjury in respect
+of your vows and your love? Have you preserved my honor, which is your
+honor also, clear from every spot; and can you, free from guilt, look me
+in the eye?"
+
+He gazed at her with proud, flashing eyes, and before his commanding
+look her firmness and her pride melted away like ice before the
+sunshine. Again he was the master, whose right it was to rule her heart;
+and she again the lowly handmaid, whose sweetest happiness it was to
+submit and bow to the will of her lover.
+
+"I can look you frankly in the eye," murmured she, "and no guilt burdens
+my conscience. I have loved naught but you, and my God only dwells near
+you in my heart." Wholly overcome, wholly intoxicated with happiness,
+she leaned her head upon his shoulder, and as he clasped her in his
+arms, as he covered with kisses her now unresisting lips, she felt only
+that she loved him unutterably, and that there was no happiness for her
+except with him.
+
+It was a sweet dream, a moment of most exquisite ecstasy. But it was
+only a moment. A hand was laid violently on her shoulder, a hoarse angry
+voice called her name; and as she looked up, she encountered the wild
+glance of Elizabeth, who stood before her with deathly pale cheeks,
+with trembling lips, with expanded nostrils, and eyes darting flashes of
+wrath and hatred.
+
+"This, then, is the friendly service which you swore to me?" said she,
+gnashing her teeth. "Did you steal into my confidence, and with scoffing
+mouth spy out the secrets of my heart, in order to go away and betray
+them to your paramour? That you might in his arms ridicule this pitiable
+maiden, who allowed herself for the moment to be betrayed by her heart,
+and took a felon for an honorable man! Woe, woe to you, Catharine, for
+I tell you I will have no compassion on the adulteress, who mocks at me,
+and betrays my father!"
+
+She was raving; completely beside herself with anger, she dashed away
+the hand which Catharine laid on her shoulder, and sprang back from the
+touch of her enemy like an irritated lioness.
+
+Her father's blood fumed and raged within her, and, a true daughter
+of Henry the Eighth, she concealed in her heart only bloodthirsty and
+revengeful thoughts.
+
+She cast on Thomas Seymour a look of dark wrath, and a contemptuous
+smile played about her lips. "My lord," said she, "you have called me
+a child who allows herself to be easily deceived, because she longs so
+much for the sun and for happiness. You are right: I was a child; and
+I was foolish enough to take a miserable liar for a noble-man, who was
+worthy of the proud fortune of being loved by a king's daughter. Yes,
+you are right; that was a childish dream. Thanks to you, I have now
+awoke from it; and you have matured the child into a woman, who
+laughs at the folly of her youth, and despises to-day what she
+adored yesterday. I have nothing to do with you; and you are even too
+insignificant and too contemptible for my anger. But I tell you, you
+have played a hazardous game, and you will lose. You courted a queen
+and a princess, and you will gain neither of them: not the one, for she
+despises you; not the other, for she ascends the scaffold!"
+
+With a wild laugh she was hurrying to the door, but Catharine with a
+strong hand held her back and compelled her to remain. "What are you
+going to do?" asked she, with perfect calmness and composure.
+
+"What am I going to do?" asked Elizabeth, her eyes flashing like those
+of a lioness. "You ask me what I will do? I will go to my father, and
+tell him what I have here witnessed! He will listen to me; and his
+tongue will still have strength enough to pronounce your sentence of
+death! Oh, my mother died on the scaffold, and yet she was innocent. We
+will see, forsooth, whether you will escape the scaffold--you, who are
+guilty!"
+
+"Well, then, go to your father," said Catharine; "go and accuse me. But
+first you shall hear me. This man whom I loved, I wanted to renounce,
+in order to give him to you. By the confession of your love, you had
+crushed my happiness and my future. But I was not angry with you. I
+understood you heart, for Thomas Seymour is worthy of being loved.
+But you are right; for the king's wife it was a sinful love, however
+innocent and pure I may have been. On that account I wanted to renounce
+it; on that account I wanted, on the first confession from you,
+to silently sacrifice myself. You yourself have now made it an
+impossibility. Go, then, and accuse us to your father, and fear not that
+I will belie my heart. Now, that the crisis has come, it shall find me
+prepared; and on the scaffold I will still account myself blest, for
+Thomas Seymour loves me!"
+
+"Ay, he loves you, Catharine!" cried he, completely overcome and
+enchanted by her noble, majestic bearing.
+
+"He loves you so warmly and ardently, that death with you seems to him
+an enviable lot; and he would not exchange it for any throne nor for any
+crown."
+
+And as he thus spoke, he put his arms around Catharine's neck, and
+impetuously drew her to his heart.
+
+Elizabeth uttered a fierce scream, and sprang to the door. But what
+noise was that which all at once drew nigh; which suddenly, like a wild
+billow, came roaring on, and filled the anterooms and the halls?
+What were these affrighted, shrieking voices calling? What were they
+screaming to the queen, and the physicians, and the priest?
+
+Elizabeth stopped amazed, and listened. Thomas Seymour and Catharine,
+arm linked in arm, stood near her. They scarcely heard what was taking
+place; they looked at each other and smiled, and dreamed of love and
+death and an eternity of happiness.
+
+Now the door flew open; there was seen John Heywood's pale face: there
+were the maids of honor and the court officials. And all shrieked and
+all wailed: "The king is dying! He is struck with apoplexy! The king is
+at the point of death!"
+
+"The king calls you! The king desires to die in the arms of his wife!"
+said John Heywood, and, as he quietly pushed Elizabeth aside and away
+from the door as she was pressing violently forward, he added: "The king
+will see nobody but his wife and the priest; and he has authorized me to
+call the queen!"
+
+He opened the door; and through the lines of weeping and wailing court
+officials and servants, Catharine moved on, to go to the death-bed of
+her royal husband.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. "LE ROI EST MORT--VIVE LA REINE!"
+
+
+King Henry lay a-dying. That life full of sin, full of blood and crime,
+full of treachery and cunning, full of hypocrisy and sanctimonious
+cruelty--that life was at last lived out. That hand, which had signed
+so many death-warrants, was now clutched in the throes of death. It had
+stiffened at the very moment when the king was going to sign the Duke
+of Norfolk's death-warrant. [Footnote: historical. The king's own
+words.--Leti, vol. I, p. 16.] And the king was dying with the gnawing
+consciousness that he had no longer the power to throttle that enemy
+whom he hated. The mighty king was now nothing more than a feeble,
+dying old man, who was no longer able to hold the pen and sign this
+death-warrant for which he had so long hankered and hoped. Now it lay
+before him, and he no longer had the power to use it. God, in His wisdom
+and His justice, had decreed against him the most grievous and horrible
+of punishments; He had left him his consciousness; He had not crippled
+him in mind, but in body only. And that motionless and rigid mass which,
+growing chill in death, lay there on the couch of purple trimmed with
+gold--that was the king--a king whom agony of conscience did not permit
+to die, and who now shuddered and was horrified in view of death, to
+which he had, with relentless cruelty, hunted so many of his subjects.
+
+Catharine and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the noble Cranmer, stood
+at his bedside: and whilst in convulsive agony he grasped Catharine's
+hands, he listened to the devout prayers which Cranmer was saying over
+him.
+
+Once he asked with mumbling tongue: "My lord, what kind of a world then
+is that where those who condemn others to die, are condemned to die
+themselves?"
+
+And as the pious Cranmer, touched by the agonies and tortures of
+conscience which he read in the king's looks, and full of pity for the
+dying tyrant, sought to comfort him, and spoke to him of the mercy of
+God which has compassion on every sinner, the king groaned out: "No, no!
+No mercy for him who knew no mercy!"
+
+At length this awful struggle of death with life was ended; and death
+had vanquished life. The king had closed his eyes to earth, to open them
+again there above, as a guilt-laden sinner in the presence of God.
+
+For three days his death was kept a secret. They wanted first to have
+everything arranged, and to fill up the void which his death must make.
+They wanted, when they spoke to the people of the dead king, to show
+them also at the same time the living king. And since they knew that the
+people would not weep for the dead, they were to rejoice for the living;
+since they would sing no funeral psalms, they were to let their hymns of
+joy resound.
+
+On the third day the gates of Whitehall were thrown open, and a gloomy
+funeral train moved through the streets of London. In dead silence the
+populace saw borne past them the coffin of the king, before whom they
+had trembled so much, and for whom they now had not a word of mourning
+or of pity--no tears for the dead who for seven-and-thirty years had
+been their king.
+
+They were bearing the coffin to Westminster Abbey to the splendid
+monument which Wolsey had built there for his royal master. But the way
+was long, and the panting horses with black housings, which drew the
+hearse, had often to stop and rest. And all of a sudden, as the carriage
+stood still on one of the large open squares, blood was seen to issue
+from the king's coffin. It streamed down in crimson currents and flowed
+over the stones of the streets. The people with a shudder stood around
+and saw the king's blood flowing, and thought how much blood he had
+spilt on that same spot, for the coffin was standing on the square where
+the executions were wont to take place, and where the scaffolds were
+erected and the stakes set. As the people stood gazing at the blood
+which flowed from the king's coffin, two dogs sprang forth from the
+crowd and, with greedy tongue, licked the blood of King Henry the
+Eighth. But the people, shuddering and horror-stricken, fled in all
+directions, and talked among themselves of the poor priest who a few
+weeks before was executed here on this very spot, because he would
+not recognize the king as the supreme lord of the Church and God's
+vicegerent; of that unfortunate man who cursed the king, and on the
+scaffold said: "May the dogs one day drink the blood of this king who
+has shed so much innocent blood!" And now the curse of the dying man
+had found its fulfilment, and the dogs had drunk the king's blood.
+[Footnote: Historical.--See Tytler, p. 481.]
+
+When the gloomy funeral train had left the palace of Whitehall, when
+the king's corpse no longer infected the halls with its awful stench of
+corruption, and the court was preparing to do homage to the boy Edward
+as the new king, Thomas Seymour, Earl of Sudley, entered the room of the
+young royal widow. He came in a magnificent mourning suit, and his elder
+brother, Edward Seymour, and Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, walked
+by his side.
+
+With a blush and a sweet smile, Catharine bade them welcome.
+
+"Queen," said Thomas Seymour with solemn air, "I come to-day to claim
+of you the fulfilment of your vow! Oh, do not cast down your eyes, nor
+blush for shame. The noble archbishop knows your heart, and he knows
+that it is as pure as the heart of a maiden, and that an unchaste
+thought has never sullied your pure soul. And my brother would not be
+here, had he not faith in and respect for a love which has preserved
+itself so faithful and constant amidst storms and dangers. I have
+selected these two noble friends as my suitors, and in their presence I
+will ask you: 'Queen Catharine, the king is dead, and no fetters longer
+bind your heart; will you not give it me as my own? Will you accept me
+as your husband, and sacrifice for me your royal title and your exalted
+position?'"
+
+With a bewitching smile she gave him her hand. "You well know,"
+whispered she, "that I sacrifice nothing for you, but receive from you
+all of happiness and love that I hope for."
+
+"Will you then, in the presence of these two friends, accept me as your
+future husband, and plight me your vow of truth and love?"
+
+Catharine trembled and cast down her eyes with the bashfulness of a
+young girl. "Alas!" whispered she, "do you not then see my mourning
+dress? Is it becoming to think of happiness, while the funeral
+lamentations have scarcely died away?"
+
+"Queen Catharine," said Archbishop Cranmer, "let the dead bury their
+dead! Life also has its rights; and man should not give up his claim on
+happiness, for it is a most holy possession. You have endured much
+and suffered much, queen, but your heart is pure and without guilt;
+therefore you may now, with a clear conscience, bid welcome to happiness
+also. Do not delay about it. In God's name I have come to bless your
+love, and give to your happiness a holy consecration."
+
+"And I," said Edward Seymour, "I have begged of my brother the honor of
+being allowed to accompany him in order to say to your majesty that I
+know how to duly appreciate the high honor which you show our family,
+and that, as your brother-in-law, I shall ever be mindful that you were
+once my queen and I your subject."
+
+"But I," cried Thomas Seymour, "I would not delay coming to you, in
+order that I might show you that love only brings me to you, and that no
+other consideration could induce me. The king's will is not yet opened,
+and I know not its contents. But however it may determine with respect
+to all of us, it cannot diminish or increase my happiness in possessing
+you. Whatever you may be, you will ever be to me only the adored woman,
+the ardently loved wife; and only to assure you of this, I have come
+this very day."
+
+Catharine extended her hand to him with a bewitching smile. "I have
+never doubted of you, Seymour," whispered she, "and never did I love you
+more ardently than when I wanted to renounce you."
+
+She bowed her head on her lover's shoulder, and tears of purest joy
+bedewed her cheeks. The Archbishop of Canterbury joined their hands, and
+blessed them as betrothed lovers; and the elder Seymour, Earl Hertford,
+bowed and greeted them as a betrothed couple.
+
+On that very same day the king's will was opened. In the large gilded
+hall, in which King Henry's merry laughter and thundering voice of wrath
+had so often resounded, were now read his last commands. The whole court
+was assembled, as it was wont to be for a joyous festival; and
+Catharine once more sat on the royal throne. But the dreaded tyrant, the
+bloodthirsty King Henry the Eighth, was no longer at her side; but the
+poor pale boy, Edward, who had inherited from his father neither energy
+nor genius, but only his thirst for blood and his canting hypocrisy. At
+his side stood his sisters, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. Both
+were pale and of a sad countenance; but with both, it was not for their
+father that they were grieving.
+
+Mary, the bigoted Roman Catholic, saw with horror and bitter anguish the
+days of adversity which were about to befall her church; for Edward was
+a fanatical opponent of the Roman Catholic religion, and she knew that
+he would shed the blood of the papists with relentless cruelty. On this
+account it was that she mourned.
+
+But Elizabeth, that young girl of ardent heart--she thought neither of
+her father nor of the dangers threatening the Church; she thought only
+of her love, she felt only that she had been deprived of a hope, of an
+illusion--that she had awoke from a sweet and enchanting dream to the
+rude and barren reality. She had given up her first love, but her heart
+bled and the wound still smarted.
+
+The will was read. Elizabeth looked toward Thomas Seymour during this
+solemn and portentous reading. She wanted to read in his countenance
+the impression made on him by these grave words, so pregnant with the
+future; she wanted to search the depths of his soul, and to penetrate
+the secret thoughts of his heart. She saw how he turned pale when, not
+Queen Catharine, but his brother, Earl Hertford, was appointed regent
+during Edward's minority; she saw the sinister, almost angry look which
+he threw at the queen; and with a cruel smile she murmured:
+
+"I am revenged! He loves her no longer!"
+
+John Heywood, who was standing behind the queen's throne, had also
+observed the look of Thomas Seymour, yet not like Elizabeth, with a
+rejoicing, but with a sorrowful heart, and he dropped his head upon his
+breast and murmured: "Poor Catharine! He will hate her, and she will be
+very unhappy."
+
+But she was still happy. Her eye beamed with pure delight when she
+perceived that her lover was, by the king's will, appointed High Admiral
+of England and guardian of the young king. She thought not of herself,
+but only of him, of her lover; and it filled her with the proudest
+satisfaction to see him invested with places of such high honor and
+dignity.
+
+Poor Catharine! Her eye did not see the sullen cloud which still rested
+on the brow of her beloved. She was so happy and so innocent, and so
+little ambitious! For her this only was happiness, to be her lover's, to
+be the wife of Thomas Seymour.
+
+And this happiness was to be hers. Thirty days after the death of
+King Henry the Eighth she became the wife of the high admiral, Thomas
+Seymour, Earl of Sudley. Archbishop Cranmer solemnized their union in
+the chapel at Whitehall, and the lord protector, now Duke of Somerset,
+formerly Earl of Hertford, the brother of Thomas Seymour, was the
+witness of this marriage, which was, however, still kept a secret,
+and of which there were to be no other witnesses. When, however, they
+resorted to the chapel for the marriage, Princess Elizabeth came forward
+to meet the queen, and offered her hand.
+
+It was the first time they had met since the dreadful day on which they
+confronted each other as enemies--the first time that they had again
+seen each other eye to eye.
+
+Elizabeth had wrung this sacrifice from her heart. Her proud soul
+revolted at the thought that Thomas Seymour might imagine that she was
+still grieving for him, that she still loved him. She would show him
+that her heart was entirely recovered from that first dream of her
+youth--that she had not the least regret or pain.
+
+She accosted him with a haughty, cold smile, and presented Catharine
+her hand. "Queen," said she, "you have so long been a kind and faithful
+mother to me, that I may well once more claim the right of being your
+daughter. Let me, therefore, as your daughter, be present at the solemn
+transaction in which you are about to engage; and allow me to stand at
+your side and pray for you, whilst the archbishop performs the sacred
+service, and transforms the queen into the Countess of Sudley. May God
+bless you, Catharine, and give you all the happiness that you deserve!"
+
+And Princess Elizabeth knelt at Catharine's side, as the archbishop
+blest this new marriage tie. And while she prayed her eye again glided
+over toward Thomas Seymour, who was standing there by his young wife.
+Catharine's countenance beamed with beauty and happiness, but upon
+Thomas Seymour's brow still lay the cloud that had settled there on that
+day when the king's will was opened--that will which did not make Queen
+Catharine regent, and which thereby destroyed Thomas Seymour's proud and
+ambitious schemes.
+
+And that cloud remained on Thomas Seymour's brow. It sank down lower and
+still lower. It soon overshadowed the happiness of Catharine's love, and
+awakened her from her short dream of bliss.
+
+What she suffered, how much of secret agony and silent woe she endured,
+who can wish to know or conjecture? Catharine had a proud and a chaste
+soul. She concealed from the world her pain and her grief, as bashfully
+as she had once done her love. Nobody suspected what she suffered and
+how she struggled with her crushed heart.
+
+She never complained; she saw bloom after bloom fall from her life; she
+saw the smile disappear from her husband's countenance; she heard his
+voice, at first so tender, gradually harden to harsher tones; she
+felt his heart growing colder and colder, and his love changing into
+indifference, perhaps even into hate.
+
+She had devoted her whole heart to love, but she felt day by day, and
+hour by hour, that her husband's heart was cooling more and more. She
+felt, with dreadful heartrending certainty, she was his with all her
+love.
+
+But he was no longer hers.
+
+And she tormented her heart to find out why he no longer loved her--what
+she had been guilty of, that he turned away from her. Seymour had not
+the delicacy and magnanimity to conceal from her his inward thoughts;
+and at last she comprehended why he neglected her.
+
+He had hoped that Catharine would be Regent of England, that he then
+would be consort of the regent. Because it had not happened so his love
+had died.
+
+Catharine felt this, and she died of it. But not suddenly, not at once,
+did death release her from her sorrows and racking tortures. Six months
+she had to suffer and struggle with them. After six months she died.
+
+Strange rumors were spread at her death; and John Heywood never passed
+by Earl Seymour without gazing at him with an angry look, and saying:
+"You have murdered the beautiful queen! Deny it, if you can!"
+
+Thomas Seymour laughed, and did not consider it worth his while
+to defend himself against the accusations of the fool. He laughed,
+notwithstanding he had not yet put off the mourning he wore for
+Catharine.
+
+In these mourning garments he ventured to approach the Princess
+Elizabeth, to swear to her his ardent love, and sue for her hand. But
+Elizabeth repelled him with coldness and haughty contempt; and, like the
+fool, the princess also said: "You have murdered Catharine! I cannot be
+the wife of a murderer!"
+
+And God's justice punished the murderer of the innocent and noble
+Catharine; and scarcely three months after the death of his wife, the
+high admiral had to ascend the scaffold, and was executed as a traitor.
+
+By Catharine's wish, her books and papers were given to her true friend
+John Heywood, and he undertook with the greatest care an examination of
+the same. He found among her papers many leaves written by herself, many
+verses and poems, which breathed forth the sorrowfulness of her spirit.
+Catharine herself had collected them into a book, and with her own hand
+she had given to the book this title: "Lamentations of a Sinner."
+
+Catharine had wept much as she penned these "Lamentations"; for in many
+places the manuscript was illegible, and her tears had obliterated the
+characters.
+
+John Heywood kissed the spots where the traces of her tears remained,
+and whispered: "The sinner has by her suffering been glorified into
+a saint; and these poems are the cross and the monument which she has
+prepared for her own grave. I will set up this cross, that the good may
+take comfort, and the wicked flee from it." And he did so. He had
+the "Lamentations of a Sinner" printed; and this book was the fairest
+monument of Catharine.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Henry VIII And His Court, by Louise Muhlbach
+
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