"
"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.
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