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.
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