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.
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