"
"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.
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