"
"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.
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