"
"Princess Elizabeth?"
"You have named her, not I!" said John Heywood, as he disengaged
himself from the earl's grasp and hurried across the courtyard to
betake himself to his lodgings.
Thomas Seymour watched him with a scowl, and then slowly directed
his eyes to the key that Heywood had given him.
"The princess then awaits me," whispered he, softly. "Ah, who can
read it in the stars? who can know whither the crown will roll when
it tumbles from King Henry's head? I love Catharine, but I love
ambition still more; and if it is demanded, to ambition must I
sacrifice my heart."
CHAPTER XVII.
GAMMER GUETON'S NEEDLE.
Slowly and lost in gloomy thought, John Heywood walked toward his
lodgings. These lodgings were situated in the second or inner court
of the vast palace of Whitehall, in that wing of the castle which
contained the apartments of all the higher officers of the royal
household, and so those of the court-jesters also; for the king's
fool was at that period a very important and respectable personage,
who occupied a rank equal to that of a gentleman of the royal bed-
chamber.
John Heywood had just crossed this second courtyard, when all at
once loud, wrangling voices, and the clear, peculiar ring of a box
on the ear, startled him out of his meditations. He stopped and
listened. His face, before so serious, had now reassumed its usual
merry and shrewd expression; his large eyes again glittered with
humor and mischief.
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