[Footnote: This comedy was first printed
in the year 1661, but it was represented at Christ College fully a
hundred years previously. Who was the author of it is not known with
certainty; but it is possible that the writer of it was John
Heywood, the epigrammatist and court-jester.--See Dramaturgic oder
Theorie und Geschichte der dramatischen Kunst, von Theodore Mundt,
vol i, p. 809. Flogel's Geschicbte der Hofnarren, p. 399.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
LADY JANE.
All was quiet in the palace of Whitehall. Even the servants on guard
in the vestibule of the king's bedchamber had been a long time
slumbering, for the king had been snoring for several hours; and
this majestical sound was, to the dwellers in the palace, the joyful
announcement that for one fine night they were exempt from service,
and might be free men.
The queen also had long since retired to her apartments, and
dismissed her ladies at an unusually early hour. She felt, she said,
wearied by the chase, and much needed rest. No one, therefore, was
to disturb her, unless the king should order it.
But the king, as we have said, slept, and the queen had no reason to
fear that her night's rest would be disturbed.
Deep silence reigned in the palace. The corridors were empty and
deserted, the apartments all silent.
Suddenly a figure tripped along softly and cautiously through the
long feebly lighted corridor. She was wrapped in a black mantle; a
veil concealed her face.
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