By
this love my soul would have been saved and restored to virtue. My
brother has willed otherwise. He has, therefore, condemned me to be
a demon, instead of an angel. I will fulfil my destiny. I will be an
evil spirit to him." [Footnote: The Earl of Surrey, by his refusal
to marry Margaret Seymour, gave occasion to the rupture of the
proposed alliance between Thomas Seymour and the Duchess of
Richmond, his sister. After that the duchess mortally hated him and
combined with his enemies against him. The Duchess of Richmond is
designated by all the historians of her time as "the most beautiful
woman of her century, but also a shameless Messalina."--See Tytler,
p. 890. Also Burnet, vol. i, p. 134; Leti, vol. i, p. 83; and Nott's
Life of Henry Howard.]
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE QUEEN'S TOILET.
The festivities of the day are concluded, and the gallant knights
and champions, who have to-day broken a lance for the honor of their
ladies, may rest from their victories upon their laurels. The
tournament of arms was over, and the tournament of mind was about to
begin. The knights, therefore, retired to exchange the coat-of-mail
for gold-embroidered velvet apparel; the ladies to put on their
lighter evening dresses; and the queen, likewise with this design,
had withdrawn to her dressing-room, while the ladies and lords of
her court were in attendance in the large anteroom to escort her to
the throne.
Without, it was beginning to grow dusky, and the twilight cast its
long shadows across this hall, in which the cavaliers of the court
were walking up and down with the ladies, and discussing the
particularly important events of the day's tourney.
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