John Heywood did it, and you call him my
friend? You say that he is a true and devoted servant to us both?
Beware of his fidelity, queen, and build not on his devotedness; for
I tell you his soul is full of falsehood; and while he appears to
bow before you in humbleness, his eyes are only searching for the
place on your heel where he can strike you most surely and most
mortally. Oh, he is a serpent, a venomous serpent; and he has just
wounded me mortally and incurably. But no," continued she,
energetically, "I will not submit to this fraud; I will not be the
slave of this injurious law! I will be free to love and to hate as
my heart demands; I will not be shackled, nor be compelled to
renounce this man, whom I perhaps love, and to marry that one, whom
I perhaps abhor."
With an expression of firm, energetic resolve, she took the roll of
parchment and handed it back to Catharine. "Queen, take this
parchment back again; return it to my father, and tell him that I
thank him for his provident goodness, but will decline the brilliant
lot which this act offers me. I love freedom so much, that even a
royal crown cannot allure me when I am to receive it with my hands
bound and my heart not free."
"Poor child!" sighed Catharine, "you know not, then, that the royal
crown always binds us in fetters and compresses our heart in iron
clamps? Ah, you want to be free, and yet a queen! Oh, believe me,
Elizabeth, none are less free than sovereigns! No one has less the
right and the power to live according to the dictates of his heart
than a prince.
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