"
She threw her arms about her lover, and in the ecstasy of her love
she had wholly forgotten that she could never indeed think to flee
with him, that he belonged to her only so long as he saw her not.
An inexplicable anxiety overpowered her heart; and in this anxiety
she forgot everything--even the queen and the vengeance she had
vowed.
She now remembered her father's words, and she trembled for her
lover's life.
If now her father had not told her the truth--if now he had
notwithstanding sacrificed Henry Howard in order to ruin the queen--
if she was not able to save him, and through her fault he were to
perish on the scaffold--above Henry the Eighth will no more be the
judge, but the condemned criminal; and your bloody and accursed
deeds will witness against you!"
The king laughed. "You avail yourself of your advantage," said he.
"Because you have nothing more to lose and the scaffold is sure of
you, you do not stick at heaping up the measure of your sins a
little more, and you revile your legitimate, God-appointed king! But
you should bear in mind, earl, that before the scaffold there is yet
the rack, and that it is very possible indeed that a painful
question might there be put to the noble Earl Surrey, to which his
agonies might prevent him from returning an answer. Now, away with
you! We have nothing more to say to each other on earth!"
He motioned to the soldiers, who approached the Earl of Surrey. As
they reached their hands toward him, he turned on them a look so
proud and commanding that they involuntarily recoiled a step.
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