I knew that he burned with an adulterous love for the
queen, and I wanted to avail myself of the madness of this passion,
in order to bring him surely and unavoidably to a richly-deserved
punishment. But I would not draw the pure and exalted person of the
queen into this net with which we wanted to surround Earl Surrey. I
was obliged, then, to seek a substitute for her; and I did so. There
was at your court a woman whose whole heart belongs, after God, to
the king alone; and who so much adores him, that she would be ready
at any hour gladly to sacrifice for the king her heart's blood, her
whole being--ay, if need be, even her honor itself--a woman, sire,
who lives by your smile, and worships you as her redeemer and
savior--a woman whom you might, as you pleased, make a saint or a
strumpet; and who, to please you, would be a shameless Phyrne or a
chaste veiled nun."
"Tell me her name, Douglas," said the king, "tell me it! It is a
rare and precious stroke of fortune to be so loved; and it would be
a sin not to want to enjoy this good fortune."
"Sire, I will tell you her name when you have first forgiven me,"
said Douglas, whose heart leaped for joy, and who well understood
that the king's anger was already mollified and the danger now
almost overcome. "I said to this woman: 'You are to do the king a
great service; you are to deliver him from a powerful and dangerous
foe! You are to save him from Henry Howard!' 'Tell me what I must
do!' cried she, her looks beaming with joy.
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