"
"But before we go," said Catharine, "I have, my husband, one
request. Will you grant it?"
"I will grant you everything that you may ask, provided you will not
require me to send you to the Tower."
"Sire, I wish to dismiss my maid of honor, Lady Jane Douglas, from
my service--that is all," said the queen, as her eyes glanced with
an expression of contempt, and yet at the same time of pain, at the
form of her friend of other days, prostrate on the floor.
"She is dismissed!" said the king. "You will choose another maid of
honor to-morrow. Come, Kate!"
And the king, supported by his consort and John Heywood, left the
room with slow and heavy steps.
Earl Douglas watched them with a sullen, hateful expression. As the
door closed after them he raised his arm threateningly toward
heaven, and his trembling lips uttered a fierce curse and
execration.
"Vanquished! vanquished again!" muttered he, gnashing his teeth.
"Humbled by this woman whom I hate, and whom I will yet destroy!
Yes, she has conquered this time; but we will commence the struggle
anew, and our envenomed weapon shall nevertheless strike her at
last!"
Suddenly he felt a hand laid heavily on his shoulder, and a pair of
glaring, flaming eyes gazed at him.
"Father," said Lady Jane, as she threw her right hand threateningly
toward heaven--"father, as true as there is a God above us, I will
accuse you yourself to the king as a traitor--I will betray to him
all your accursed plots--if you do not help me to deliver Henry
Howard!"
Her father looked with an expression almost melancholy in her face,
painfully convulsed and pale as marble.
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