d shutters and bolted doors, either slumber and
dream, or give themselves to their devotional exercises, on account of
which they had that day, perhaps, been denounced as malefactors. They
might, for a few hours, resign themselves to the sweet, blissful dream
of being freemen untrammelled in belief and thought. For King Henry
slept, and likewise Gardiner and the lord chancellor had closed their
watchful, prying, devout, murderous eyes, and reposed awhile from the
Christian employment of ferreting out heretics.

And like the king, the entire households of both their majesties were
also asleep and resting from the festivities of the royal wedding-day,
which, in pomp and splendor, by far surpassed the five preceding
marriages.

It appeared, however, as though not all the court officials were taking
rest, and following the example of the king. For in a chamber, not far
from that of the royal pair, one could perceive, from the bright beams
streaming from the windows, in spite of the heavy damask curtains which
veiled them, that the lights were not yet extinguished; and he who
looked more closely would have observed that now and then a human shadow
was portrayed upon the curtain.

So the occupant of this chamber had not yet gone to rest, and harassing
must have been the thoughts which cause him to move so restlessly to and
fro.

This chamber was occupied by Lady Jane Douglas, first maid of honor to
the queen. The powerful influence of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, had
seconded Catharine's wish to have near her the dear friend of her youth,
and, without suspecting it, the queen had given a helping hand to
bring nearer to their accomplishment the schemes which the hypocritical
Gardiner was directing against her.

For Catharine knew not what changes had taken place in the character of
her friend in the four years in which she had not seen her. She did not
suspect how fatal her sojourn in the strongly Romish city of Dublin had
been to the easily impressible mind of her early playmate, and how much
it had transformed her whole being. Lady Jane, once so sprightly and
gay, had become a bigoted Romanist, who, with fanatical zeal, believed
that she was serving God when she served the Church, and paid unreserved
obedience to her priests.

Lady Jane Douglas had therefore--thanks to her fanaticism and the
teachings of the priests--become a complete dissembler. She could smile,
while in her heart she secretly brooded over hatred