you still are! Have I not constantly
reiterated the great and wise lesson, 'Doubt everything and mistrust
everything, even what you see.' He who will make his fortune at court,
must first of all mistrust everybody, and consider everybody his enemy,
whom he is to flatter, because he can do him harm, and whom he is to hug
and kiss, until in some happy embrace he can either plunge a dagger
into his breast wholly unobserved, or pour poison into his mouth. Trust
neither men nor walls, Jane, for I tell you, however smooth and innocent
both may appear, still there may be found an ambuscade behind the
smooth exterior. But I will for the present believe that these walls are
innocent, and conceal no listeners. I will believe it, because I
know this room. Those were fine and charming days in which I became
acquainted with it. Then I was yet young and handsome, and King Henry's
sister was not yet married to the King of Scotland, and we loved each
other so dearly. Ah, I could relate to you wonderful stories of those
happy days. I could--"

"But, my dear father," interrupted Lady Jane, secretly trembling at the
terrible prospect of being forced to listen yet again to the story of
his youthful love, which she had already heard times without number,
"but, my dear father, doubtless you have not come hither so late at
night in order to relate to me what I--forgive me, my lord--what I
long since knew. You will rather communicate to me what your keen and
unerring glance has discovered here."

"It is true," said Lord Douglas, sadly. "I now sometimes become
loquacious--a sure sign that I am growing old. I have, by no means, come
here to speak of the past, but of the present. Let us, then, speak of
it. Ah, I have to-day perceived much, seen much, observed much, and the
result of my observations is, you will be King Henry's seventh wife."

"Impossible, my lord!" exclaimed Lady Jane, whose countenance, in spite
of her will, assumed an expression of delight.

Her father remarked it. "My child," said he, "I observe that you have
not yet your features entirely under your control. You aimed just now,
for example, to play the coy and humble, and yet your face had the
expression of proud satisfaction. But this by the way! The principal
thing is, you will be King Henry's seventh wife! But in order to become
so, there is need for great heedfulness, a complete knowledge of
present relations, constant observation of all persons, impenetrable
dissimul