her lips a burning
kiss.

"No, I will not go," whispered he. "I will never more depart from your
side, if you do not wish me to go. I am yours!--your slave, your vassal;
and I will never be anything else but this alone. They may betray me;
your father may punish me for high treason; yet will I exult in my good
fortune, for Elizabeth loves me, and it will be for Elizabeth that I
die!"

"You shall not die!" cried she, clinging fast to him. "You shall live,
live at my side, proud, great, and happy! You shall be my lord and my
master; and if I am ever queen, and I feel here in my heart that I must
become so, then will Thomas Seymour be King of England."

"That is to say, in the quiet and secrecy of your chamber I should
perhaps be so!" said he with a sigh. "But there without, before the
world, I shall still be ever only a servant; and at the best, I shall be
called the favorite."

"Never, never, that I swear to you! Said I not that I loved you?"

"But the love of a woman is so changeable! Who knows how long it will be
before you will tread under your feet poor Thomas Seymour, when once the
crown has adorned your brow."

She looked at him well-nigh horrified. "Can this be, then? Is it
possible that one can forget and forsake what he once loved?"

"Do you ask, Elizabeth? Has not your father already his sixth wife?"

"It is true," said she, as mournfully she dropped her head upon her
breast. "But I," said she, after a pause, "I shall not be like my father
in that. I shall love you eternally! And that you may have a guaranty of
my faithfulness, I offer myself to you as your wife."

Astonished, he looked inquiringly into her excited, glowing face! He did
not understand her.

But she continued, passionately: "Yes, you shall be my lord and my
husband! Come, my beloved, come! I have not called you to take upon
yourself the disgraceful role of the secret lover of a princess--I have
called you to be my husband. I wish a bond to unite us two, that is so
indissoluble that not even the wrath and will of my father, but only
death itself, can sever it. I will give you proof of my love and my
devotion; and you shall be forced to acknowledge that I truly love you.
Come, my beloved, that I may soon hail you as my husband!"

He looked at her as though petrified. "Whither will you lead me?"

"To the private chapel," said she, innocently. "I have written Cranmer
to await me there at daybreak. Let us hasten, then!"

"Cranmer! Yo