hat can never become reality? Do
you not feel that this precious fantasy of your great and noble heart
will never be realized? How! are you then so little acquainted with your
father as not to know that he would destroy us both if we should dare to
set at naught his paternal and his royal authority? Your birth would not
secure you from his destroying fury, for you well know he is unyielding
and reckless in his wrath; and the voice of consanguinity sounds not so
loud in him that it would not be drowned by the thunder of his wrath.
Poor child, you have learned that already! Remember with what cruelty
he has already revenged himself on you for the pretended fault of your
mother; how he transferred to you his wrath against her. Remember that
he refused your hand to the Dauphin of France, not for the sake of
your happiness, but because he said you were not worthy of so exalted a
position. Anne Boleyn's bastard could never become Queen of France. And
after such a proof of his cruel wrath against you, will you dare cast
in his face this terrible insult?--compel him to recognize a subject, a
servant, as his son?"

"Oh, this servant is, however, the brother of a Queen of England!" said
she, shyly. "My father loved Jane Seymour too warmly not to forgive her
brother."

"Ah, ah, you do not know your father! He has no heart for the past; or,
if he has, it is only to take vengeance for an injury or a fault, but
not to reward love. King Henry would be capable of sentencing Anne
Boleyn's daughter to death, and of sending to the block and rack
Catharine Howard's brothers, because these two queens once grieved him
and wounded his heart; but he would not forgive me the least offence on
account of my being the brother of a queen who loved him faithfully and
tenderly till her death. But I speak not of myself. I am a warrior, and
have too often looked death in the face to fear him now. I speak only of
you, Elizabeth. You have no right to perish thus. This noble head must
not be laid upon the block. It is destined to wear a royal crown. A
fortune still higher than love awaits you--fame and power! I must not
draw you away from this proud future. The Princess Elizabeth, though
abused and disowned, may yet one day mount the throne of England. The
Countess Seymour never! she disinherits herself! Follow, then, your high
destiny. Earl Seymour retires before a throne."

"That is to say, you disdained me?" asked she, angrily stamping the
floor wit