en would certainly
become one day Regent of England, yet Elizabeth might some day perchance
become queen thereof. Of course, it was as yet only a perhaps, but one
might manage out of this perhaps to make a reality. Besides, this young,
passionate child loved him, and Thomas Seymour was himself too young
and too easily excitable to be able to despise a love that presented him
with such enticing promises and bright dreams of the future.

"It does not become a man to live for love alone," said he to himself as
he now thought over the events of the night. "He must struggle for the
highest and wish to reach the greatest, and no means of attaining this
end ought he to leave unemployed. Besides, my heart is large enough to
satisfy a twofold love. I love them both--both of these fair women who
fetch me a crown. Let fate decide to which of the two I shall one day
belong!"

CHAPTER XXII. HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY.

The great court festival, so long expected, was at last to take place
today. Knights and lords were preparing for the tournament; poets and
scholars for the feast of the poets. For the witty and brave king wished
to unite the two in this festival today, in order to give the world a
rare and great example of a king who could claim all virtue and wisdom
as his own; who could be equally great as a hero and as a divine;
equally great as a poet and as a philosopher and a scholar.

The knights were to fight for the honor of their ladies; the poets were
to sing their songs, and John Heywood to bring out his merry farces. Ay,
even the great scholars were to have a part in this festival; for the
king had specially, for this, summoned to London from Cambridge, where
he was then professor in the university, his former teacher in the Greek
language, the great scholar Croke, to whom belonged the merit of having
first made the learned world of Germany, as well as of England, again
acquainted with the poets of Greece. [Footnote: Tytler, p. 307.] He
wished to recite with Croke some scenes from Sophocles to his wondering
court; and though, to be sure, there was no one there who understood
the Greek tongue, yet all, without doubt, must be enraptured with the
wonderful music of the Greek and the amazing erudition of the king.

Preparations were going on everywhere; arrangements were being made;
every one was making his toilet, whether it were the toilet of the mind
or of the body.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, made his