you will do it so much the more surely
to-morrow. Nor do you forget that we have to punish, not merely the
heretic Henry Howard, but above all things the heretical queen, whose
unbelief will call down the wrath of the Most High upon this land."

"Come to the king," said she, hastily. "On the way you can tell me what
I ought to make known and what conceal. I will do implicitly what you
say. Now, Henry Howard," said she softly to herself, "hold yourself
ready; the contest begins! In your pride and selfishness you have
destroyed the happiness of my life--my eternal felicity. I loved Thomas
Seymour; I hoped by his side to find the happiness that I have so long
and so vainly sought in the crooked paths of life. By this love my soul
would have been saved and restored to virtue. My brother has willed
otherwise. He has, therefore, condemned me to be a demon, instead of
an angel. I will fulfil my destiny. I will be an evil spirit to him."
[Footnote: The Earl of Surrey, by his refusal to marry Margaret Seymour,
gave occasion to the rupture of the proposed alliance between Thomas
Seymour and the Duchess of Richmond, his sister. After that the duchess
mortally hated him and combined with his enemies against him. The
Duchess of Richmond is designated by all the historians of her time
as "the most beautiful woman of her century, but also a shameless
Messalina."--See Tytler, p. 890. Also Burnet, vol. i, p. 134; Leti, vol.
i, p. 83; and Nott's Life of Henry Howard.]

CHAPTER XXIV. THE QUEEN'S TOILET.

The festivities of the day are concluded, and the gallant knights and
champions, who have to-day broken a lance for the honor of their ladies,
may rest from their victories upon their laurels. The tournament of arms
was over, and the tournament of mind was about to begin. The knights,
therefore, retired to exchange the coat-of-mail for gold-embroidered
velvet apparel; the ladies to put on their lighter evening dresses;
and the queen, likewise with this design, had withdrawn to her
dressing-room, while the ladies and lords of her court were in
attendance in the large anteroom to escort her to the throne.

Without, it was beginning to grow dusky, and the twilight cast its
long shadows across this hall, in which the cavaliers of the court were
walking up and down with the ladies, and discussing the particularly
important events of the day's tourney.

The Earl of Sudley, Thomas Seymour, had borne off the prize of the day,
and co