d Earl Douglas slipped
quietly away.

In the anteroom without, they stopped and looked at each other long and
silently; their countenances expressed the wrath and bitterness which
filled them; and they understood this mute language of their features.

"She must die!" said Gardiner in a short and quick tone. "She has for
once escaped from our snares; we will tie them all the tighter next
time!"

"And I already hold in my hand the threads out of which we will form
these snares," said Earl Douglas. "We have to-day falsely accused her
of a love-affair. When we do it again, we shall speak the truth. Did you
see the looks that Catharine exchanged with the heretical Earl Sudley,
Thomas Seymour?"

"I saw them, earl!"

"For these looks she will die, my lord. The queen loves Thomas Seymour,
and this love will be her death."

"Amen!" said Bishop Gardiner, solemnly, as he raised his eyes devoutly
to heaven. "Amen! The queen has grievously and bitterly injured us
to-day; she has insulted and abused us before all the court. We will
requite her for it some day! The torture-chamber, which she has depicted
in such lively colors, may yet one day open for her, too--not that she
may behold another's agonies, but that she may suffer agonies herself.
We shall one day avenge ourselves!"

CHAPTER XXVI. REVENGE.

Miss Holland, the beautiful and much-admired mistress of the Duke of
Norfolk, was alone in her magnificently adorned boudoir. It was the hour
when ordinarily the duke was wont to be with her; for this reason
she was charmingly attired, and had wrapped herself in that light and
voluptuous negligee which the duke so much liked, because it set off to
so much advantage the splendid form of his friend.

But to-day the expected one did not make his appearance: in his stead
his valet had just come and brought the fair miss a note from his
master. This note she was holding in her hand, while with passionate
violence she now walked up and down her boudoir. A glowing crimson
blazed upon her cheeks, and her large, haughty eyes darted wild flashes
of wrath.

She was disdained--she, Lady Holland, was forced to endure the disgrace
of being dismissed by her lover.

There, there, in that letter which she held in her hand, and which
burned her fingers like red-hot iron--there it stood in black and white,
that he would see her no more; that he renounced her love; that he
released her.

Her whole frame shook as she thought of thi