aid the Lady Mary, taking her brother aside, "you will lose your
friend."

"I care not," replied Surrey.

"But you may incur his enmity," pursued the Lady Mary. "I saw the glance
he threw at you just now, and it was exactly like the king's terrible
look when offended."

"Again I say I care not," replied Surrey. "Armed with this relic, I defy
all hostility."

"It will avail little against Richmond's rivalry and opposition,"
rejoined his sister.

"We shall see," retorted Surrey. "Were the king himself my rival, I
would not resign my pretensions to the Fair Geraldine."

"Bravely resolved, my lord," said Sir Thomas Wyat, who, having overheard
the exclamation, advanced towards him. "Heaven grant you may never be
placed in such jeopardy!"

"I say amen to that prayer, Sir Thomas," rejoined Surrey "I would not
prove disloyal, and yet under such circumstances--"

"What would you do?" interrupted Wyat.

"My brother is but a hasty boy, and has not learned discretion, Sir
Thomas," interposed the Lady Mary, trying by a significant glance to
impose silence on the earl.

"Young as he is, he loves well and truly," remarked Wyat, in a sombre
tone.

"What is all this?" inquired the Fair Geraldine, who had been gazing
through the casement into the court below.

"I was merely expressing a wish that Surrey may never have a monarch for
a rival, fair lady," replied Wyat.

"It matters little who may be his rival," rejoined Geraldine, "provided
she he loves be constant."

"Right, lady, right," said Wyat, with great bitterness. At this moment
Will Sommers approached them. "I come to bid you to the Lady Anne's
presence, Sir Thomas, and you to the king's, my lord of Surrey," said
the jester. "I noticed what has just taken place," he remarked to the
latter, as they proceeded towards the royal canopy, beneath which Henry
and the Lady Anne Boleyn were seated; "but Richmond will not relinquish
her tamely, for all that."

Anne Boleyn had summoned Sir Thomas Wyat, in order to gratify her vanity
by showing him the unbounded influence she possessed over his royal
rival; and the half-suppressed agony displayed by the unfortunate lover
at the exhibition afforded her a pleasure such as only the most refined
coquette can feel.

Surrey was sent for by the king to receive instructions, in his quality
of vice-chamberlain, respecting a tilting-match and hunting-party to be
held on successive days--the one in the upper quadrangle of the castl