y
vengeance. Anne, you shall die. You know Henry too well to doubt your
fate if he finds me here."

"You cannot mean this," she rejoined, with difficulty repressing a
scream; "but if I perish, you will perish with me."

"I wish to do so," he rejoined, with a bitter laugh.

"Wyat," cried Anne, throwing herself on her knees before him, "by your
former love for me, I implore you to spare me! Do not disgrace me thus."

But Wyat continued inexorable.

"O God!" exclaimed Anne, wringing her hands in agony. A terrible silence
ensued, during which Anne regarded Wyat, but she could discern no change
in his countenance.

At this juncture the tapestry was again raised, and the Earl of Surrey
issued from it.

"You here, my lord?" said Anne, rushing towards him.

"I am come to save you, madame," said the earl. "I have been just
liberated from arrest, and was about to implore your intercession with
the king, when I learned he had been informed by one of his pages that
a man was in your chamber. Luckily, he knows not who it is, and while he
was summoning his attendants to accompany him, I hurried hither by the
secret staircase. I have arrived in time. Fly--fly! Sir Thomas Wyat!"

But Wyat moved not.

At this moment footsteps were heard approaching the door--the handle
was tried--and the stern voice of the king was heard commanding that it
might be opened.

"Will you destroy me, Wyat?" cried Anne.

"You have destroyed yourself," he rejoined.

"Why stay you here, Sir Thomas?" said Surrey, seizing his arm. "You may
yet escape. By heaven! if you move not, I will stab you to the heart!"

"You would do me a favour, young man," said Wyat coldly; "but I will go.
I yield to love, and not to you, tyrant!" he added, shaking his hand
at the door. "May the worst pangs of jealously rend your heart!" And he
disappeared behind the arras.

"I hear voices," cried Henry from without. "God's death! madam, open the
door--or I will burst it open!"

"Oh, heaven! what is to be done?" cried Anne Boleyn, in despair.

"Open the door, and leave all to me, madam," said Surrey; "I will save
you, though it cost me my life!"

Anne pressed his hand, with a look of ineffable gratitude, and Surrey
concealed himself behind the arras.

The door was opened, and Henry rushed in, followed by Richmond, Norfolk,
Suffolk, and a host of attendants.

"Ah! God's death! where is the traitor?" roared the king, gazing round.

"Why is my privacy thus broken