errupted Wyat fiercely. "Right,
cardinal--right. I will have vengeance--terrible vengeance!"

"You shall. But I will not deceive you. You will purchase what you seek
at the price of your own head."

"I care not," replied Wyat. "All sentiments of love and loyalty are
swallowed up by jealousy and burning hate. Nothing but blood can allay
the fever that consumes me. Show me how to slay him!"

"Him!" echoed the cardinal, in alarm and horror. "Wretch! would you kill
your king? God forbid that I should counsel the injury of a hair of
his head! I do not want you to play the assassin, Wyat," he added more
calmly, "but the just avenger. Liberate the king from the thraldom of
the capricious siren who enslaves him, and you will do a service to the
whole country. A word from you--a letter--a token--will cast her from
the king, and place her on the block. And what matter? The gory scaffold
were better than Henry's bed."

"I cannot harm her," cried Wyat distractedly. "I love her still,
devotedly as ever. She was in my power yesterday, and without your aid,
cardinal, I could have wreaked my vengeance upon her, if I had been so
minded."

"You were then in her chamber, as the king suspected?" cried Wolsey,
with a look of exultation. "Trouble yourself no more, Sir Thomas. I will
take the part of vengeance off your hands."

"My indiscretion will avail you little, cardinal," replied Wyat sternly.
"A hasty word proves nothing. I will perish on the rack sooner than
accuse Anne Boleyn. I am a desperate man, but not so desperate as you
suppose me. A moment ago I might have been led on, by the murderous and
traitorous impulse that prompted me, to lift my hand against the king,
but I never could have injured her."

"You are a madman!" cried Wolsey impatiently, "and it is a waste of time
to argue with you. I wish you good speed on your journey. On your return
you will find Anne Boleyn Queen of England."

"And you disgraced," rejoined Wyat, as, with a malignant and vindictive
look, the cardinal quitted the chamber.

Again left alone, Wyat fell into another fit of despondency from which
he roused himself with difficulty, and went forth to visit the Earl of
Surrey in the Round Tower.

Some delay occurred before he could obtain access to the earl. The
halberdier stationed at the entrance to the keep near the Norman Tower
refused to admit him without the order of the officer in command of the
tower, and as the latter was not in the way at