your arms is an eternity of bliss."

"But I have already told you that not only your head, but mine also,
is concerned in this matter. You know the king's harsh and cruel
disposition. The mere suspicion is enough to condemn me. Ah, if he knew
what we have just now spoken here, he would condemn me, as he condemned
Catharine Howard, though I am not guilty as she was. Ah, I shudder at
the thought of the block; and you, Earl Seymour, you would bring me to
the scaffold, and yet you say you love me!"

Seymour sunk his head mournfully upon his breast and sighed deeply. "You
have pronounced my sentence, queen, and though you are too noble to tell
me the truth, yet I have guessed it. No, you do not love me, for you see
with keen eyes the danger that threatens you, and you fear for yourself.
No, you love me not, else you would think of nothing save love alone.
The dangers would animate you, and the sword which hangs over your head
you would not see, or you would with rapture grasp its edge and say,
'What is death to me, since I am happy! What care I for dying, since I
have felt immortal happiness!' Ah, Catharine, you have a cold heart
and a cool head. May God preserve them both to you; then will you pass
through life quietly and safely; but you will yet be a poor, wretched
woman, and when you come to die, they will place a royal crown upon your
coffin, but love will not weep for you. Farewell, Catharine, Queen
of England, and since you cannot love him, give Thomas Seymour, the
traitor, your sympathy at least."

He bowed low and kissed her feet, then he arose and walked with firm
step to the tree where he had tied the horses. But now Catharine
arose, now she flew to him, and grasping his hand, asked, trembling and
breathless, "What are you about to do? whither are you going?"

"To the king, my lady."

"And what will you do there?"

"I will show him a traitor who has dared love the queen. You have just
killed my heart; he will kill only my body. That is less painful, and I
will thank him for it."

Catharine uttered a cry, and with passionate vehemence drew him back to
the place where she had been resting.

"If you do what you say, you will kill me," said she, with trembling
lips. "Hear me, hear! The moment you mount your horse to go to the king,
I mount mine too; but not to follow you, not to return to London, but to
plunge with my horse down yonder precipice. Oh, fear nothing; they will
not accuse you of my murder. They