punished, you should lift him up. Nay, do not
shake your beautiful head. Do it for your own sake, queen; do it from
prudence. Earl Surrey, with his father, is the head of a powerful party,
whom this humiliation of the Howards fills with a still more burning
hate against the Seymours, and who will, in time to come, take a bloody
revenge for it."

"Ah, you frighten me!" said the queen, who had now become serious.

Lady Jane continued: "I saw how the Duke of Norfolk bit his lips, as his
son had to yield to Seymour; I heard how one, here and there, muttered
low curses and vows of vengeance against the Seymours."

"Who did that? Who dared to do it?" exclaimed Catharine, springing up
impetuously from her arm-chair. "Who at this court is so audacious as to
wish to injure those whom the queen loves? Name him to me, Jane; I will
know his name! I will know it, that I may accuse him to the king. For
the king does not want that these noble Seymours should give way to
the Howards; he does not want that the nobler, the better, and more
glorious, should bow before these quarrelsome, domineering papists. The
king loves the noble Seymours, and his powerful arm will protect them
against all their enemies."

"And, without doubt, your majesty will assist him in it?" said Jane,
smiling.

This smile brought the queen back to her senses again.

She perceived that she had gone too far; that she had betrayed too much
of her secret. She must, therefore, repair the damage, and allow her
excitement to be forgotten. Therefore she said, calmly: "Certainly,
Jane; I will assist the king to be just. But never will I be unjust, not
even against these papists. If I cannot love them, nevertheless no one
shall say that I hate them. And besides, it becomes a queen to rise
above parties. Say, then, Jane, what can I do for poor Surrey? With what
shall we bind up these wounds that the brave Seymour has inflicted on
him?"

"You have publicly given the victor in the tournament a token of your
great favor--you have crowned him."

"It was the king's order," exclaimed Catharine, warmly.

"Well! He will not, however, command you to reward the Earl of Surrey
also, if he likewise should gain the victory this evening. Do it,
therefore, of your own accord, queen. Give him openly, before your whole
court, a token of your favor! It is so easy for princes to make men
happy, to comfort the unfortunate! A smile, a friendly word, a pressure
of the hand is sufficie