d Seymour's, and their eyes were fixed on each other's. But
she had then cast down to the floor her eyes, still completely filled
with the sight of her lover, in order to think of him, since she no
longer dared gaze at him.

When the king called her name, she started up and looked at him
inquiringly. She had not heard what he had said to her.

"Not even for a moment does she look toward me!" said Henry Howard
to himself. "Oh, she loves me not! or at least her understanding is
mightier than her love. Oh, Catharine, Catharine, fearest thou death so
much that thou canst on that account deny thy love?"

With desperate haste he drew out his portfolio. "I will compel her to
look at me, to think of me, to remember her oath," thought he. "Woe to
her, if she does not fulfil it--if she gives me not the rosette, which
she promised me with so solemn a vow! If she does it not, then I will
break this dreadful silence, and before her king, and before her court,
accuse her of treachery to her love. Then, at least, she will not be
able to cast me off; for we shall mount the scaffold together."

"Does my exalted queen allow me to begin?" asked he aloud, wholly
forgetting that the king had already given him the order to do so, and
that it was he only who could grant such a permission.

Catharine looked at him in astonishment. Then her glance fell on Lady
Jane Douglas, who was gazing over at her with an imploring expression.
The queen smiled; for she now remembered that it was Jane's beloved
who had spoken to her, and that she had promised the poor young girl to
raise again the dejected Earl of Surrey and to be gracious to him.

"Jane is right," thought she; "he appears to be deeply depressed and
suffering. Ah, it must be very painful to see those whom one loves
suffering. I will, therefore, comply with Jane's request, for she says
this might revive the earl."

With a smile she bowed to Howard. "I beg you," said she, "to lend our
festival its fairest ornament--to adorn it with the fragrant flowers of
your poesy. You see we are all burning with desire to hear your verses."

The king shook with rage, and a crushing word was already poised upon
his lip. But he restrained himself. He wanted to have proofs first; he
wanted to see them not merely accused, but doomed also; and for that he
needed proofs of their guilt.

Henry Howard now approached the throne of the royal pair, and with
beaming looks, with animated countenance, with a voic