ve, and to marry that one, whom I
perhaps abhor."

With an expression of firm, energetic resolve, she took the roll of
parchment and handed it back to Catharine. "Queen, take this parchment
back again; return it to my father, and tell him that I thank him for
his provident goodness, but will decline the brilliant lot which this
act offers me. I love freedom so much, that even a royal crown cannot
allure me when I am to receive it with my hands bound and my heart not
free."

"Poor child!" sighed Catharine, "you know not, then, that the royal
crown always binds us in fetters and compresses our heart in iron
clamps? Ah, you want to be free, and yet a queen! Oh, believe me,
Elizabeth, none are less free than sovereigns! No one has less the right
and the power to live according to the dictates of his heart than a
prince."

"Then," exclaimed Elizabeth, with flashing eyes, "then I renounce the
melancholy fortune of being, perchance, one day queen. Then I do not
subscribe to this law, which wants to guide my heart and limit my will.
What! shall the daughter of King Henry of England allow her ways to be
traced out by a miserable strip of parchment? and shall a sheet of
paper be able to intrude itself between me and my heart? I am a royal
princess; and why will they compel me to give my hand only to a king's
son? Ay, you are right; it is not my father that has made this law,
for my father's proud soul has never been willing to submit to any such
constraint of miserable etiquette. He has loved where he pleased; and no
Parliament--no law--has been able to hinder him in this respect. I will
be my father's own daughter. I will not submit to this law!"

"Poor child!" said Catharine, "nevertheless you will be obliged to learn
well how to submit; for one is not a princess without paying for it. No
one asks whether our heart bleeds. They throw a purple robe over it, and
though it be reddened with our heart's blood, who then sees and suspects
it? You are yet so young, Elizabeth; you yet hope so much!"

"I hope so much, because I have already suffered so much--my eyes have
been already made to shed so many tears. I have already in my childhood
had to take before-hand my share of the pain and sorrow of life; now I
will demand my share of life's pleasure and enjoyment also."

"And who tells you that you shall not have it? This love forces on you
no particular husband; it but gives you the proud right, once disputed,
of seeking your hu