the queen only, and that it was she alone whom he had always
loved. Elizabeth was forgotten and despised. She had no prospect of the
throne--why, then, should he love her?

The queen, as we have said, ordered him to shut the door of the boudoir
and to drop the hanging. At the same moment that he did this, the
hanging of the opposite door, leading into the sleeping apartment,
moved--perhaps only the draught of the closing door had done it. Neither
the queen nor Seymour noticed it. They were both too much occupied with
themselves. They saw not how the hanging again and again gently shook
and trembled. They saw not how it was gently opened a little in the
middle; nor did they see the sparkling eyes which suddenly peeped
through the opening in the hanging; nor suspected they that it was the
Princess Elizabeth who had stepped behind the curtain, the better to see
and hear what was taking place in the boudoir.

The queen had arisen and advanced a few steps to meet the earl. As she
now stood before him--as their eyes met, she felt her courage sink and
her heart fail.

She was compelled to look down at the floor to prevent him from
seeing the tears which involuntarily came into her eyes. With a
silent salutation she offered him her hand. Thomas Seymour pressed it
impulsively to his lips, and looked with passionate tenderness into her
face. She struggled to collect all her strength, that her heart might
not betray itself. With a hurried movement she withdrew her hand from
him, and took from the table a roll of paper containing the new act of
succession signed by the king.

"My lord," said she, "I have called you hither, because I would like to
intrust a commission to you. I beg you to carry this parchment to the
Princess Elizabeth, and be pleased to deliver it to her. But before you
do that, I will make you acquainted with its contents. This parchment
contains a new law relative to the succession, which has already
received the sanction of the king. By virtue of this, the royal
princesses are no longer under the necessity of uniting themselves with
a husband who is a sovereign prince, if they wish to preserve their
hereditary claim on the throne unimpaired. The king gives the princesses
the right to follow their own hearts; and their claim to the succession
is not to suffer thereby, if the husband chosen is neither a king nor a
prince. That, my lord, is the contents of this parchment which you are
to carry to the princess,