other!" she cried, "take this frightful agony from my breast.
Snatch this terrible love from my heart. God! If you have pity, give it
now. Help me! Help me! Ah, how deeply I love. I never loved him so much as
I do at this awful moment. Save me from doing that which is in my heart.
If I could have him for only one little portion of a minute. But that is
denied me whose right it is, and is given to her who has no right. Ah,
God is not just. If he were he would strike her dead. I hate her and I
hate--hate him."

She arose to a sitting posture on the edge of the bed and held out her
arms toward Madge.

"Madge," she continued, frenzied by the thought, "his arm was around her
waist. That was early in the evening. Holy Virgin! What may be happening
now?"

Dorothy sprang from the bed and staggered about the room with her hands
upon her throbbing temples.

"I cannot bear this agony. God give me strength." Soon she began to gasp
for breath. "I can--see--them now--together, together. I hate her; I hate
him. My love has turned bitter. What can I do? What can I do? I will do
it. I will. I will disturb their sweet rest. If I cannot have him, she
shall not. I'll tell the queen, I'll tell the queen."

Dorothy acted on her resolution the moment it was taken, and at once began
to unbolt the door.

"Stay, Dorothy, stay!" cried Madge. "Think on what you are about to do. It
will cost John his life. Come to me for one moment, Dorothy, I pray you."
Madge arose from the bed and began groping her way toward Dorothy, who was
unbolting the door.

Madge could have calmed the tempest-tossed sea as easily as she could have
induced Dorothy to pause in her mad frenzy. Jennie Faxton, almost
paralyzed by fear of the storm she had raised, stood in the corner of the
room trembling and speechless. Dorothy was out of the room before poor
blind Madge could reach her. The frenzied girl was dressed only in her
night robes and her glorious hair hung dishevelled down to her waist. She
ran through the rooms of Lady Crawford and those occupied by her father
and the retainers. Then she sped down the long gallery and up the steps to
Elizabeth's apartment.

She knocked violently at the queen's door.

"Who comes?" demanded one of her Majesty's ladies.

"I, Dorothy," was the response. "I wish to speak to her Majesty at once
upon a matter of great importance to her."

Elizabeth ordered her ladies to admit Dorothy, and the girl ran to the
queen, who had hal