therine, unmasking. "Henry, if you have any
respect left for me, I pray you order this woman from my presence. Lot
me depart in peace."

"Lady Anne, I pray you retire," said Henry. But Anne stood her ground
resolutely.

"Nay, let her stay, then," said the queen; "and I promise you she shall
repent her rashness. And do you stay too, Henry, and regard well her
whom you are about to make your spouse. Question your sister
Mary, somewhile consort to Louis the Twelfth and now Duchess of
Suffolk--question her as to the character and conduct of Anne Boleyn
when she was her attendant at the court of France--ask whether she had
never to reprove her for levity--question the Lord Percy as to her love
for him--question Sir Thomas Wyat, and a host of others."

"All these charges are false and calumnious!" cried Anne Boleyn.

"Let the king inquire and judge for himself," rejoined Catherine; "and if
he weds you, let him look well to you, or you will make him a scoff to
all honourable men. And now, as you have come between him and me--as
you have divided husband and wife--for the intent, whether successful or
not, I denounce you before Heaven, and invoke its wrath upon your head.
Night and day I will pray that you may be brought to shame; and when I
shall be called hence, as I maybe soon, I will appear before the throne
of the Most High, and summon you to judgment."

"Take me from her, Henry!" cried Anne faintly; "her violence affrights
me."

"No, you shall stay," said Catherine, grasping her arm and detaining
her; "you shall hear your doom. You imagine your career will be a
brilliant one, and that you will be able to wield the sceptre you
wrongfully wrest from me; but it will moulder into dust in your
hand--the crown unjustly placed upon your brow will fall to the ground,
and it will bring the head with it."

"Take me away, Henry, I implore you!" cried Anne.

"You shall hear me out," pursued Catherine, exerting all her strength,
and maintaining her grasp, "or I will follow you down yon aisles,
and pour forth my malediction against you in the hearing of all your
attendants. You have braved me, and shall feel my power. Look at her,
Henry--see how she shrinks before the gaze of an injured woman. Look me
in the face, minion--you cannot!--you dare not!"

"Oh, Henry!" sobbed Anne.

"You have brought it upon yourself," said the king.

"She has," replied Catherine; "and, unless she pauses and repents, she
will bring yet more upon