I may
expect, I will not detain you longer. I shall be ready to attend you to
the Tower tomorrow."

"The barge will proceed an hour before dawn," said Suffolk.

"Must I, then, go by water?" asked Anne.

"Such are the king's commands," replied Suffolk.

"It is no matter," she rejoined; "I shall be ready when you will, for I
shall not retire to rest during the night."

Upon this Suffolk and the others slowly withdrew, and Anne again retired
to the oratory.

She remained alone, brooding, in a state of indescribable anguish, upon
the probable fate awaiting her, when all at once, raising her eyes, she
beheld a tall dark figure near the arras.

Even in the gloom she recognised Herne the Hunter, and with difficulty
repressed a scream.

"Be silent!" cried Herne, with an emphatic gesture. "I am come to
deliver you."

Anne could not repress a joyful cry.

"Not so loud," rejoined Herne, "or you will alarm your attendants. I
will set you free on certain conditions."

"Ah! conditions!" exclaimed Anne, recoiling; "if they are such as will
affect my eternal welfare, I cannot accept them."

"You will repent it when it is too late," replied Herne. "Once removed
to the Tower I can no longer aid you. My power extends only to the
forest and the castle."

"Will you take me to the king at Hampton Court?" said Anne.

"It would be useless," replied Herne. "I will only do what I have
stated. If you fly with me, you can never appear again as Anne Boleyn.
Sir Henry Norris shall be set free at the same time, and you shall both
dwell with me in the forest. Come!"

"I cannot go," said Anne, holding back; "it were to fly to a worse
danger. I may save my soul now; but if I embrace your offer I am lost
for ever."

Herne laughed derisively.

"You need have no fear on that score," he said.

"I will not trust you," replied Anne. "I have yielded to temptation
already, and am now paying the penalty of it."

"You are clinging to the crown," said Herne, "because you know that by
this step you will irrecoverably lose it. And you fancy that some change
may yet operate to your advantage with the king. It is a vain
delusive hope. If you leave this castle for the Tower, you will perish
ignominiously on the block."

"What will be, must be!" replied Anne. "I will not save myself in the
way you propose."

"Norris will say, and with reason, that you love him not," cried Herne.

"Then he will wrong me," replied Anne; "for I do love him. Bu