listen to me! her mind is distraught!
What frenzy has been mine! Pardon--pardon, Anne,--oh, pardon!"

Adam Warner laid his hand on the king's arm, and he drew the imperious
despot away as easily as a nurse leads a docile child.

"King!" said the brave old man, "may God pardon thee; for if the last
evil hath been wrought upon this noble lady, David sinned not more
heavily than thou."

"She is pure, inviolate,--I swear it!" said the king, humbly. "Anne,
only say that I am forgiven."

But Anne spoke not: her eyes were fixed, her lips had fallen; she was
insensible as a corpse,--dumb and frozen with her ineffable dread.
Suddenly steps were heard upon the stairs; the door opened, and
Marmaduke Nevile entered abruptly.

"Surely I heard my lady's voice,--surely! What marvel this?--the king!
Pardon, my liege!" and he bent his knee.

The sight of Marmaduke dissolved the spell of awe and repentant
humiliation which had chained a king's dauntless heart. His wonted guile
returned to him with his self-possession.

"Our wise craftsman's strange and weird invention"--and Edward pointed
to the Eureka--"has scared our fair cousin's senses, as, by sweet Saint
George, it well might! Go back, Sir Marmaduke, we will leave Lady Anne
for the moment to the care of Mistress Sibyll. Donzell, remember my
command. Come, sir"--(and he drew the wondering Marmaduke from the
chamber); but as soon as he had seen the knight descend the stairs and
regain the court, he returned to the room, and in a low, stern voice,
said, "Look you, Master Warner, and you, damsel, if ever either of
ye breathe one word of what has been your dangerous fate to hear and
witness, kings have but one way to punish slanderers, and silence but
one safeguard!--trifle not with death!"

He then closed the door, and resought his own chamber. The Eastern
spices, which were burned in the sleeping-rooms of the great, still made
the air heavy with their feverish fragrance. The king seated himself,
and strove to recollect his thoughts, and examine the peril he had
provoked. The resistance and the terror of Anne had effectually banished
from his heart the guilty passion it had before harboured; for emotions
like his, and in such a nature, are quick of change. His prevailing
feeling was one of sharp repentance and reproachful shame. But as he
roused himself from a state of mind which light characters ever seek
to escape, the image of the dark-browed earl rose before him, and fear