第125章 THE QUEEN(7)
The plan, which you have contrived and carried out with such happy results, was as crafty as it was daring.""I thank you, sire; and I will now tell you the name. That woman, sire, who at my wish gave herself up a sacrifice to this adulterous earl, who endured his kisses, his embraces, his vows of love, in order to render a service to her king--that woman was my daughter, Lady Jane Douglas!""Lady Jane!" cried the king. "No, no, this is a new deception. That haughty, chaste, and unapproachable Lady Jane--that wonderfully beautiful marble statue really has then a heart in her breast, and that heart belongs to me? Lady Jane, the pure and chaste virgin, has made for me this prodigious sacrifice, of receiving this hated Surrey as her lover, in order, like a second Delilah, to deliver him into my hand? No, Douglas, you are lying to me. Lady Jane has not done that!""May it please your majesty to go yourself and take a look at that fainting woman, who was to Henry Howard the queen."The king did not reply to him; but he drew back the curtain and reentered the cabinet, in which the queen was waiting with John Heywood.
Henry did not notice them. With youthful precipitation he crossed the cabinet and the hall. Now he stood by the figure of Geraldine still lying on the floor.
She was no longer in a swoon. She had long since regained her consciousness; and terrible were the agonies and tortures that rent her heart. Henry Howard had incurred the penalty of the headsman's axe, and it was she that had betrayed him.
But her father had sworn to her that she should save her lover.
She durst not die then. She must live to deliver Henry Howard.
There were burning, as it were, the fires of hell in her poor heart;but she was not at liberty to heed these pains. She could not think of herself--only of him--of Henry Howard, whom she must deliver, whom she must save from an ignominious death.
For him she sent up her fervent prayers to God; for him her heart trembled with anxiety and agony, as the king now advanced to her, and, bending down, gazed into her eyes with a strange expression, at once scrutinizing and smiling.
"Lady Jane," said he then, as he presented her his hand, "arise from the ground and allow your king to express to you his thanks for your sublime and wonderful sacrifice! Verily, it is a fair lot to be a king; for then one has at least the power of punishing traitors, and of rewarding those that serve us. I have to-day done the one, and Iwill not neglect to do the other also. Stand up, then, Lady Jane; it does not become you to lie on your knees before me.""Oh, let me kneel, my king," said she, passionately; "let me beseech you for mercy, for pity! Have compassion, King Henry--compassion on the anxiety and agony which I endure. It is not possible that this is all a reality! that this juggling is to be changed into such terrible earnest! Tell me, King Henry--I conjure you by the agonies which I suffer for your sake--tell me, what will you do with Henry Howard? Why have you sent him to the Tower?""To punish the traitor as he deserves," said the king, as he cast a dark and angry look across at Douglas, who had also approached his daughter, and was now standing close by her.
Lady Jane uttered a heartrending cry, and sank down again, senseless and completely exhausted.
The king frowned. "It is possible," said he--"and I almost believe it--that I have been deceived in many ways this evening, and that now again my guilelessness has been played upon in order to impose upon me a charming story. However, I have given my word to pardon;and it shall not be said that Henry the Eighth, who calls himself God's vicegerent, has ever broken his word; nor even that he has punished those whom he has assured of exemption from punishment. My Lord Douglas, I will fulfil my promise. I forgive you."He extended his hand to Douglas, who kissed it fervently. The king bent down closer to him. "Douglas," whispered he, "you are as cunning as a serpent; and I now see through your artfully-woven web!