“How! so you will then betray our love to him?”
“Oh,” said she, with a bewitching smile, “that is a secret between us and God; and only to Him alone can we confess it; because He alone can absolve us from it. Farewell, then, Seymour, farewell, and think of me till we see each other again! But when—say, when shall we meet again?”
“When there is a night like this one, beloved, when the moon is not in the heavens. Oh, then I could wish there were a change of the moon every week,” said she, with the charming innocence of a child. “Farewell, Seymour, farewell; we must part.”
She clung to his tall, sturdy form as the ivy twines around the trunk of an oak. Then they parted. The princess slipped again softly and unseen into her apartments, and thence into the royal chapel; the earl descended again the spiral staircase which led to the secret door of the garden.
Unobserved and unseen he returned to his palace; even his valet, who slept in the anteroom, did not see him, as the earl crept past him lightly on his toes, and betook himself to his sleeping-room.
But no sleep came to his eyes that night, and his soul was restless and full of fierce torment. He was angry with himself, and accused himself of treachery and perfidy; and then again, full of proud haughtiness, he still tried to excuse himself and to silence his conscience, which was sitting in judgment on him.
“I love her—her only!” said he to himself. “Catharine possesses my heart, my soul; I am ready to devote my whole life to her. Yes, I love her! I have this day so sworn to her; and she is mine for all eternity!”
“And Elizabeth?” asked his conscience. “Have you not sworn truth and love to her also?”
“No!” said he. “I have only received her oath; I have not given her mine in return. And when I vowed never to marry the Duchess of Richmond; when I swore this ‘by my love,’ then I thought only of Catharine—of that proud, beautiful, charming woman, at once maidenly and voluptuous; but not of this young, inexperienced, wild child—of this unattractive little princess!”
“But the princess may one day become a queen,” whispered his ambition.