“When three women are agreed, they may well be certain of their success,” said Arabella, shrugging her shoulders. “We live—God be praised for it—under a noble and high-minded king, who beholds the blood of his subjects with as much pleasure as he does the crimson of his royal mantle, and who has never yet shrunk back when a death-warrant was to be signed.”
“But this time he will shrink back,” said the old duchess. “He will not dare to rob the noblest and most powerful family of his kingdom of its head.”
“That very risk will stimulate him,” said the Duchess of Richmond, laughing; “and the more difficult it is to bring down these heads, so much the more impatiently will he hanker after it. The king hates them both, and he will thank us, if we change his hatred into retributive justice.”
“Then let us accuse both of high treason!” cried Arabella. “The duke is a traitor; for I will and can swear that he has often enough called the king a bloodthirsty tiger, a relentless tyrant, a man without truth and without faith, although he coquettishly pretends to be the fountain and rock of all faith.”
“If he has said that, and you have heard him, you are in duty bound to communicate it to the king, if you do not want to be a traitoress yourself,” exclaimed the young duchess, solemnly.
“And have you not noticed that the duke has for some time borne the same coat-of-arms as the king?” asked the Duchess of Norfolk. “It is not enough for his haughty and ambitious spirit to be the first servant of this land; he strives to be lord and king of it.”
“Tell that to the king, and by to-morrow the head of the traitor falls. For the king is as jealous of his kingdom as ever a woman was of her lover. Tell him that the duke bears his coat-of-arms, and his destruction is certain.”
“I will tell him so, daughter.”
“We are sure of the father, but what have we for the son?”
“A sure and infallible means, that will as certainly dispatch him into eternity as the hunter’s tiny bullet slays the proudest stag. Henry loves the queen; and I will furnish the king proof of that,” said the young duchess.