The duke first noticed him as his foot had already touched the step of the carriage.
“This is not my equipage! These are not my people!” said he; and he tried to step back. But the pretended servant forced him violently into the carriage and shut the door. “Forward!” ordered he. The carriage rolled on. A moment still, John Heywood saw the duke’s pale face appear at the open carriage window, and it seemed to him as though he were stretching out his arms, calling for help—then the carriage disappeared in the night. “Poor duke!” murmured John Heywood. “The gates of the Tower are heavy, and your arm will not be strong enough to open them again, when they have once closed behind you. But it avails nothing to think more about him now. The queen is also in danger. Away, then, to the queen!”
With fleet foot John Heywood hastened back into the castle. Through passages and corridors he slipped hurriedly along.
Now he stood in the corridor which led to the apartments of the queen.
“I will constitute her guard to-night,” muttered John Heywood, as he hid himself in one of the niches in the corridor. “The fool by his prayers will keep far from the door of his saint the tricks of the devil, and protect her from the snares which the pious Bishop Gardiner and the crafty courtier Douglas want to lay for her feet. My queen shall not fall and be ruined. The fool yet lives to protect her.”
CHAPTER XXXI. THE QUEEN
From the niche in which John Heywood had hid himself he could survey the entire corridor and all the doors opening into it—could see everything and hear everything without being himself seen, for the projecting pilaster completely shaded him.
So John Heywood stood and listened. All was quiet in the corridor. In the distance was now and then heard the deadened sound of the music; and the confused hum of many voices from the festive halls forced its way to the listener’s ear.
This was the only thing that John Heywood perceived. All else was still. But this stillness did not last long. The corridor was lighted up, and the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps was heard.