The king uttered a cry, and, turning pale, reeled a step backward.
“The queen!” exclaimed Douglas, in terror; and he trembled so violently that the paper in his hand rattled and fluttered.
“Yes, the queen!” said Catharine, with a haughty smile. “The queen, who comes to scold her husband, that, contrary to his physician’s orders, he still refrains from his slumbers at so late an hour of the night.”
“And the fool!” said John Heywood, as with humorous pathos he stepped forward from behind the queen—“the fool, who comes to ask Earl Douglas how he dared deprive John Heywood of his office, and usurp the place of king’s fool to Henry, and deceive his most gracious majesty with all manner of silly pranks and carnival tricks.”
“And who”—asked the king, in a voice quivering with rage, fastening his flashing looks on Douglas with an annihilating expression—“who, then, is that woman there? Who has dared with such cursed mummery to deceive the king, and calumniate the queen?”
“Sire,” said Earl Douglas, who very well knew that his future and that of his daughter depended on the present moment, and whom this consciousness had speedily restored to his self-possession and calmness—“sire, I beseech your majesty for a moment of private explanation; and I shall be entirely successful in vindicating myself.”
“Do not grant it him, brother Henry,” said John Heywood; “he is a dangerous juggler; and who knows whether he may not yet, in his private conversation, convince you that he is king, and you nothing more than his lickspittle, fawning, hypocritical servant Earl Archibald Douglas.”
“My lord and husband, I beg you to hear the earl’s justification,” said Catharine, as she extended her hand to the king with a bewitching smile.
“It would be cruel to condemn him unheard, I will hear him, but it shall be done in your presence, Kate, and you yourself shall decide whether or not his justification is sufficient.”
“No indeed, my husband; let me remain an entire stranger to this night’s conspiracy, so that spite and anger may not fill my heart and rob me of the supreme confidence which I need, to be able to walk on at your side happy and smiling in the midst of my enemies.”