“And why,” asked he, in astonishment—“why does your majesty believe that this intelligence should fill me with special thankfulness?”
She collected all her powers; she prayed to her own heart for strength and self-control.
“Because the princess has made me the confidante of her love, and because I am consequently aware of the tender tie which binds you to her,” said she, gently; and she felt that all the blood had fled from her cheeks.
The earl looked into her face in mute astonishment. Then his inquiring and searching glance swept all around the room.
“We are overheard, then?” asked he, in a low voice.
“We are not alone?”
“We are alone,” said Catharine, aloud. “Nobody can hear us, and God alone is witness of our conversation.”
Elizabeth, who stood behind the hanging, felt her cheeks glow with shame, and she began to repent what she had done. But she was nevertheless, as it were, spellbound to that spot. It was certainly mean and unworthy of a princess to eavesdrop, but she was at that time but a young girl who loved, and who wanted to observe her lover. So she stayed; she laid her hand on her anxiously-throbbing heart, and murmured to herself: “What will he say? What means this anxious dread that comes over me?”
“Well,” said Thomas Seymour, in an entirely altered tone, “if we are alone, then this mask which hides my face may fall; then the cuirass which binds my heart may be loosened. Hail, Catharine, my star and my hope! No one, you say, hears us, save God alone; and God knows our love, and He knows with what longing, and what ecstasy, I have sighed for this hour—for this hour, which at length again unites me to you. My God, it is an eternity since I have seen you, Catharine; and my heart thirsted for you as a famishing man for a refreshing draught. Catharine, my beloved, blessed be you, that you have at last called me to you!”
He opened his arms for her, but she repulsed him sharply. “You are mistaken in the name, earl,” said she, bitterly. “You say Catharine, and mean Elizabeth! It is the princess that you love: to Elizabeth belongs your heart, and she has devoted her heart to you. Oh, earl, I will favor this love, and be certain I will not cease from prayer and supplication till I have inclined the king to your wishes, till he has given his consent to your marriage with the Princess Elizabeth.”