“You are a wretch!” said Lady Jane; “a vulgar hypocritical fool.”
“Earl Douglas, your daughter is speaking to you,” said John Heywood, calmly. “She flatters you much, your tender daughter.”
“Now then, John, you have heard my orders, and will you obey them? In four days will this festival begin; I give you two days more. In six days, then, you have to write a new interlude. And if he fails to do it, my ladies, you shall whip him until you bring the blood; and that without any condition.” Just then was heard without a flourish of trumpets and the clatter of horse-hoofs.
“The queen has returned,” said John Heywood, with a countenance beaming with joy, as he fixed his smiling gaze full of mischievous satisfaction on Lady Jane.
“Nothing further now remains for you to do, but dutifully to meet your mistress upon the great staircase, for, as you so wisely said before, the queen still lives.”
Without waiting for an answer, John Heywood ran out and rushed through the anteroom and down the steps to meet the queen. Lady Jane watched him with a dark, angry look; and as she turned slowly to the door to go and meet the queen, she muttered low between her closely-pressed lips: “The fool must die, for he is the queen’s friend!”
CHAPTER XVI. THE CONFIDANT.
The queen was just ascending the steps of the great public staircase, and she greeted John Heywood with a friendly smile.
“My lady,” said he aloud, “I have a few words in private to say to you, in the name of his majesty.”