"Time enough for that," answered Lord Jermyn. "Do not brush the bloom off the flowers sooner than need be. They are the prettiest couple at court, those two, in their young freshness. Have you spoken to the king concerning Agnes?"
"No, there's time enough," answered the queen. "It were difficult for the king to act at present. The estates have passed out of his hands, and he would raise a hornet's nest if he attempted to take them from their present owner."
"I think you are wrong," said Lord Jermyn; "the sooner such things are done the better. If his majesty cannot restore to her her rightful heritage, then he must create a new one for her."
"That is probably what he will do," said the queen. "These are early days, and his hands are full. His first duty is to do what he is doing, punish the murderers of his father."
"Ah, well! he is doing that without mercy," said Lord Jermyn, and there was a certain bitterness in his tone.
"Do you regret it?" asked Henrietta, looking up at him.
"I suppose it has to be," he answered. "But such men as Harrison and Carew are being raised to the dignity of martyrs; they die like men for the cause they believe in. There, we will not speak of it. I wish it were all over."
"I agree with you, my lord," said the young Duke of Gloucester, who had just come in. "I wish it were all over, this judging and this killing. I cannot pass in the streets but I see the scaffolds, and men dying thereon with such firmness and show of piety, with a semblance of joy in their sufferings." And the young Duke covered his face with his hands. "Mother, cannot you stop it?" he asked.
"Stop the avenging of your father's death! Nay, Henry, that I cannot do."
"Then, Mother, pray the king not to have the scaffold so near us as Charing Cross, or else I will go hence and never visit you. My Lord Jermyn, plead for me." And the prince hastily left the room, and, going along the gallery, knocked at the door of his sister's apartment.