hour, and when you hereafter present it to me, with a request, I
will grant that request, Kate!"

He kissed her forehead, and was about to press her more closely in
his arms, when suddenly from without was heard the dull roll of
drums, and the ringing of bells.

The king started a moment and released Catharine from his arms. He
listened; the roll of drums continued, and now and then was heard in
the distance, that peculiar thundering and yet sullen sound, which
so much resembles the roar and rush of the sea, and which can be
produced only by a large and excited mob.

The king, with a fierce curse, pushed open the glass door leading to
the balcony, and walked out.

Catharine gazed after him with a strange, half-timid, half-scornful
look. "I have not at least told him that I love him," muttered she.
"He has construed my words as it suited his vanity. No matter. I
will not die on the scaffold!"

With a resolute step, and firm, energetic air, she followed the king
to the balcony. The roll of drums was kept up, and from all the
steeples the bells were pealing. The night was dark and calm. All
London seemed to slumber, and the dark houses around about stood up
out of the universal darkness like huge coffins.

Suddenly the horizon began to grow bright, and on the sky appeared a
streak of fiery red, which, blazing up higher and higher, soon
illuminated the entire horizon with a crimson glow, and even shed