fires still burning yonder! So let us be silent."

"Yes, silence," murmured Catharine, with a shudder, as she withdrew
again to the embrasure of the window.

"Death by fire awaits you, Anne Askew!" repeated the king. "No mercy
for the traitress who vilifies and scoffs at her king!"




CHAPTER V.

THE RIVALS.


At the very moment when the king was pronouncing, in a voice almost
exultant, Anne Askew's sentence of death, one of the king's
cavaliers appeared on the threshold of the royal chamber and
advanced toward the king.

He was a young man of noble and imposing appearance, whose lofty
bearing contrasted strangely with the humble and submissive attitude
of the rest of the courtiers. His tall, slim form was clad in a coat
of mail glittering with gold; over his shoulders hung a velvet
mantle decorated with a princely crown; and his head, covered with
dark ringlets, was adorned with a cap embroidered with gold, from
which a long white ostrich-feather drooped to his shoulder. His oval
face presented the full type of aristocratic beauty; his cheeks were
of a clear, transparent paleness; about his slightly pouting mouth