none of these noble and proud cavaliers could summon up courage?"

"Ah!" said the king, evidently relieved and fetching a deep breath,
"then you knew not at all for whom and for what you were imploring
pardon?"

"Yet!" said the young man, and his bold glance ran with an
expression of contempt over the whole assembly--"yet, I saw at once
who the condemned must be, for I saw this young maiden forsaken by
all as if stricken by the plague, standing alone in the midst of
this exalted and brave company. And you well know, my noble king,
that at court one recognizes the condemned and those fallen into
disgrace by this, that every one flies from them, and nobody has the
courage to touch such a leper even with the tip of his finger!"

King Henry smiled. "Thomas Seymour, Earl of Sudley, you are now, as
ever, imprudent and hasty," said he. "You beg for mercy without once
knowing whether she for whom you beg it is worthy of mercy."

"But I see that she is a woman," said the intrepid young earl. "And
a woman is always worthy of mercy, and it becomes every knight to
come forward as her defender, were it but to pay homage to her sex,
so fair and so frail, and yet so noble and mighty. Therefore I beg
mercy for this young maiden!"

Catharine had listened to the young earl with throbbing heart and
flushed cheeks. It was the first time that she had seen him, and yet
she felt for him a warm sympathy, an almost tender anxiety.

"He will plunge himself into ruin," murmured she; "he will not save