of your favor had turned away from this poor girl, and in such a
case your courtiers no longer see the figure wrapped in darkness."

"You are mistaken, my lord; I have seen it," suddenly said another
voice, and a second cavalier advanced from the anteroom into the
chamber. He approached the king, and, as he bent his knee before
him, he said, in a loud, steady voice: "Sire, I also beg mercy for
Anne Askew!"

At this moment was heard from that side of the room where the ladies
stood, a low cry, and the pale, affrighted face of Lady Jane Douglas
was for a moment raised above the heads of the other ladies. No one
noticed it. All eyes were directed toward the group in the middle of
the room: all looked with eager attention upon the king and these
two young men, who dared protect one whom he had sentenced.

"Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey!" exclaimed the king; and now an
expression of wrath passed over his countenance. "How! you, too,
dare intercede for this girl? You, then, grudge Thomas Seymour the
pre-eminence of being the most discreet man at my court?"

"I will not allow him, sire, to think that he is the bravest,"
replied the young man, as he fixed on Thomas Seymour a look of
haughty defiance, which the other answered by a cold, disdainful
smile.

"Oh," said he, with a shrug of his shoulders, "I willingly allow
you, my dear Earl of Surrey, to tread behind me, at your
convenience, the path, the safety of which I first tested at the
peril of my life. You saw that I had not, as yet, lost either my