'God forgive me if I have killed my cousin,' she said. 'I am certain
that now He will forgive me if I slay thee.' And she had Culpepper's
dagger in her hand.
'For,' she said, 'I stand for Christ His cause: I will not be undone by
meddlers. Hold thy peace!'
The Lady Rochford opened her mouth to speak.
'Hold thy peace!' the Queen said again, and she lifted up the dagger.
'Speak not. Do as I bid thee. Answer me when I ask. For this I swear as
I am the Queen that, since I have the power to slay whom I will and none
question it, I will slay thee if thou do not my bidding.'
The old woman trembled lamentably.
'Where is the King come to?' the Queen said.
'Even to the great gate; he is out of sight,' was her answer.
'Come now,' the Queen commanded. 'Let us drag my cousin behind my
table.'
'Shall he be hidden there?' the Lady Rochford cried out. 'Let us cast
him from the window.'
'Hold your peace,' the Queen cried out. 'Speak you never one word more.
But come!'
She took her cousin by the arm, the Lady Rochford took him by the other
and they dragged him, inert and senseless, into the shadow of the
Queen's mirror table.
'Pray God the King comes soon,' the Queen said. She stood above her
cousin and looked down upon him. A great pitifulness came into her face.
'Loosen his shirt,' she said. 'Feel if his heart beats!'
The Lady Rochford had a face full of fear and repulsion.
'Loosen his shirt. Feel if his heart beats,' the Queen said. 'And oh!'
she added, 'woe shall fall upon thee if he be dead.'
She reflected a moment to think upon how long it should be ere the King
came to her door. Then she raised her chair, and sat down at her mirror.
For one minute she set her face into her hands; then she began to
straighten herself, and with her hands behind her to tighten the laces
of her dress.
'For,' she continued to Lady Rochford, 'I do hold thee more guilty of
his death than himself. He is but a drunkard in his cups, thou a
palterer in sobriety.'
She set her cap upon her head and smoothed the hair beneath it. In all
her movements there was a great swiftness and decision. She set the
jewel in her cap, the pomander at her side, the chain around her neck,
the jewel at her breast.
'His heart beats,' the Lady Rochford said, from her knees at Culpepper's
side.
'Then thank the saints,' Katharine answered, 'and do up again his
shirt.'
She hurried in her attiring, and uttered engrossed commands.
'Kneel thou there by his side. If he stir or mutter before the King be
in and the door closed, put thy hand across his mouth.'
'But the King----' the Lady Rochford said. 'And----'
'Merciful God!' Katharine cried out again. 'I am the Queen. Kneel
there.'
The Lady Rochford trembled down upon her knees; she was in fear for her
life by the axe if the King came in.
'I thank God that the King is come,' the Queen said. 'If he had not,
this man must have gone from hence in the sight of other men. So I will
pardon thee for having cried out if now thou hold him silent till the
King be in.'
There came from very near a blare of trumpets. Katharine rose up, and
went again to gaze upon her cousin. The dagger she laid upon her table.
'He may hold still yet,' she said. 'But I charge you that you muzzle him
if he move or squeak.'
There came great blows upon the door, and through the heavy wood, the
Ha-ha of many voices. Slowly the Queen moved to the bed, and from it
took the key where she had thrown it. There came again the heavy
knocking, and she unlocked the door, slowly still.
In the corridor there were many torches, and beneath them the figure of
the King in scarlet. Behind him was Norfolk all in black and with his
yellow face, and Cranmer in black and with his anxious eyes, and behind
them many other lords. The King came in, and, slow and stately, the
Queen went down on her knees to greet him. The torch-light shone upon
her jewels and her garments; her fair face was immobile, and her eyes
upon the ground. The King raised her up, bent his knee to her, and
kissed her on the hands, and so, turning to the men without, he uttered,
roundly and fully, and his cheeks were ruddy with joy, and his eyes
smiled--
'My lords, I am beholden to the King o' Scots. For had he met me I had
not yet been here. Get you to your beds; I could wish ye had such
wives----'
'The King! the King!' a voice muttered.