“I know I do not deserve forgiveness,” he cried, “but I know, also, that your nature is charitable, and therefore I venture to hope. Oh! Catherine, I have recovered from the frenzy into which I had fallen, and bitterly repent my folly. You have resumed entire empire over my heart, and never again can be dethroned.”
“I do not desire to reign over a heart so treacherous,” rejoined Catherine, severely. “You plead in vain, Seymour. Perfidy like yours cannot be pardoned.”
“Say not so, fair queen,” he cried, passionately. “Doom me not to utter despair. Show me how to repair my fault, and I will do it. But condemn me not to worse than death.”
“Having proved you false and forsworn, how am I to believe what you now utter? Can I doubt the evidence of my own senses? Can I forget what I overheard?”
“But I am cured of my madness, I declare to you, Catherine. My fault shall be atoned by years of devotion. I will submit to any punishment you choose to inflict upon me—so that a hope of ultimate forgiveness be held out.”
“Would I could believe you!” sighed the queen. “But no!—no!—it must not be. I will not again be deceived.”
“On my soul I do not deceive you!” he cried, pressing her hand to his lips. “Grant me but another trial, and if I swerve from my present professions of unalterable attachment, cast me off for ever.”
There was a slight pause; after which Catherine said, in a relenting tone, “I must have time for reflection.”
“Till when?” he cried, imploringly.
“I cannot say. Not till the tomb has closed over Henry will I speak more on this subject. I give you good night, Sir Thomas.”
“Good night, fair queen. Heaven grant your decision prove favorable!” exclaimed Seymour, as she departed.
And as his esquire cautiously approached him, he said, exultingly, “Vittoria! Ugo, è fatto!”
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Chapter XIX
PULVIS PULVERI, CINIS CINERI
At six o’clock next morn, all the knights companions of the Garter attendant upon the funeral repaired to the revestry of Saint George’s Chapel. The assemblage comprised the Lord Protector, Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, the Earls of Essex, Arundel, Shrewsbury, and Sussex, the Lords Saint John, Lisle, Abergavenny, and Russell, with Sir John Gage, Sir Anthony Brown, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Anthony St. Leger, and Sir Thomas Cheney. Having arrayed themselves in the rich sky-blue mantles of the order, and put on their hoods, they proceeded to the choir to hear matins, and make their oblations.
The service was performed by the Dean of Windsor, Doctor Franklin, and the canons. At its conclusion, after divesting themselves of the habits of their order, the knights adjourned to the deanery, where a goodly breakfast had been provided them by the portly dean. During this repast some conversation took place between Doctor Franklin and the lord protector touching a bequest by the late king of certain manors and lands to the dean and canons to the value of six hundred pounds a year—a considerable sum in those days—and the dean respectfully inquired whether he had been rightly informed as to the amount.
“Ay, forsooth, good master dean,” replied the protector. “His late majesty—whose soul may Jesu pardon!—hath by his will left you and your successors lands, spiritual endowments, and promotions of the yearly value you mention, but on certain conditions.”
“What may be the conditions, I pray your Highness?” asked the dean. “I have not heard them.”
“They are these,” rejoined the protector. “That you find two priests to say masses at an altar to be erected before his majesty’s tomb; that you hold four solemn obits annually for the repose of his soul within the chapel; that at every obit, ye bestow ten pounds in alms to the poor; that ye give twelve pence a day to thirteen indigent but deserving persons, who shall be styled Poor Knights, together with garments specified by the will, and an additional payment to the governor of such poor knights. Other obligations there are in the way of sermons and prayers, but these I pretermit.”
“His majesty’s intentions shall be religiously fulfilled,” observed the dean, “and I thank your Highness for the information you have so graciously afforded me.”