“Your Majesty will never believe Sir Thomas Seymour to be in fault—that I know. But you will find him out in time. He has deceived others, take heed he does not deceive you.”
“Whom has he deceived, Bess?—not you, I hope?” demanded Edward, looking at her fixedly.
“No, not me,” she answered, in some confusion. “But I have heard that of him which causes distrust. Therefore I deem it right to warn your Majesty.”
“You bear resentment against him for some cause, real or imaginary, that I can plainly perceive. Come, come! let there be an end of this quarrel, Bess. You and Sir Thomas are both dear to me, and I would have you friends. If he has offended you, he shall apologize—as humbly as you please. Will that suffice?”
“I thank your Majesty for your gracious interference, and fully appreciate the motives whence it proceeds, but your kindly efforts are thrown away. I require no apologies from Sir Thomas, and will accept none.”
“On my faith, you are very perverse, Elizabeth. And I must needs confess that your strange conduct makes me think you must be to blame in the matter.”
“I shall not attempt to justify myself,” she rejoined, “neither shall I endeavor to shake the opinion your Majesty entertains of Sir Thomas Seymour.”
“You would hardly succeed in the latter effort, Bess. But let us change the subject, since it is not agreeable to you.”
“Before doing so, let me ask you a question. How would you like it were the queen-dowager to bestow her hand upon your favorite uncle?”
“Is such an event probable?” demanded Edward, surprised.
“Suppose it so,” she rejoined.
“There is nothing to prevent such a marriage, that I am aware of,” observed Edward, after a short pause. “If the queen must marry again, she could choose no one more acceptable to me than my uncle Sir Thomas Seymour.”
“But she ought not to marry again!” exclaimed Elizabeth, angrily. “She has had three husbands already; the last a great king, for whom she ought ever after to remain in widowhood. Thus much, at least, she owes our father’s memory.”
“If she had forgotten two husbands before wedding the king our father, she is not unlikely to forget him,” observed Edward. “Such is the way with women, Bess; and her Grace will not be more blameworthy than the rest of her sex.”
“But your Majesty will not permit such an unsuitable marriage, should it be proposed?”
“I do not think the marriage so unsuitable, Bess; and I see not how I can hinder it.”
“Not hinder it! You are far more patient than I should be, were I in your Majesty’s place. I would banish Sir Thomas Seymour rather than this should occur.”
“To banish him would be to rob myself of one whose society I prefer to that of any other. No, I must adopt some milder course, if on reflection I shall judge it expedient to interfere at all.”
Seeing the king was not to be shaken, and perceiving also that she had unintentionally served Sir Thomas Seymour by alluding to the probability of his marriage with the queen-dowager, of which Edward had previously entertained no suspicion, Elizabeth let the subject drop, and after some further conversation the young monarch took an affectionate leave of his sister, again expressing great regret at losing her so soon, and promising that an escort should be provided by the Constable of the Tower to attend her at any hour she pleased on the morrow.
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Chapter III
HOW THE EARL OF HERTFORD WAS MADE DUKE OF SOMERSET: AND HOW SIR THOMAS SEYMOUR WAS ENNOBLED
At a late hour on that night all the principal personages who officiated at the funeral solemnities at Windsor Castle, returned to the Tower.
Next day, a general meeting was held in the grand council-chamber in the White Tower. Certain new creations of peers were about to be made, in accordance, it was said, with the late king’s directions; and other noble personages were to be yet further dignified. The young king sat in his chair of state beneath a canopy, and on his right stood the lord protector. Though the long-looked for moment of aggrandizement had arrived to Hertford, he allowed no manifestation of triumph to escape him, but assumed an air of deep humility.