"These sounds call me back to my slavery.

We must both resume our roles.

I must become queen again." "But first swear to me that you will never forget this hour; that you will ever think upon the oaths which we have mutually sworn." She looked at him almost astounded.

"My God! can truth and love be forgotten ?" "You will remain ever true, Catharine ?" She smiled.

"See, now, my jealous lord, do I address such questions to you ?" "Oh, queen, you well know that you possess the charm that binds forever." "Who knows ?" said she dreamily, as she raised her enthusiastic look to heaven, and seemed to follow the bright silvery clouds which were sailing slowly across the blue ether.
Then her eyes fell on her beloved, and laying her hand softly upon his shoulder, she said: "Love is like God--eternal, primeval, and ever present! But you must believe in it to feel its presence; you must trust it to be worthy of its blessing!" But the hallooing and the clangor of the horns came nearer and nearer.
Even now was heard the barking of the dogs and the tramp of horses.
The earl had untied the horses, and led Hector, who was now quiet and gentle as a lamb, to his mistress.
"Queen," said Thomas Seymour, "two delinquents now approach you! Hector is my accomplice, and had it not been that the fly I now see on his swollen ear had made him raving, I should be the most pitiable and unhappy man in your kingdom, while now I am the happiest and most enviable." The queen made no answer, but she put both her arms around the animal's neck and kissed him.
"Henceforth," said she, "then I will ride only Hector, and when he is old and unfit for service--" "He shall be tended and cared for in the stud of Countess Catharine Seymour!" interrupted Thomas Seymour, as he held the queen's stirrup and assisted her into the saddle.
The two rode in silence toward the sound of the voices and horns, both too much occupied by their own thoughts to interrupt them by trifling words.
"He loves me!" thought Catharine.