"Oh, she loves me not! or at least her understanding is mightier than her love.

Oh, Catharine, Catharine, fearest thou death so much that thou canst on that account deny thy love ?" With desperate haste he drew out his portfolio.

"I will compel her to look at me, to think of me, to remember her oath," thought he.

"Woe to her, if she does not fulfil it--if she gives me not the rosette, which she promised me with so solemn a vow! If she does it not, then I will break this dreadful silence, and before her king, and before her court, accuse her of treachery to her love.

Then, at least, she will not be able to cast me off; for we shall mount the scaffold together." "Does my exalted queen allow me to begin ?" asked he aloud, wholly forgetting that the king had already given him the order to do so, and that it was he only who could grant such a permission.
Catharine looked at him in astonishment.