How shall we begin, so as to strike them surely and certainly ?" "When three women are agreed, they may well be certain of their success," said Arabella, shrugging her shoulders.

"We live--God be praised for it--under a noble and high-minded king, who beholds the blood of his subjects with as much pleasure as he does the crimson of his royal mantle, and who has never yet shrunk back when a death-warrant was to be signed." "But this time he will shrink back," said the old duchess.

"He will not dare to rob the noblest and most powerful family of his kingdom of its head." "That very risk will stimulate him," said the Duchess of Richmond, laughing; "and the more difficult it is to bring down these heads, so much the more impatiently will he hanker after it.

The king hates them both, and he will thank us, if we change his hatred into retributive justice." "Then let us accuse both of high treason!" cried Arabella.

"The duke is a traitor; for I will and can swear that he has often enough called the king a bloodthirsty tiger, a relentless tyrant, a man without truth and without faith, although he coquettishly pretends to be the fountain and rock of all faith." "If he has said that, and you have heard him, you are in duty bound to communicate it to the king, if you do not want to be a traitoress yourself," exclaimed the young duchess, solemnly.
"And have you not noticed that the duke has for some time borne the same coat-of-arms as the king ?" asked the Duchess of Norfolk.