In the door was seen the bright-red dress of the headsman, who was standing upon the threshold with face calm and unmoved.
"It is time!" solemnly said the lieutenant.
The priest muttered his prayers, and the assistants swung their censers.
Without, the death-bell kept up its wail; and from the court was heard the hum of the mob, which, curious and bloodthirsty as it ever is, had streamed hither to behold with laughing mouth the blood of the man who but yesterday was its favorite.
Earl Surrey stood there a moment in silence.

His features worked and were convulsed, and a deathlike pallor covered his cheeks.
He trembled, not at death, but at dying.

It seemed to him that he already felt on his neck the cold broad-axe which that frightful man there held in his hand.

Oh, to die on the battle-field--what a boon it would have been! To come to an end on the scaffold--what a disgrace was this! "Henry Howard, my son, are you prepared to die ?" asked the priest.

"Have you made your peace with God?
Do you repent of your sins, and do you acknowledge death as a righteous expiation and punishment?
Do you forgive your enemies, and depart hence at peace with yourself and with mankind ?" "I am prepared to die," said Surrey, with a proud smile; "the other questions, my father, I will answer to my God." "Do you confess that you were a wicked traitor?
And do you beg the forgiveness of your noble and righteous, your exalted and good king, for the blasphemous injury to his sacred majesty ?" Earl Surrey looked him steadily in the eye.