"l am come to save you, madame," said the earl. "I have been just
liberated from arrest, and was about to implore your intercession with
the king, when I learned he had been informed by one of his pages that
a man was in your chamber. Luckily, he knows not who it is, and while
he was summoning his attendants to accompany him, I hurried hither
by the secret staircase. I have arrived in time. Fly--fly! Sir Thomas
Wyat!"
But Wyat moved not.
At this moment footsteps were heard approaching the door--the handle
was tried--and the stern voice of the king was heard commanding that it
might be opened.
Will you destroy me, Wyat?" cried Anne.
"You have destroyed yourself," he rejoined.
"Why stay you here, Sir Thomas?" said Surrey, seizing his arm. "You
may yet escape. By heaven! if you move not, I will stab you to the
heart!"
"You would do me a favour, young man," said Wyat coldly; "but I will go.
I yield to love, and not to you, tyrant! " he added, shaking his hand at
the door. "May the worst pangs of jealously rend your heart!" And he
disappeared behind the arras.
"I hear voices," cried Henry from without. " God's death! madam, open
the door--or I will burst it open!"
"Oh, heaven! what is to be done?" cried Anne Boleyn, in despair.
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