He had but to put forth his hands to possess himself of this
splendid prize. Yet those hands of his were bound while that
woman lived at Cumnor. Conceive his feelings as they stole away
together like any pair of lovers.
Arm in arm they came by a stone gallery, where a stalwart scarlet
sentinel, a yeoman of the guard, with a Tudor rose embroidered in
gold upon his back, stood under a lamp set in the wall, with
grounded pike and body stiffly erect.
The tall young Queen was in crimson satin with cunningly-wrought
silver embroideries, trimmed with tufted silver fringe, her
stomacher stiff with silver bullion studded with gold rosettes
and Roman pearls, her bodice cut low to display her splendid
neck, decked by a carcanet of pearls and rubies, and surmounted
by a fan-like cuff of guipure, high behind and sloping towards
the bust. Thus she appeared to the sentinel as the rays of the
single lamp behind him struck fire from her red-gold hair. As if
by her very gait to express the wantonness of her mood, she
pointed her toes and walked with head thrown back, smiling up
into the gipsy face of her companion, who was arrayed from head
to foot in shimmering ivory satin, with an elegance no man in
England could have matched.
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