She set both her hands upon his neck and pressed down the whole weight of her frame, till the voice died in his throat. His body stirred beneath her knee, convulsively, so that it was as if she rode a horse. His eyes, as slowly he strangled, glared hideously at the ceiling, from which the carven face of a Queen looked down into them. At last he lay still, and Katharine Howard rose up.
'God forgive me if I have killed my cousin,' she said. 'I am certain that now He will forgive me if I slay thee.' And she had Culpepper's dagger in her hand.
'For,' she said, 'I stand for Christ His cause: I will not be undone by meddlers. Hold thy peace!'
The Lady Rochford opened her mouth to speak.
'Hold thy peace!' the Queen said again, and she lifted up the dagger. 'Speak not. Do as I bid thee. Answer me when I ask. For this I swear as I am the Queen that, since I have the power to slay whom I will and none question it, I will slay thee if thou do not my bidding.'
'Where is the King come to?' the Queen said.
'Even to the great gate; he is out of sight,' was her answer.
'Come now,' the Queen commanded. 'Let us drag my cousin behind my table.'
'Shall he be hidden there?' the Lady Rochford cried out. 'Let us cast him from the window.'
'Hold your peace,' the Queen cried out. 'Speak you never one word more. But come!'
She took her cousin by the arm, the Lady Rochford took him by the other and they dragged him, inert and senseless, into the shadow of the Queen's mirror table.
'Pray God the King comes soon,' the Queen said. She stood above her cousin and looked down upon him. A great pitifulness came into her face.
'Loosen his shirt,' she said. 'Feel if his heart beats!'
The Lady Rochford had a face full of fear and repulsion.
'Loosen his shirt. Feel if his heart beats,' the Queen said. 'And oh!' she added, 'woe shall fall upon thee if he be dead.'
She reflected a moment to think upon how long it should be ere the King came to her door. Then she raised her chair, and sat down at her mirror. For one minute she set her face into her hands; then she began to straighten herself, and with her hands behind her to tighten the laces of her dress.
'For,' she continued to Lady Rochford, 'I do hold thee more guilty of his death than himself. He is but a drunkard in his cups, thou a palterer in sobriety.'