He closed his eyes as if he would fall asleep, being very weary and come to his desired haven. Above his closed eyes Katharine threw the key of her antechamber on to the bed. She pointed with her hand to that door that the Lady Rochford should undo. If she could get her cousin through that door--and now he was in the mood--if she could but get him through there and out at the door beyond the Big Room into the corridor, before her guard came back.... But the Lady Rochford was leaning far out beyond the window-sill and did not see her gesture. Culpepper muttered-- 'Ah; well; aye; even so----' And from the window came a scream that tore the air-- 'The King! the King!' And immediately it was as if the life of a demon had possessed Culpepper in all his limbs. 'Merciful God!' the Queen cried out. 'I am patient.' Culpepper had writhed from her till he sat up, but she hollowed her hand around his throat. His head she forced back till she held it upon the floor, and whilst he writhed with his legs she knelt upon his chest with one knee. He screamed out words like: 'Bawd,' and 'Ilcock,' and 'Hecate,' and the Lady Rochford screamed-- 'The King comes! the King comes!' Then Katharine said within herself-- 'Is it this to be a Queen?' 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. She ran at the old woman-- '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.' The old woman trembled lamentably. '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.