“She has told me all,” she said; “that evil man--that prince of devils--cast her horoscope, and told her that her end would be as much in shame and misery as her present state was lofty. This, pretending that he knew not the queen, the lying jackal! Then he caused her to look into that mirror--you saw it opposite the door--he told her that it was enchanted and would show her her life. He chanted an incantation while the poor lady looked and saw, she says, every event of her life; and some, she swears, were known to none. She saw her childhood at Hever; her journey to France with Queen Mary; her sojourn there at court, with Mary and with Queen Claude. She saw her life in Catherine’s court, the love of the gallant Percy, Wolsey’s interference; the visits of the king’s grace to Hever--she saith it was the king’s very face and walk before he had the swelling in his legs. Then she beheld the glorious pageant of her coronation; saw herself, young and lovely, kneeling to Cranmer for Saint Edward’s crown. After this a black veil hung over the mirror; the wizard knelt and mumbled, making passes, when of a sudden the veil lifted, and she saw--oh, heaven! why took I the queen to such a devil?” For a moment Mary Wyatt was choked by sobs, and then she whispered the rest, so low that the others knelt about her to hear, all their faces stricken with awe of the supernatural. “She saw,” continued the sorrowful woman,--“she saw the Tower green, and by the block were my lord privy seal, the Duke of Norfolk, his grace of Richmond, the king’s son. From the Tower came Sir William Kingston leading--the queen herself. ’Twas her face, her form, her gait, her image, clad in black with a white cape upon her shoulders, and behind her came I and three others weeping. She saw herself speak, kneel down, and as the axe fell, she shrieked in mortal agony; and in a moment the mirror was blank, and no one with her but the conjurer.” CHAPTER XVI MY LADY CRABTREE TO THE RESCUE IN the gallery adjoining the apartments of the queen, Simon Raby waited for tidings of her condition, and also for a glimpse of Mistress Betty. Francis Bryan had been called away to attend upon the king. Henry had returned to Greenwich, but made no inquiry for his consort, for of late they had met only in public.