Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-12-10

hand. He asked. What are you do
ing?" and she screamed az him, Now
we shah never meet" and struck at
him Ike a cat SObbing she fled up
stairs.
She lay on her bed, looking toward
the window Perhaps It was the bars
across it-Hal had said she might fall
out, walking in her sleep-that made
the scene seem strange and yet IA
miliar
She had lain in a room before.
watching bars across a pale night sky.
Only then there had been gray stone
walls about her and the tapping and
the hammering Of men building a scat
fold by lantern light
She lay there in that prison room,
numb with despair. She had died so
many deaths, in those dreadful shame
ful days. that there was very little
Of her left. she thought drearily. to
die tomorrow. Henry was killed and
she was to be killed.
All that remained was TO die well
Her pride in that was all that was
left. She lay, dry-eyed. watching the
sky. She wondered If her cousin, Anne.
had had this chamber, had watched
the sky with this dull agony Some
said that Anne had been q wicked
woman, with many men for lovers
some whispered It had all been a plot
TO be rid of her. II must be hard 70
die for a thing you had not done.
It was hard 10 die anyway To die
at seventeen. She must not think OF
that. She must think of Henry dead,
and then she would be glad TO die and
end this misery d. She was not sorry
for what she had done. It did not
matter what the priest said, what
pains awaited her. What she was sorry
for, with a defiant, furious sorrow, was
the treason against her love, when she
had let herself be married TO the king.
She had been vain and wicked.
Too late, Catherine, she thought.
Nothing to do now, but 70 die. People
were gathering to see her die. She
heard their voices in the courtyard
where the hammering that had gone
on so long was stopped.
She must not tremble, she must not
disgrace herself with weakness
The women who tended her we're
waking now. They dressed her, putting
her hair high, to give place for the
AK TO strike. They let her paint her
face and lace herself firmly. She felt
a Sickish holloWneSS within her but
the excitement, she hoped, would keep
her up.
A little platform had been built from
the Tower to the scafiold where the
was waiting-she turned
her eyes quickly from his black clad
figure. There, below. were those
cloaked and hooded spectators who
had come SO early for their places
The sight of those hoods made her
thought flash back to the gypsy
woman with her kerchiefed head. and
ner prophecy Of a kerchief for her
head at laSt-why, q kerchief to wrap Z
lround it. to be sure No wonder the /.
woman had stared so at her. In scarlet (
{ will end. Blood was scarlet.
The Keeper Of the Tower was be- (
tide her, saying something about the I
thickness Of the pain. She nodded, un- /
There was thing she /
wanted to say in those last words that /
he might speak.
She could not deny the kings JUS
ice. To do that would be to stop the
execution, to have her taken to the
orture. And she had no thought to
leny 1t. She had sinned. and her sin
vas treason against the king. But the
hing she had in mind was to avow
Ter deeper sin, the sin against her
owe. She would not have them think
Ter sorry and ashamed for any cause
iut that.
And so. Strengthening herself as she
TODD beside the block, she heard her
elf flinging her hot, iInpassioned words
It them, making her avowal, "misled
y vanity" to their strange ears, and
he finished, breathless but defiant,
rying her last words, Would God
lad been true to my Culpepperl"
The pain was not brief 1t was last
ng a long time. She thought, How
an / feel it so long?" and then she
cit her eyelids stirring and knew her
cad was there. She was in bed.
TRANCE bed, its foot white iron. But
he did not think about the bed, she
bought, "Culpepperl That silly name
I always thought it such a pity she
adn't a finer name to fling with her
lst breath"
For a sharp memory came of read
lg, In history. those last words of
tile Catherine Howard on the scat
Did. Catherine Howard, the fourth
life of Henry VIII. The 17-year-old