CHAPTER XXIII

THE TRAP The Lord Privy Seal was closeted with the King. His majesty had supped in his bedchamber, as was often his habit, alone save for the three gentlemen who had waited upon him. He had washed his fingers, and wiped them on the napkin Haddington had proffered him. Then my Lord of Northampton had been admitted, the gentlemen in attendance had been dismissed to the antechamber, and the Earl and the King were alone together. His majesty, who was now approaching fifty, had aged considerably since that day in the ti…