He reached his place at last, actually against the wall of the soldiers'
lodgings, and found, presently, that a low row of projecting stones
enabled him to raise himself a few inches, and see, at any rate, a
little better than his neighbours. He had perceived one thing
instantly--namely, that his dream of getting near enough to the Queen to
give her absolution before her death was an impossible one. He had known
since yesterday that the execution was to take place in the hall, and
here was he, within the court certainly, yet as far as possible away
from where he most desired to be.
* * * * *
The last two days had gone by in a horror that there is no describing.
All the hours of them he had passed at his parlour window, waiting
hopelessly for the summons which never came. John Merton had gone to the
castle and come back, each time with more desolate news. There was not a
possibility, he said, when the news was finally certified, of getting a
place in the hall. Three hundred gentlemen had had those places already
assigned; four or five hundred more, it was expected, would have space
reserved for them in the courtyard. The only possibility was to be early
at the gateway, since a limited number of these would probably be
admitted an hour or so before the time fixed for the execution.
The priest had seen many sights from his parlour window during those two
days.
On Monday he had seen, early in the morning, Mr.
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