As I sat in my chamber waiting for my inevitable fate, a wave of numbness and quiet came over me. I had been locked in the tower for an uncountable number of days, for I had lost all track of real time and the days began to blur together. I had been accused of the unimaginable and was to be executed at nine o'clock. My silent and thoughtful state was interrupted when my chamber door was opened and the gaunt prison guard strode in. He looked straight past me as if he were addressing a ghost and said, " I'm sorry m' lady, but the executioner has been delayed in his travels and has not arrived yet. The King has moved your beheading to twelve o'clock sharp instead." With the completion of these words, he briskly turned around and marched out. "This can't be happening," I whispered and turned to slink back into my chair.
It wasn't that I wished to die; for every instant that passed I wished the King would show mercy and send me to a nunnery instead. No, it was that I had fully prepared myself for entry into God's eternal kingdom. I had done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve my sentence, but there was nothing I or anyone else could do once the King's mind was made on the matter.
More time passed and when the hour of my demise grew nearer my chambermaids assisted me in putting my finest and most cherished jewels on, along with my shoes and cloak. There was a quick and subtle knock on the large, dull door before it opened. The prison guard entered once more with a sullen look on his face. "Follow me, m' lady" he announced. It took every ounce of courage and self-restraint I had in me not to sob at this point. I lifted my skirts off the dusty ground and sullenly obliged. I followed the sorrowful man down the dank corridors. My sobbing chambermaids followed myself. I was on my way to my own execution, a wrongful sentence based on false allegations.
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