The executioner had been granted absolution by the minister and by the last words of the poor queen who had whispered him her forgiveness.
She shuddered, gulping bile, looking around the empty hall, where only an hour ago, the gloating nobles and weeping maidservants had watched. In the old religion maybe, her prayers might be heard: to the queen of heaven, for the dead one who bore her holy name, and for her own guilty soul.