Random Yeomen of the guard thought:
If Dame Carruthers is the Tower personified like "When our gallant Norman foes" and "Night has spread her pall once more" suggest, then how much of her crush on Sgt. Merryl is actually about what he represents to her?
Not as a man but as a respected yeoman, perfect living embodiment of duty to the Tower much like she considers herself to be.
Except the very thing that allows her to force him to marry her like she always wanted is a betrayal of said duty by both of them- him by helping Fairfax and her for covering it up for a price. It's not a happy ending for her either (no matter what she thinks in that moment) : she's betraying what she loves most for a man who doesn't want her and will resent her, and isn't even what she thought he was in the first place.
