wn devotion. I am not accustomed to have my little affairs
talked over by any unbidden counsellors."

"Well, senor, if you take offence, you take that which is not given.
Only I warn you, with all apologies for any seeming forwardness, that
the quest on which you seem to be is one on which you will not be
allowed to proceed."

"And who will stop me?" asked the Spaniard, with a fierce oath.

"You are not aware, illustrious senor," said Sir Richard, parrying the
question, "that our English laity look upon mixed marriages with full as
much dislike as your own ecclesiastics."

"Marriage, sir? Who gave you leave to mention that word to me?"

Sir Richard's brow darkened; the Spaniard, in his insane pride, had
forced upon the good knight a suspicion which was not really just.

"Is it possible, then, Senor Don Guzman, that I am to have the shame of
mentioning a baser word?"

"Mention what you will, sir. All words are the same to me; for, just or
unjust, I shall answer them alike only by my sword."

"You will do no such thing, sir. You forget that I am your host."

"And do you suppose that you have therefore a right to insult me? Stand
on your guard, sir!"

Grenville answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath with
a quiet smile.

"Senor Don Guzman must be well enough aware of who Richard Grenville is,
to know that he may claim the right of refusing duel to any man, if he
shall so think fit."

"Sir!" cried the Spaniard, with an oath, "this is too much! Do you dare
to hint that I am unworthy of your sword? Know, insolent Englishman, I
am not merely a De Soto, though that, by St. James, were enough for you
or any man. I am a Sotomayor, a Mendoza, a Bovadilla, a Losada, a--sir!
I have blood royal in my veins, and you dare to refuse my challenge?"

"Richard Grenville can show quarterings, probably, against even Don
Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, or against (with no offence to
the unquestioned nobility of your pedigree) the bluest blood of Spain.
But he can show, moreover, thank God, a reputation which raises him
as much above the imputation of cowardice, as it does above that of
discourtesy. If you think fit, senor, to forget what you have just, in
very excusable anger, vented, and to return with me, you will find me
still, as ever, your most faithful servant and host. If otherwise, you
have only to name whither you wish your mails to be sent, and I shall,
with unfeigned sorrow, obey your comma