earts beating with merry
music,--Buckingham gay from his native spirit of adventure, Charles
eager to see in knight-errant fashion the charming infanta of Spain, of
whom he had seen, as yet, only the "counterfeit presentment," and a view
of whom in person was the real object of his journey. So ardent were the
two young men that they far outrode their companions, and at eight
o'clock in the evening of March 7, seventeen days after they had left
Buckingham's villa at Newhall, the truant pair were knocking briskly at
the door of the Earl of Bristol at Madrid.

Wilder and more perilous escapade had rarely been adventured. The king
had let them go with fear and trembling. Weak-willed monarch as he was,
he could not resist Buckingham's persuasions, though he dreaded the
result. The uncertain temper of Philip of Spain was well-known, the
preliminaries of the marriage which had been designed between Charles
and the infanta were far from settled, the political relations between
England and Spain were not of the most pacific, and it was within the
bounds of probability that Philip might seize and hold the heir of
England. It would give him a vast advantage over the sister realm, and
profit had been known to outweigh honor in the minds of potentates.

Heedless of all this, sure that his appearance would dispel the clouds
that hung over the marriage compact and shed the sunshine of peace and
union over the two kingdoms, giddy with the hopefulness of youth, and
infected with Buckingham's love of gallantry and adventure, Charles
reached Madrid without a thought of peril, wild to see the infanta in
his new role of knight-errant, and to decide for himself whether the
beauty and accomplishments for which she was famed were as patent to his
eye as to the voice of common report, and such as made her worthy the
love of a prince of high degree.

Such was the mood and such the hopes with which the romantic prince
knocked at Lord Bristol's door. But such was not the feeling with which
the practised diplomat received his visitors. He saw at a glance the
lake of possible mischief before him; yet he was versed in the art of
keeping his countenance serene, and received his guests as cordially as
if they had called on him in his London mansion.

Bristol would have kept the coming of the prince to himself, if it had
been possible. But the utmost he could hope was to keep the secret for
that night, and even in this he failed. Count Gondomar, a Sp