at!--to bury myself under a veil, with eternal walls shutting me
in on every side. I have served you well. I have served the Society--I
have done your will, my father--save only in this."

"And now," said the King drily, "you have returned to a better mind?"

"I have," said Valentine, "on conditions!"

"Again I warn you I do not bargain," said the King, "my will is my will.
Refuse or submit. I make no terms."

The girl flashed into fire at the word.

"Ah, but you must," she cried. "I am no daughter of Flanders--no
Caterina de Lainez to be shut up with the Ursulines of Brussels against
my will. I am an Osorio of the Osorios. The brother of my mother will
protect me. And behind him all Astorga and Leon would rise to march upon
Madrid if any harm befell me. I bargain because it is my right--because
I can stand between your children and their princely thrones--because I
can prove your marriage no marriage--because, without my consent and
that of my brothers Pedro and Bernardino, you had never either been King
of England nor left children to sit in the seat of Charles your father.
But neither they nor I have asked for aught save life from your hands.
We have effaced ourselves for the kingdom's good and yours. A king of
Spain may not marry a subject, but you married my mother--your friend's
sister. Now will you bargain or no?"

"I will listen," said Philip grimly; "place my foot-rest a little nearer
me, my daughter."

The calmness of the King immediately reacted on Valentine la Nina.

"Listen, my father," she said, "there are in your galleys at Tarragona
two men--one of them the father of this young Scottish girl--the other,
her--her betrothed. Pardon them. Let them depart from the kingdom----"

"Their crime?" interrupted the King.

"They were delivered over by the fathers of the Inquisition," said
Valentine, less certainly.

"Then it is heresy," said the King. "I can forgive anything but that!"

"For one and the other," said the girl, "their heresy consists in good
honest fighting, outside of your Majesty's kingdom--against the Guisard
League. They are not your subjects, and were found in your province of
Roussillon only by chance."

"Ah, in Roussillon?" said Philip thoughtfully. And picking up a long
pole like the butt of a fishing-rod furnished with a pair of steel
nippers like a finger-and-thumb at the top, he turned half round to an
open cabinet of many pigeon-holes, where were bundles innumerable of
paper