rragona.

* * * * *

Philip II. had a natural eye for artistic effect. He would, indeed, have
preferred to send the inconvenient Valentine willy-nilly to a convent.
He would have delighted to arrange the details of the funeral pyre of
these two dangerous heretics, John d'Albret and Francis the Scot. It
would have cost him nothing, even, to permit the piquant young beauty of
Claire Agnew to perish with the rest.

But Valentine la Nina had posed her conditions most carefully. The
Marquis, her near kinsman, had come specially from Leon, with many
gentlemen of the province in his train. For, though never insisted on,
the nativity of Valentine was no secret for the grandees of her own
province.

The chapel of the Convent of the Carmelites on the Parral of Madrid had
been arranged by Philip's orders for a great ceremonial. He attended to
the matter in person, for nothing was too great or too little for him.

A sweet sound of chanting was heard, and from behind the tall iron bars
of the _coro_ the spectators, as they assembled, could dimly see the
forms of the cloistered nuns--of that Carmelite Order, the most austere
in Spain, no one of whom would ever again look upon the face of man.

There before an altar, dressed for the occasion, and in presence of the
King, Claire and John d'Albret stood hand in hand. There they exchanged
their vows, with many onlookers, but with one sole maid of honour. And
when it was demanded, as is customary, "Who giveth this woman?" the tall
figure of Francis Agnew, bent and bearded, took his daughter's hand and
placed it in that of Valentine, who, herself arrayed like another bride,
all in white, with lace and veil, stood by Claire's side. Valentine la
Nina looked once, a long, holding look, into the eyes of John d'Albret.
Then she took the hand of the bride and placed it in his. The
officiating priest said no word.

For, indeed, it was she who had given this woman to this man--more, too,
she had given him her own life.

King Philip looked on, sternly smiling, from the stall which, as a canon
of Leon, was his right. Now, however, he had laid aside his monk's
dress, and was arrayed royally, as became the first cavalier of Spain.
What the King was really waiting for came later.

Valentine la Nina retired to a tiring-room where, the first ceremonies
accomplished, her splendid hair was cut close, and she was attired in
the white and brown of the Order of the Car