e he hesitated, because the gout in his foot gave him a sharper
twinge; but the Queen availed herself of the pause to exclaim: "I think I
am aware of them. It is especially hard just now for the statesman and
soldier to keep the sword in the sheath, because Rome offers more than
ever, because at the present time no serious opposition is to be feared
from the most important states, and because the princes of the empire
have neglected nothing which could rouse the resentment of my imperial
brother. I know all this, and yet it is as firmly established as Alpine
mountains----"

Here a low laugh escaped the Emperor's lips.

"The political course which could be thus firmly established is to be
found, you experienced regent, only in one place--the strong imagination
of a high hearted woman, who desires to accomplish what she deems right.
I, too, you may believe me, am opposed to this war, and, as matters stand
now, the German renegades, rather than we, may expect a glorious result.
But, nevertheless, it may happen that I shall be compelled to ask you to
give me back my promise."

"I should like to see the person who could compel my august brother to
undertake anything against his imperial will," the Queen passionately
interrupted.

"We will hope that this superior being may not appear only too soon,"
replied the Emperor, smiling bitterly. "The invincible oppressor bears
the name of unexpected circumstances; I encountered one of his harbingers
to-day. There lie the documents. Do you know to what those miserable
papers force me, the Emperor?--ay, force, I repeat it. To nothing less,
Mary, than consciously to deal a blow in the face of justice, whose
defender I ought and desire to be. I am not exaggerating, for I am
withdrawing a fratricide from the courts, nay, am paving the way for him
to evade punishment."

"You mean Alfonso Diaz, who had his brother murdered by a hired assassin
because he abandoned the holy Church and accepted the Lutheran religion,"
said the Queen sorrowfully. "Malvenda was just telling me----"

"He was the instigator of the crime," interrupted the Emperor. "Now he
rejoices in it as a deed well pleasing to God, and many thousands, I
know, agree with him. And I? Had Juan Diaz been a German Johannes or
Hans, the Emperor Charles would have made Alfonso expiate his crime upon
the block this very day. But the brothers were Spaniards, and that alters
the case."

With this sentence, which fell from his lips