y. Joy
is the best thing in life, and who bestows it more certainly and lavishly
than the little winged god? It is fortunate for my Charles that he is
again permitted to quaff the beaker of happiness! Only too soon--I know
it--he will again withdraw it from his lips with his own hand, if it were
only because the inclination to self-torture which he inherits, the
ascetic instinct, that constantly increases in strength, destroys and
stamps as sinful forgetfulness of duty every pleasure which he enjoys for
any length of time. We will hope that he will not retain this new
happiness too briefly. It would be of service to us all. What he might
possibly have granted me after long hesitation and consideration, and
with many a delay, he yielded after mass this morning with smiling lips.
Love expands the heart, and at the same time enlarges the views,
especially if it is not an unfortunate one; but this Barbara Blomberg is
a genuine daughter of Eve, over whom the mother of nations, if she met
her by chance, would rejoice. A German Venus, whom I would gladly send to
Titian for a model. And her voice and the unexpected good fortune of
finding such a teacher here! Appenzelder and Gombert are full of her
praises. Good heavens! How she sang yesterday evening! It was enough to
stir the dead. Afterward I drew her aside for a short time."

"And your Majesty did her the honour to feel her teeth?"--[A German
phrase meaning to sound a person's intentions.--TR.]--queried Quijada.

"Feel her teeth?" replied the Queen. "It might have been worth while, for
those that glitter between her rosy lips are white and beautifully
formed. But I did even more--I tested the girl's heart and mind."

"And the result?"

"H'm!" said the Queen. "Very favourable. Yet no. If I must be honest,
that is saying too little. She stood it very, surprisingly well. Her
intellect is anything but limited; nay, her comprehension is so swift
that she can be sure of not trying his Majesty's patience unduly. Her
manners, too, are not amiss for a German; but what is the main point--she
is pious, firm in the faith, and ardent in her hatred of the foes of the
Holy Church. My life upon it! all this is as genuine as the diamond in my
ring, and so the white raven is complete. That she has returned the
Emperor Charles love for love by no means sullies her plumage. In my
eyes, it only shines the more brightly, since one so great as he permits
her, though only for a short distance,