replied the regent kindly. "She specially mentioned
her distinguished relatives in the city and in Landshut, and when I
advised her to show due respect to the marquise, who, in spite of
everything, is a woman of high rank and certainly an old lady, before
whose gray hairs Scripture commands us to rise, something hovered around
her lips--they are ripe for kisses--something which it is not easy to
find exactly the right words to describe: a blending of repugnance,
self-assertion, and resistance. She suffered it to remain on her
beautiful face only a few minutes, but it gave me reason enough to urge
you to sound a warning if his Majesty's late love should render him more
yielding than is desirable."

"The warned man will heed what prescient wisdom enjoins upon him," the
major-domo protested, with his hand upon his heart. "But if I know his
Majesty, his strong and well-warranted sense of imperial dignity will
render my attentive solicitude needless. The moment that the singer
assails it will put a speedy end to my royal master's love."

The Queen shook her head, and answered doubtfully: "If only you do not
undervalue the blind boy-god's power! Yet it must be owned that your
theory has a certain degree of justification." She went to the window as
she spoke, and added: "Karlowitz, the minister of Duke Maurice of Saxony,
is leaving the house. He looks pleased, and if he has come to an
agreement with the Bishop of Arras, that will also help to put the
Emperor in a pleasant mood--"

"And all of us!" exclaimed Quijada, grasping his sword hilt. "If this
energetic young prince, with his military ability and his army, joins us,
why, then----"

"Then there will be war," interrupted the Queen, completing the sentence;
"then there will be great joy among you younger, belligerent Castilians!
What do you care for the tears of mothers and the blood of husbands and
sons? Both will flow in streams, and, even if we were certain of
victory--which we are not--what will the gain be?"

"Triumph, the restored unity of Holy Church!" cried Quijada
enthusiastically.

"For which I daily pray," said the regent. "But even if you succeeded in
gaining a complete victory, if every church in city and country again
belonged to the only faith by which we can obtain salvation, I shall
still see them deprived of their holy vocation, for they will stand
empty, because then the men who would rather die than abjure their
delusion will be lying silent upon