s, he forbade himself to cherish any
other wishes, because he would have regarded it treachery to the royal
master whom he served with faithful devotion. But, as he accepted great
gifts without ever allowing himself to be tempted to treason or
forgetfulness of duty, so he did not reject little tokens of friendliness
from Barbara, and of these she showed no lack. The young Bishop of Arras
was also an extremely fine-looking man, whose clever brain and bright,
penetrating glance harmonized with his great intellect and his position.
Wolf had already told her how much the monarch regarded the opinion of
this counsellor.

The fourth person whose good will had been represented to her as valuable
was the almoner, Pedro de Soto; but he, who usually understood how to pay
homage to beautiful women in the most delicate manner, kept rigidly
aloof.

True, he had placed no obstacle in the way of the late kindling of the
heart of his imperial master, but since his servant's report, from which
it appeared that Barbara was on friendly terms with heretics, and
therefore cherished but a lukewarm devotion to her own faith, she was no
longer the same to him. In Spain this would have been enough to deliver
her to the Holy Inquisition. Here, however, matters were different.
Everywhere he saw the lambs associating with the wolves, and the larger
number of the relatives of the Emperor's love had become converts to
heresy. Therefore indulgence was demanded, and De Soto would have gladly
been convinced of Barbara's orthodoxy under such difficult circumstances.
But if it proved that the girl not only associated with heretics, but
inclined to their error, then gentle inaction must be transformed into
inexorable sternness, even though the rejuvenating power which she
exerted upon the monarch were tenfold stronger than it doubtless was; for
what danger might threaten the Emperor and Christianity from the
bewitching woman who seemed to love Charles, if she undertook to
influence him in favour of the new doctrines, which, in the eyes of every
earnest Dominican, the Emperor treated far too leniently!

He, the confessor, even knew that Charles considered several demands of
the Protestants to which the Church could never consent, entirely
justifiable--nay, that he deemed a reformation of the Church by the
council now in session at Trent extremely desirable.

Therefore it was a duty to withhold from him every influence which could
favour these perniciou