ared to him this thoroughly sound, beautiful creature
overmastered by a first great passion. He believed her, and indignantly
rejected what the spies afterward brought to him.

Yet he did not close his ears to the marquise when, in her clever,
entertaining way, she told him what, against her will, she had overheard
in consequence of the careless construction of the little castle, built
only for a summer residence, or had seen during a walk in the garden when
the shutters, through forgetfulness, had not been closed.

How should he not have heard gladly that the monarch, at every interview
with Barbara, listened to her singing with special pleasure?

At first she chose grave, usually even religious songs, and among them
Charles's favourite was the "Quia amore langueo."

To listen to these deeply felt tones of yearning always seemed to possess
a fresh charm for him.

No wonder!

The singer understood how to produce a new effect each time by means of
wonderful gradations of expression in the comprehension and execution.

Once she had also succeeded in cheering her lover with Perissone Cambio's
merry singing lesson on the 'ut re mi fa sol', and again with Willaert's
laughing song, "Sempre mi ridesta."

Two days later there had again been a great deal of laughing because
Barbara undertook to sing to his Majesty another almost recklessly merry
song by the same composer. The marquise knew it, and declared that
Barbara's style and voice did not suit such things. She admitted that her
execution of serious, especially religious and solemn compositions, was
not amiss--nay, often it was wonderfully fine--but in such secular tunes
her real nature appeared too plainly, and the skilful singer became a
Bacchante.

It had been a sorry pleasure to her to watch the boisterous manner and
singing of this creature, who had been far too highly favoured by the
caprice of Fortune.

These reckless songs, unless she was mistaken, had also been by no means
pleasing to his Majesty. The light had fallen directly upon his face just
as she happened to glance up at the house from under the group of
lindens, and she had distinctly seen him angrily thrust out his lower
lip, which every one near his person knew was a sign of extreme
displeasure.

But the girl had gone beyond all bounds. Old as she was, she could not
help blushing at the mere thought of it. In her reckless mood she had
probably forgotten that she had drawn her imperial lover in