in charts and plans as usual and,
while imagining how life could be endured without the woman he loved, he
pushed the papers aside.

In days like these, when the old ache again attacked him, Barbara and her
singing had brightened the dreary gloom and lessened the pain, or she had
caressed and sung it entirely away. He seemed to himself like a surly
patient who throws aside the helpful medicine because it once tasted
badly to him and was an annoyance to others. Yet no. It contained poison
also, so it was wise to put it away. But had not Dr. Mathys told him
yesterday that the strongest remedial power was concealed in poisons, and
that they were the most effective medicines? Ought he not to examine once
more the reasons which had led him to this last resolution? He bowed his
head with an irresolution foreign to his nature, and when his greyhound
touched his aching foot he pushed the animal angrily away.

The confessor De Soto found him in this mood at his first visit.

Ere he crossed the threshold he saw that Charles was suffering and felt
troubled by some important matter, and soon learned what he desired to
know. But if Charles expected the Dominican to greet his decision with
grateful joy, he was mistaken, for De Soto had long since relinquished
the suspicion which had prejudiced him against Barbara and, on the
contrary, with the Bishop of Arras, had reached the certainty that the
love which united the monarch to the singer would benefit him.

Both knew the danger which threatened the sovereign from his tendency to
melancholy, and now that he saw his efforts to urge the Emperor to a war
with the Smalcalds crowned with success, he wished to keep alive in him
the joyousness which Barbara, and she alone, had aroused and maintained.

So he used the convincing eloquence characteristic of him to shake the
monarch's resolve, and lead him back to the woman he loved.

The Church made no objection to this bond of free love formed by a
sovereign whom grave political considerations withheld from a second
marriage. If his Majesty's affection diminished the success of his work,
the separation from so dear a being, who afforded him so much pleasure,
would do this to a far greater degree. That Barbara had allowed the bold
Saxon too much liberty on the dancing ground he did not deny, but took
advantage of the opportunity to point out the unscrupulousness which
characterized Maurice, like all heretics. As for Barbara, the warm blood