hear me--shall she be wounded or injured for my sake so long as she
reminds me only by her eyes that in happier days we were closely
connected. But to-day the ghost ventured to draw nearer to me than is
seemly, and I recognise the object. It entered the park, not on my
account, but the boy's--and, Adrian, from your house. I demand the whole
truth! Did she find the way to the boy, and was your wife, who is usually
a prudent woman, unwise enough to allow her to feast her eyes upon him?"

"She is the child's mother," the valet answered gently, "and your Majesty
knows--"

"I know," Charles interrupted the faithful attendant in a sterner tone
than he commonly used to him, "that you were most positively forbidden to
permit any one to approach the boy, least of all the person who gazes at
him with greedy eyes, and from whom might proceed measureless perils.
Your wife, Adrian, who is tenderly attached to the child, will now suffer
the most painfully for the disobedience. It must go away from here, go at
once, and to a distant country--to Spain. If politics and Heaven permit,
I shall soon follow.--You, Luis, will now arrange with Adrian the best
plan for the removal. The work must be accomplished in the utmost
secrecy. The boy shall grow up in the wholesome air of the country. No
one who surrounds him must be permitted even to suspect to whom he owes
his life. This child shall be simple in his habits, devout, and modest,
far from flattery and spoiling, among other lads of plain families, who
know nothing of heresy and court follies. This innocent child's soul, at
least, shall not be corrupted at its root. I consecrated him to the
Saviour, and as a pure sacrifice he must receive him from his father's
hand. I have given him a beautiful charge. In the monastery his prayers
will remove the guilt of him who gave him life. The pardon for which the
mother refused to strive, the son, consecrated to Jesus Christ our Lord,
will struggle to obtain."

With uplifted gaze he interrupted himself. His eyes flashed with a fiery
light, and his voice gained an imperious tone, which showed no trace of
the asthmatic trouble that had just affected it as he added: "But the
secret which even the reckless mother has hitherto known how to guard
must be kept. Not even your wife, Luis, not even our sister, Queen Mary,
must learn what is being accomplished."

Then he added more quietly: "The opportunity to take the boy to Spain is
favourable. Our son, D