on Philip, will return in three weeks to
Valladolid. The child can be carried in his train. It will disappear
among the throng, for an actual army forms the tail of the comet. I will
hear your proposal to-morrow. Who is to take charge of him on the way?
Where can a suitable shelter for the boy be found in Spain?"

This announcement fell upon the valet like a thunderbolt, for little
John, who regarded him and his wife as his parents, had become as dear to
the childless couple as if he was their own. To part from the beautiful,
frank, merry boy would darken Frau Traut's whole life. He, Adrian, had
warned her, but she had been unable to resist the entreaties of the
sorely punished mother. Cautiously as Barbara's visits had been managed,
the infirm monarch's eye had maintained its keenness of vision here also.

Now his wife must pay dearly for her weakness and disobedience. Frau
Traut was threatened, too, with another loss. Massi, the most intimate
friend of their house, also expected to return to Spain in the Infant
Philip's train, to spend the remainder of his days there in peace.
Permission to depart had been granted to him a few hours before.

Little John was fond of this frequent visitor of his foster-parents, who
could whistle so beautifully and knew how to play for him upon a blade of
grass or a comb; but this was not the only reason which made Adrian think
of giving the Emperor's son to the musician's care for the journey to
Spain, where Massi's wife and daughter were awaiting his return at
Leganes, near Madrid. In this healthfully located village lived a pastor
and a sacristan of whom the musician had spoken, and who perhaps later
might take charge of the child's education.

Adrian informed Don Luis and then the monarch of all this, and as Quijada
knew Massi to be a trustworthy man, and described him to his royal
master, Charles entered into negotiations with him.

The result was that a formal compact was concluded between Dubois and the
musician, which granted the violinist considerable emoluments, but bound
him and his family by oath to maintain the most absolute secrecy
concerning the child's origin. Moreover, Massi himself knew nothing about
the boy's parents except that they belonged to the most aristocratic
circles, and he was inclined to believe little John to be Quijada's son.

The sovereign himself examined the agreement, and at its close made Frau
Traut take a special oath to preserve the most absolut