on for the
monastery. He longs to see him again, because he is said to be developing
magnificently; but he wished to know whether it would not be safer to
remove him from the world before his arrival, for, if necessary, he could
give up meeting him. If he should discover his father's identity, it
might easily fill him with vanity, and in Villagarcia he was learning to
prize knightly achievements above the service of the Most High. It would
not do to leave him in the world; unpleasant things might come from it.
As King Philip's sole heir was the sickly Don Carlos----"

"His son Geronimo might aspire to the crown," interrupted Granvelle. "He
expressed the same doubts to me also. What I heard of the child induced
me to plead that he might be allowed to grow up in the world
untrammelled. If any one understands how to defend himself against
unauthorized demands, it is Don Philip."

"So I, too, think, and advised," replied Viglius. "Poor boy! His father
of late holds on to thalers more than anxiously and, if I am correctly
informed, the education of his son has hitherto cost his Majesty no more
expense than the maintenance of the mother. Wise economy, your Eminence!
Or what shall it be called?"

"As you choose," replied the bishop in an irritated tone. "What do you
know about the boy's mother?"

"Nothing," replied the Frieslander, "except what my friend Mathys told me
lately. He said that before she lost her voice she was a perfect
nightingale. She might recover it at Ems, and so the leech proposed to
the Emperor to give her a sum of money for this purpose."

"And his Majesty?" asked Granvelle.

"Remained faithful to his habit of not sullying his reputation by
extravagance," replied the Frieslander, laughing.

"Suffering, misfortune!" sighed Granvelle. "As a long period of rain
produces fungi in the woods, so this terrible pair calls to life one
pettiness after another in the rare man in whom once every trait of
character was great and glorious. I knew the boy's mother. Many things
might be said of her, among them good, nay, the best ones. As to the boy,
his Majesty informed Don Philip of his existence. It was in Augsburg. He
does not seem at all suited for the monastic life, and therefore I shall
continue to strive to preserve him from it."

"And if his Majesty decides otherwise?"

"Then, of course--" answered Granvelle, shrugging his shoulders. "But the
draught must be composed, and there are more important matter