f Saxony had treated his imperial father? Would the resentment
which, since the day before, had again filled her soul have permitted her
to prevent it had she possessed the power?

The Emperor's speech had treated of his broken health and the necessity
of living in a milder climate. Then Don Philip had been described by his
father as a successor whose wisdom equalled his experience. This called a
smile to Barbara's lips.

Philip was said to be an industrious, devout man, fond of letter-writing,
and full of intrigue, but only his father would venture to compare him
with himself, with Charles V.

He, the son, probably knew how vacant and lustreless his eyes were, for
he usually fixed them on the ground; and what fulness of life, what a
fiery soul had sparkled only a short time ago, when she saw him in the
distance, from those of the man whom she certainly was not disposed to
flatter!

Then the Emperor had reviewed his whole reign, mentioned how many wars he
had waged, how many victories he had won and, finally, had reminded his
son of the gratitude he owed a father who during his lifetime bestowed
all his possessions upon him and, as it were, descended into the grave in
order to make him earlier the heir of all his power and wealth.

Now Barbara fancied that again--she knew not for what hundredth time--the
Frieslander's exclamation, "Debts! debts!" rang in her ears, and at the
same time she thought of the boy in Spain who had here been disinherited,
and must be hidden in a monastery that the other son of the same father,
the diminutive upstart Philip, puffed up with arrogance, might sleep more
quietly. For one son the unjust man whom she loved was ready to die
before his last hour came, in order to give him all that he possessed;
for the other he could find nothing save a monk's cowl. Instead of the
yearning for John, of which Wolf had spoken and she, blind fool,
believed, he thought of him with petty fears of the claims by which he
might injure his favoured brother. No warm impulse of paternal tenderness
stirred the breast of the man whose heart was hardened, who understood
how to divest himself of the warmest love as he now cast aside the crown
and the purple of royalty.

These torturing thoughts so powerfully affected Barbara that she only
half heard what Hannibal was saying about the Emperor's admonition to his
son to hold fast to justice, law, and the Catholic Church. But when
Granvelle's faithful follower, in