ies
which followed one another, and again went to Ems.

When she returned, much benefited, her first visit was to the Dubois
house in the park. Unfortunately, it was futile; but when, a few weeks
before the battle of Gravelines, she repeated it for the second time, she
met the couple, now advancing in years, out of doors, and saw that some
good fortune had come to them.

Usually she had always been received here with a certain shade of
embarrassment, but to-day her coming seemed to please Herr Adrian. From
the great arm-chair, which he now never left, he held out his hand to
her, and Frau Traut's merry eyes looked a glad welcome.

After the first greetings, they eagerly expressed their joyful amazement
at the clear tones of her voice. Then Frau Dubois exchanged a significant
glance with her husband, and now Barbara learned that a letter had
arrived from San Yuste that very morning, which contained little except
pleasant news of his Majesty and John.

While speaking, Adrian drew from his doublet the precious missive, showed
it to the young wife as cautiously as a fragile ornament which we are
reluctant to let pass out of our hands, and said in an agitated voice:

"The writer is no less a personage than Dona Magdalena de Ulloa. May
Heaven reward her for it!"

Barbara gazed beseechingly into his wrinkled face, and from the inmost
depths of her heart rose the cry: "Oh, let me see it, for I--you know
it--I am his mother!"

"So she is," said the old man in a tone of assent, nodded his long head,
whose hair was now snow-white, and glanced questioningly at his wife. The
answer was an assent.

Adrian clasped his chin--during the period of his service he had always
worn it smooth-shaven, but the white stubble of a full beard was now
growing on it--in his emaciated hand, and asked Barbara if she understood
Spanish.

Her knowledge of it was very slight; but Frau Traut, who, like her
husband, had mastered it during the long years of intercourse with the
Castilian court, now undertook to put the contents of the letter into
German.

This was not difficult, for she had already been obliged to read it aloud
three times to Adrian, who could no longer decipher written characters.

The address was not omitted; it had pleased them both. It ran as follows:

"To his Majesty's good and faithful servant, Adrian Dubois, from his
affectionate friend of former days, Dona Magdalena de Ulloa, wife of Don
Luis Mendez Quijada, Lady of V