s she
read half aloud: "It is the greatest commercial city in Europe, the
fosterer of art, knowledge, manufactures, and the Catholic faith, which
never wavered in obedience to the King, hurled in a single day from the
height of honour and happiness to a gulf of misery, and become a den of
robbers and murderers, who know nothing of God and the King. Old men,
women, and children have been slaughtered by them without distinction,
the goods belonging partly to foreign owners have been stolen and burned,
and the magnificent Town Hall, with all its treasures of documents and
patents, has become a prey of the flames."

"Horrible! horrible!" cried Barbara, and Don John repeated her words, and
added in a hollow tone: "And this happened yesterday, on the selfsame
Sunday which saw me ride into the Netherlands! These are the bonfires
which redden the heavens on my arrival!"

"William of Orange will call them incendiary flames crying aloud for
vengeance," fell in half-stifled accents from Barbara's lips.

"And this time with some reason," replied Don John in a tone of assent,
"for the men who kindled them are mercenaries of the King, formerly our
own troops, who have been driven to desperation." Then he continued
passionately: "And Philip sends me--me, a man of the sword--to these
provinces. What is the warrior to do here? This blade is too good to deal
the death-blow to the body which is already bleeding from a thousand
wounds. If, nevertheless, I did it, I should destroy the most productive
fountain of the King's wealth. It is not a man who can fight and command
an army and a navy that is needed here, but a woman who understands how
to mediate and to heal. The King sent me to this country not to gather
fresh laurels, but to be shipwrecked, and with bleeding brow return
defeated. Oh, I see through him! But I also know--Heaven be
praised!--what I owe to myself, my father's son. If the States-General
permit me to take the troops away by sea, I will gain the woman and the
crown that are beckoning to me in another country, and his Majesty may
send a more pliant regent of either sex to the provinces to continue the
battle with William of Orange, who fights with weapons which my
straightforward nature and firm sword ill understand how to meet. This
sheet places the decision before me. Real, genuine glory, the fairest of
wives, and a proud crown--or defeat and ruin."

The close of this outpouring of the young hero's heart sounded like