m both loved so tenderly first drew
them together. Barbara had witnessed with very different feelings from
Dona Magdalena and her brother how the former regarded every false step
of Don John, and especially that of his expedition to England, as a heavy
misfortune, and as such bewailed it. Dona Magdalena had been firmly
convinced that the spell of fame which surrounded the victor of Lepanto,
and the irresistible lovableness characteristic of his whole nature,
would finally win the hearts of the Netherlanders, and even induce the
Prince of Orange, whose friendship Don John himself hoped to gain, to
join hands with him in the attempt to work for the welfare of his
country.

Barbara knew that this expectation deceived him.

Toleration and liberty were the blessings which the Prince of Orange
desired to win for his people, and both were hateful to her son, reared
at the Spanish court, as she herself saw in them an encroachment upon the
just demands of the Church and the claims of royalty. Fire and water
could harmonize more easily than these two men, and Barbara foresaw which
of them in this conflict would be the extinguishing flood.

She perceived how waterfall after waterfall was quenching the flames
which burned in Don John's honest soul for the supposed welfare of the
nation intrusted to him. He was reaping hatred, scorn, and humiliation
wherever he had hoped to win love and gratitude in the Netherlands. His
royal brother left him in the lurch where he was entitled to depend upon
his assistance. But when Philip let the mask fall and showed openly how
deeply he distrusted the glorious son of his dead father, and to what a
degree his ill will had risen--when he committed the cruel crime of
having Escovedo, the devoted, loyal friend and counsellor of the victor
of Lepanto, assassinated in Madrid, where he had come to labour in his
master's cause--the most ambitious and sensitive of hearts received the
deathblow which was to put an end to his famous career and his young
life.

Scarcely two years after Barbara's meeting with Don John, the Emperor
Charles's hero son died. Even in the Netherlands he had remained to the
last victor on the battlefield. Alessandro Farnese, his dearest friend,
his companion in youth, in study, and in war, had valiantly supported him
with his good sword; but his faithful friendship had been unable to heal
the sufferings which wore out Don John's strong body and brave soul when,
to the severest p