join
the wild pranks, in which they sometimes indulged, but spite of
persuasions and entreaties, always in vain.

Ulrich needed no comrades, and his zechins were sacred to him; he was
keeping them for Italy.

The others soon thought him an odd, arrogant fellow, with whom no
friendly ties could be formed, and left him to his own resources. He
wandered about the streets at night alone, serenaded fair ladies, and
compelled many gentlemen, who offended him, to meet him in single combat.

No one, not even Sanchez Coello, was permitted to know of these nocturnal
adventures; they were his chief pleasure, stirred his blood, and gave him
the blissful consciousness of superior strength.

This mode of life increased his self-confidence, and expressed itself in
his bearing, which gained a touch of the Spanish air. He was now fully
grown, and when he entered his twentieth year, was taller than most
Castilians, and carried his head as high as a grandee.

Yet he was dissatisfied with himself, for he made slow progress in his
art, and cherished the firm conviction that there was nothing more for
him to learn in Madrid; Coello's commissions were robbing him of the most
precious time.

The work in the riding-school was at last approaching completion. It had
occupied far more than the year in which it was to have been finished,
and His Majesty's impatience had become so great, that Coello was
compelled to leave everything else, to paint only there, and put his
improving touches to Ulrich's labor.

The time for departure was drawing near. The hanging-scaffold, on which
he had lain for months, working on the master's pictures, had been
removed, but there was still something to be done to the walls.

Suddenly the court-artist was ordered to suspend the work, and have the
beams, ladders and boards, which narrowed the space in the
picadero,--[Riding School]--removed.

The large enclosure was wanted during the next few days for a special
purpose, and there were new things for Coello to do.

Don Juan of Austria, the king's chivalrous half-brother, had commenced
his heroic career, and vanquished the rebellious Moors in Granada. A
magnificent reception was to be prepared for the young conqueror, and
Coello received the commission to adorn a triumphal arch with
hastily-sketched, effective pictures.

The designs were speedily completed, and the triumphal arch erected in a
court-yard of the Alcazar, for here, within the narrow circle of