were equally favorable to both galleys; but the
Venetians outstripped the Spaniards and dropped anchor at Alicante
twenty-four hours before the latter.

It was the rider's task, to make up for the time lost by the sailors.
The messenger of the Republic was far in advance of the general's.
Everywhere that Ulrich changed horses, displaying at short intervals
the prophet's banner, which he was to deliver to the king as the fairest
trophy of victory--it was inscribed with Allah's name twenty-eight
thousand nine hundred times--he met rejoicing throngs, processions, and
festal decorations.

Don Juan's name echoed from the lips of men and women, girls and
children. This was fame, this was the omnipresence of a god; there could
be no higher aspiration for him, who had obtained such honor.

Fame, fame! again echoed in Ulrich's soul; if there is a word, which
raises a man above himself and implants his own being in that of
millions of fellow-creatures, it is this.

And now he urged one steed after another until it broke down, giving
himself no rest even at night; half an hour's ride outside of Madrid he
overtook the Venetian, and passed by him with a courteous greeting.

The king was not in the capital, and he went on without delay to the
Escurial.

Covered with dust, splashed from head to foot with mud, bruised,
tortured as if on the rack, he clung to the saddle, yet never ceased to
use whip and spur, and would trust his message to no other horseman.

Now the barren peaks of the Guadarrama mountains lay close before him,
now he reached the first workshops, where iron was being forged for the
gigantic palace in process of building. How many chimneys smoked, how
many hands were toiling for this edifice, which was to comprise a royal
residence, a temple, a peerless library, a museum and a tomb.

Numerous carts and sledges, on which blocks of light grey granite had
been drawn hither, barred his way. He rode around them at the peril of
falling with his horse over a precipice, and now found himself before
a labyrinth of scaffolds and free-stone, in the midst of a wild, grey,
treeless mountain valley. What kind of a man was this, who had chosen
this desert for his home, in life as well as in death! The Escurial
suited King Philip, as King Philip suited the Escurial. Here he felt
most at ease, from here the royal spider ceaselessly entangled the world
in his skilful nets.

His majesty was attending vespers in the scarcely comp