ner of talk showing respect? Thank Heaven that I was born in
England! Sir, when an English gentleman carries himself toward a young
maiden as you have done, he either designs to win her in honourable
wedlock, or he is a villain. Which are you?"

"If we were in Spain, Senor," answered Don Juan, fire flashing from his
dark eyes, "you would answer those words with your sword. But since I
am your prisoner, and have no such remedy, I must be content with a
reply in speech. The customs of your land are different from ours. I
will even condescend to say that I am, and for divers years have so
been, affianced to a lady of mine own country. Towards the _senoritas_
your daughters, I have shown but common courtesy, as it is understood in
Spain."

In saying which, Don Juan stated what was delicately termed by Swift's
Houynhnms, "the thing which is not." Of what consequence was it in his
eyes, when the Council of Constance had definitively decreed that "no
faith was to be kept with heretics"?

Sir Thomas Enville was less given to the use of profane language than
most gentlemen of his day, but in answer to this speech he swore
roundly, and--though a staunch Protestant--thanked all the saints and
angels that he never was in Spain, and, the Queen's Highness' commands
excepted, never would be. As to his daughters, he would prefer turning
them all into Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace to allowing one of them to
set foot on the soil of that highly objectionable country. These
sentiments were couched in the most peppery language of which the
Squire's lips were well capable; and having thus delivered himself, he
turned on his heel and left Don Juan to his own meditations.

That _caballero_ speedily discovered that he had addressed his last
compliment to any of the young ladies at Enville Court. Henceforward he
only saw them at meals, and then he found himself, much to his
discomfiture, placed between Jack and Mistress Rachel. To pay delicate
attentions to the latter was sheer waste of frankincense: yet it was so
much in his nature, when speaking to a woman, that he began to tell her
that she talked like an angel. Mistress Rachel looked him full in the
face.

"Don John," said she, in the most unmoved manner, "if I believed you
true, I should call on my brother to put you forth of the hall. As I
believe you false, I do it not."

After that day, Don Juan directed all his conversation to Jack.

He was not very sorry to leave