t
I have to say to you is that I hope you may not live to repent having
used such compulsion with a woman and a Queen."

Again Rollo bowed very low, and was about to speak when the Queen
interrupted.

"And as for this hussy," she cried, turning upon Concha, "if I had my
way she should be indicted for witchcraft and burnt alive at the stake
as in the good times of the Holy Office. Yet you, Fernando, for whom I
daily risk my life, you defended her--yes, defended her to my very
face!"

"Beloved and most honoured," said the Duke, soothingly, "I did but
suggest that it would be better to convert the girl--to make a good
Christian of her----"

"Yes--yes," cried the Queen, stamping her foot, "but did you not add
that in that case you would like to be her Father-Confessor?"

"Certainly I did not, most gracious one," answered her husband,
soothingly, "you wholly mistook my meaning. All that I said was
no more than that many might be anxious to obtain the office of
Father-Confessor, being, as it were, eager to take the credit for the
restoration of so notable a penitent."

But Rollo had small patience with the bickerings of royal lovers at such
a time.

"I must crave your Majesty's strict and instant attention," he said,
suddenly dropping all ceremony. "I will only detain you for a moment if,
as I anticipate, I receive your consent to what I have the honour of
proposing to you."

At once the easily jealous woman froze into a Queen and fronted the
young man with a haughty stare.

"Your Majesty," he began, "I do not dwell upon our services of the past
night. They are known to you. Had it not been for my friends it is
probable that no one of your party would at this moment have been left
alive. Now the day is passing and you are no safer than you were last
night. It is necessary, therefore, that you put yourselves unreservedly
under the escort and protection of myself and my friends. We must leave
La Granja at once."

"Never!" cried Maria Cristina, fiercely. "Am I, the Queen-Regent of
Spain, to be thus badgered and commandeered? I have never suffered it
since I left my father's house in Naples. A boy and a foreigner shall
not be the first. My royal guards will assuredly be here in an hour at
the latest. The roads will be cleared, and as for you, you shall be safe
in prison cells, where, for your insolences, you ought to be lying at
this moment."

"Then," said Rollo, gravely, "I deeply regret that I am obliged to use