e tarry here and tend her, my gracious Sovereign," implored
Catherine, again clasping Isabella's robe and looking beseechingly in
her face--but from a very different feeling to the prompter of the
same action a few minutes before--"Oh, madam, do not send me from her!
I will be so gentle, so active--watch, tend, serve; only say your
Grace's bidding, and I will do it, if I stood by her alone!"

"My bidding would be but the promptings of thine own heart, my girl,"
replied the Queen, fondly, for she saw the desired impression had been
made. "If I need thee--which I may do--I will call upon thee; but
now, thou canst do nothing, but think kindly, and judge
mercifully--important work indeed, if thou wouldst serve an erring and
unhappy fellow-creature, with heart as well as hand. But now go: nay,
not so sorrowfully; thy momentary fault is forgiven," she added,
kindly, as she extended her hand towards the evidently pained and
penitent maiden, who raised it gratefully and reverentially to her
lips, and thoughtfully withdrew.

It was not, however, with her attendants only, this generous and
high-minded princess had to contend--with them her example was enough;
but the task was much more difficult, when the following day, as King
Ferdinand had anticipated, brought the stern Sub-Prior of St. Francis
to demand, in the church's name, the immediate surrender of Marie. But
Isabella's decision once formed never wavered. Marie was under her
protection, she said--an erring indeed, but an unhappy young creature,
who, by her very confession, had thrown herself on the mercy of her
Sovereign--and she would not deliver up the charge. In vain the Prior
urged the abomination of a Jewess residing under her very roof--the
danger to her soul should she be tempted to associate with her, and
that granting protection to an avowed and blaspheming unbeliever must
expose her to the suspicions, or, at least the censure of the church.
Isabella was inexorable. To his first and second clause she quietly
answered as she had done to her own attendants; his third only
produced a calm and fearless smile. She knew too well, as did the
Prior also, though for the time he chose to forget it, that her
character for munificent and heartfelt piety was too well established,
not only in Spain but throughout Europe, to be shaken even by the
protection of a Jewess. Father Francis then solicited to see her; but
even this point he could not gain. Isabella had, alas! no need