igner? And marvel merged into the most tormenting curiosity, when,
on the bridal day of the Prince of Wales, though he still adhered to
the immediate train of the Princess, he appeared in the rich and full
costume of an English Peer. The impatience of several young gallants
could hardly by restrained even during the ceremony; at the conclusion
of which they tumultuously surrounded Lord Scales, declaring they
would not let him go, till he had told them who and what was this
mysterious friend: Lord Scales had headed a gallant band of English
knights in the Moorish war, and was therefore supposed to know every
thing concerning Spain, and certainly of this Anglo-Spaniard, as ever
since his arrival in England they had constantly been seen together.
He smiled good-humoredly at their importunity, and replied--

"I am afraid my friend's history has nothing very marvellous or
mysterious in it. His family were all staunch Lancastrians, and
perished either on the field or scaffold; he escaped almost
miraculously, and after a brief interval of restless wandering, went
to Spain and was treated with such consideration and kindness by
Ferdinand and Isabella, that he has lived there ever since, honored
and treated in all things as a child of the soil. On my arrival, I was
struck by his extraordinary courage and rash disregard of danger, and
gladly hailed in him a countryman. I learned afterwards that this
reckless bravery had been incited by a wish for death, and that events
had occurred in his previous life, which would supply matter for many
a minstrel tale."

"Let us hear it, let us hear it!" interrupted many eager voices, but
Lord Seales laughingly shook his head.

"Excuse me, my young friends: at present I have neither time nor
inclination for a long story. Enough that he loved, and loved
unhappily; not from its being unreturned, but from a concatenation of
circumstances and sorrows which may not be detailed."

"But he is married; and he is as devoted to Donna Catherine as she is
to him. I heard they were proverbial for their mutual affection and
domestic happiness. How could he so have loved before?" demanded,
somewhat skeptically, a very young man.

"My good friend, when you get a little older, you will cease to marvel
at such things, or imagine, because a man has been very wretched, he
is to be for ever. My friend once felt as you do (Lord Seales changed
his tone to one of impressive seriousness); but he was wise enough
t