ur notions are rather those of Mahound or
Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to hear you thus
bitter against his Dulcinea?"

"_His_ Dulcinea!"--ejaculated the aide-de-camp with a air of disgust.
"God grant it! For a princess of Valois blood, reared under the
teaching of a Medici, had at least the recommendations of nobility
and orthodoxy in her favour."

"As was the case when Anna di Mendoca effected the conquest over his
boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal brother!--But
after such proof of the hereditary aspirings of Don John, it would be
difficult to persuade me of his highness's derogation."

"Would _I_ could say as much!"--exclaimed Nignio, with a groan. "But
such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might convince the
scepticism of St Thomas!"

"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections of the
prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would you have me
infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a dairy wench?"--

"Of _worse_! of a daughter of the Amalekites!"--cried
Nignio--stretching out his widely booted legs, as though it were a
relief to him to have disburthened himself of his mystery.

"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
Italian,--no further versed in Scripture history than was the
pleasure of his almoner.

"You are his highness's _friend_, Gonzaga!" resumed the Spanish
captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his heart! I have
therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a matter, wherein, from
the first, I determined to seek your counteraction. Though seemingly
but a straw thrown up into the air, I infer from it a most evil
predilection on the part of Don John;--fatal to himself, to us, his
friends, and to the country he represents in Belgium."

"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion, delighted to
come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere matter of a pair
of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"

"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the aide-de-camp--

"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as for
the opening of a fairy legend--'On a time their lived a king and
queen'--"

"Will _you_ tell the story, then, or shall I?"--cried Nignio,
impatient of his interruption.

"_Yourself_, my pearl of squires! granting me in the first place your
pardon for my ill manners."--

"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the best
diversi