him and show him favour, and this
she feared would only strengthen his evil purpose. However, as he was
a long way off, she kept her own counsel, and wrote to him whenever the
Countess commanded her. Still her letters were such that he could see
they were written more out of obedience than goodwill; and the grief
he felt in reading them was as great as his joy had been in reading the
earlier ones.

At the end of two or three years, when he had performed so many noble
deeds that all the paper in Spain could not contain the records of them,
(19) he conceived a very skilful device, not indeed to win Florida's
heart, which he looked upon as lost, but to gain the victory over his
enemy, since such she had shown herself to be. He put aside all the
promptings of reason and even the fear of death, and at the risk of
his life resolved to act in the following way. He persuaded the chief
Governor (20) to send him on an embassy to the King concerning some
secret attempt against Leucate; (21) and he procured a command to
take counsel with the Countess of Aranda about the matter before
communicating it to the King.

19 Margaret, perhaps, wrote "All the paper of Spain could
not contain them," simply because Spanish paper was then of
very small size. Paper-making had, however, been almost
monopolised by Spain until the end of the thirteenth
century, the cotton used in the manufacture being imported
from the East.--M.

20 The Viceroy of Catalonia.--D.

21 Leucate, now a village, but said to have been a
flourishing town in the fourteenth century, lies near the
Mediterranean, at a few miles from Salces, and gives its
name to a large salt-water lake. Formerly fortified, it was
repeatedly besieged and burnt by the Spaniards; notably by
the Duke of Alba in 1503, after he had relieved Salces.--Ed.

Then he came post haste to the county of Aranda, where he knew Florida
to be, and secretly sent a friend to inform the Countess of his coming,
praying her to keep it secret, and to grant him audience at nightfall
without the knowledge of any one.

The Countess, who was very pleased at his coming, spoke of it to
Florida, and sent her to undress in her husband's room, that she might
be ready when sent for after every one was gone to bed. Florida had not
yet recovered from her first alarm, but she said nothing of it to her
mother, and withdrew to an oratory in order to commen