“Worth it?  My God!  What are you not worth?”

There was such a ring of agony and struggling in his voice that Dolores forgot herself and stood up listening, suddenly filled with anxiety for him again.  He was surely going mad.  She would have gone to him again, forgetting her terror that was barely past, the woman’s instinct to help the suffering man overruling everything else.  It was for his sake that she stayed where she was, lest if she touched him he should lose his senses altogether.

“Oh, there is one place, where I am master and lord!” he was saying.  “There is one thing to do—­one thing—­”

“What is the thing?” she asked very gently.  “Why are you suffering so?  Where is the place?”

He turned suddenly, as he would have turned in his saddle in battle at a trumpet call, straight and strong, with fixed eyes and set lips, that spoke deliberately.

“There is Granada,” he said.  “Do you understand now?”

“No,” she answered timidly.  “I do not understand.  Granada?  Why there?  It is so far away—­”

He laughed harshly.

“You do not understand?  Yes, Granada is far away—­far enough to be another kingdom—­so far that John of Austria is master there—­so far that with his army at his back he can be not only its master, but its King?  Do you understand now?  Do you see what I will do for your sake?”

He made one step towards her, and she was very white.

“I will take you, and go back to-morrow.  Do you think the Moors are not men, because I beat them?  I tell you that if I set up my standard in Granada and call them to me, they will follow me—­if I lead them to the gate of Madrid.  Yes—­and so will more than half the Spanish army, if I will!  But I do not want that—­it is not the kingdom—­what should I care for that?  Could I not have taken it and held it?  It is for you, dear love—­for your sake only—­that we may have a world of our own—­a kingdom in which you are queen!  Let there be war—­why should I care?  I will set the world ablaze and let it burn to its own ashes, but I will not let them take you from me, neither now, nor ever, while I am alive!”

He came quickly towards her now, and she could not draw back, for the wall was behind her.  But she thrust out her hands against him to keep him off.  The gesture stopped him, just when he would have taken her in his arms.

“No, no!” she cried vehemently.  “You must not say such things, you must not think such thoughts!  You are beside yourself, and you will drive me mad, too!”

“But it will be so easy—­you shall see—­”

She cut his words short.

“It must not be easy, it must not be possible, it must not be at all!  Do you believe that I love you and that I would let you do such deeds?  Oh, no!  That would not be love at all—­it would be hate, it would be treason to you, and worse treason than yours against your brother!”

The fierce light was sinking from his face.  He had folded his arms and stood very still, listening to her.