The queen would not allow Richard to kneel before her, but made him rise and be seated on a chair which was placed for him alone, an unusual favour, which provoked many envious comments.  “It is not on a chair he sits,” said one, “but on the pepper he has brought.”  “It is a true saying,” remarked another, “that gifts can soften rocks, since they have mollified the hard heart of our queen.”  “He sits at his ease,” said a third, “but there are those who will make bold to push him from his seat.”  In fact, that new mark of honour which the queen bestowed on Richard gave occasion to many to regard him with envy and malice; for there is no favour which the sovereign bestows on a subject but pierces the heart of the envious like a lance.  In obedience to the queen’s command, Richard narrated more minutely the details of his conflict with the corsairs, attributing the victory to God, and to the arms of her valiant soldiers.  He extolled them all collectively, and made special mention of some who had particularly distinguished themselves, in order that the queen might reward them all and singly.  When he came to speak of his having, in her majesty’s name, set the Turks and Christians at liberty, he said, pointing to Isabella’s parents, “These are the persons of whom I spoke yesterday to your majesty, who, desiring to behold your greatness, earnestly besought me to bring them away with me.  They are from Cadiz, and from what they have told me, and from what I have myself observed, I am assured that they are persons of worth and quality.”

The queen commanded them to approach her.  Isabella raised her eyes to look at persons who she heard were Spaniards, and, above all, from Cadiz, longing to know if perchance they were acquainted with her parents.  Her mother first encountered her gaze, and as she looked attentively at her, there rose on her mind some shadowy confused reminiscences that seemed to intimate she had seen that face before.  Her father was in the same wavering state of mind, not daring to believe the evidence of his eyes, whilst Richard watched intently the workings of their perplexed and dubious souls.  The queen too noticed the emotion of the two strangers, and also Isabella’s uneasiness, for she saw her often raise her hand to her forehead, which was bedewed with perspiration.  Whilst Isabella was longing that the person she imagined to be her mother would speak, thinking that the sound of her voice would resolve her doubts, the queen commanded her to ask the strangers in Spanish what had induced them voluntarily to forego the freedom which Richard had offered them, since freedom was the thing most prized, not only by reasonable creatures, but even by irrational animals.  Isabella put this question to her mother, who, without answering a word, rushed abruptly and almost totteringly to Isabella, and forgetting all respect of place or circumstances, put her hand to her daughter’s right ear, and discovered a dark mole behind it.  Assured now