Then Barbara stunmoned up courage and answered, still with downcast eyes, “But, your Majestv, how can I regard myself as conquered and captured when I voluntarily yielded to your Majesty’s wish?”

“And may I perhaps also hope that it gives you pleasure to grant my entreaty?” asked the sovereign in a subdued tone, gazing as he spoke deep into the eyes which the young girl had just raised to his.

Barbara did not instantly find the reply she sought, and only bent her head in assent, but the Emperor was not satisfied with this mute answer, and eagerly desired to learn whether it was so difficult for her to admit what he so ardently wished to hear.

Meanwhile her quick intellect had found the fitting response, and, with a look which told the questioner more than she intended to betray, she answered softly:  “Why should I not have fulfilled your Majesty’s request gladly and proudly?  But what followed the walk here, what befell me here, is so much more beautiful and greater—­”

“And may we know,” interrupted the Emperor urgently, “what you find here that affords your heart so much pleasure?

“You and your favour,” she answered quickly, and the flush which suddenly crimsoned her cheeks showed him how deeply she was moved.

Then Charles went close to her and whispered:  “And do you wish to know, most bewitching woman, how he, in whose presence you confess that you are glad to remain, looked forward to your coming?  As he would greet happiness, spring.  And note that I look you in the face, it seems as though Easter bells were pealing the resurrection of a love long buried in this breast.  And you, maiden, you will not belie this hope?”

Barbara clung to the back of the chair for support, while from her deeply agitated soul struggled the exclamation:  “This poor heart, my lord, belongs to you—­to you alone!  How it mastered me, who can describe?  But here, my lord, now——­”

Then the monarch whispered warmly:  “You are right.  What we have to say to each other requires a more fitting time and a different place, and we will find them.”

Then he stepped back, drew himself up to his full height, waved his hand to her with gracious condescension, and in a loud, imperious tone commanded Appenzelder to begin the Benedictio.

“It rests with the lovely artist yonder,” he added, glancing kindly at Barbara, “whether she will now ennoble with her wonderful voice the singing of the boy choir.  Later she will probably allow us to hear the closing melody of the ‘Ecce tu pulchra es’, which, with such good reason, delighted the Queen of Hungary, and myself no less.”

He seated himself at the table as he spoke, and devoted himself to the dishes offered him so eagerly that it was difficult to believe in the deep, yearning emotion that ruled him.  Only the marquise at his side and Malfalconnet, who had joined the attendant nobles, perceived that he ate more rapidly than usual, and paid no attention to the preparation of the viands.