know nothing of heresy and court follies.  This innocent child’s soul, at least, shall not be corrupted at its root.  I consecrated him to the Saviour, and as a pure sacrifice he must receive him from his father’s hand.  I have given him a beautiful charge.  In the monastery his prayers will remove the guilt of him who gave him life.  The pardon for which the mother refused to strive, the son, consecrated to Jesus Christ our Lord, will struggle to obtain.”

With uplifted gaze he interrupted himself.  His eyes flashed with a fiery light, and his voice gained an imperious tone, which showed no trace of the asthmatic trouble that had just affected it as he added:  “But the secret which even the reckless mother has hitherto known how to guard must be kept.  Not even your wife, Luis, not even our sister, Queen Mary, must learn what is being accomplished.”

Then he added more quietly:  “The opportunity to take the boy to Spain is favourable.  Our son, Don Philip, will return in three weeks to Valladolid.  The child can be carried in his train.  It will disappear among the throng, for an actual army forms the tail of the comet.  I will hear your proposal to-morrow.  Who is to take charge of him on the way?  Where can a suitable shelter for the boy be found in Spain?”

This announcement fell upon the valet like a thunderbolt, for little John, who regarded him and his wife as his parents, had become as dear to the childless couple as if he was their own.  To part from the beautiful, frank, merry boy would darken Frau Traut’s whole life.  He, Adrian, had warned her, but she had been unable to resist the entreaties of the sorely punished mother.  Cautiously as Barbara’s visits had been managed, the infirm monarch’s eye had maintained its keenness of vision here also.

Now his wife must pay dearly for her weakness and disobedience.  Frau Traut was threatened, too, with another loss.  Massi, the most intimate friend of their house, also expected to return to Spain in the Infant Philip’s train, to spend the remainder of his days there in peace.  Permission to depart had been granted to him a few hours before.

Little John was fond of this frequent visitor of his foster-parents, who could whistle so beautifully and knew how to play for him upon a blade of grass or a comb; but this was not the only reason which made Adrian think of giving the Emperor’s son to the musician’s care for the journey to Spain, where Massi’s wife and daughter were awaiting his return at Leganes, near Madrid.  In this healthfully located village lived a pastor and a sacristan of whom the musician had spoken, and who perhaps later might take charge of the child’s education.

Adrian informed Don Luis and then the monarch of all this, and as Quijada knew Massi to be a trustworthy man, and described him to his royal master, Charles entered into negotiations with him.

The result was that a formal compact was concluded between Dubois and the musician, which granted the violinist considerable emoluments, but bound him and his family by oath to maintain the most absolute secrecy concerning the child’s origin.  Moreover, Massi himself knew nothing about the boy’s parents except that they belonged to the most aristocratic circles, and he was inclined to believe little John to be Quijada’s son.