“Dona Magdalena and I followed them on our quiet bays.  Her lips moved constantly, and her right hand never stirred from the rosary at her belt while we were riding along the woodland paths.

“To soothe her, I began to talk about the pieces of music which his Majesty had brought from Brussels, but she did not hear me.  So I remained silent until the monastery glimmered through the trees.  The blood left her cheeks, for at the same moment the thought came to us both that King Philip was taking him to the monks.

“But we had scarcely time to confide what we feared to each other ere the blast of horns echoed from the forest.

“Then, to calm the anxious mother’s heart, I remarked, ’His Majesty would not have the horns sounded in that way if he were taking the pious brothers a new companion,’ and Dona Magdalena’s wan cheeks again flushed slightly.

“The forest is cleared in front of the monastery, but it surrounds on all sides the open glade amid whose grass the meadow saffron was then growing thickly.

“I can still see Geronimo as he swung himself from the saddle to gather some of the flowers.  His mother needed them as medicine for a poor woman in the village.

“We stopped behind the last trees, where we had a good view of the glade.  Don Luis left the boy to himself for a time; but when the blast of horns and the baying of the hounds sounded nearer, he ordered him, in the commanding tone he used in teaching him to ride, to remount.

“Geronimo laughed, thrust the flowers hastily into his saddlebag, and with a bold leap vaulted on his horse’s back.

“A few minutes after, the King rode out of the forest.

“He was mounted on a noble bay hunting charber, and wore a huntsman’s dress.

“No rider can hold a slender figure more erect.

“His haughty head, with the fair, pointed beard, was carried slightly thrown back, which gave him an especially arrogant appearance.

“When he saw Quijada, he raised his riding-whip with a significant gesture to his lips.  We, too, understood what it meant, and Don Luis knew him far better than we.

“He greeted the King without the least constraint, as if he were merely a friend of noble birth, then beckoned to Geronimo, and the introduction was only the brief words, ‘My son’ and ‘The Count of Flanders.’

“The boy raised his little plumed hat with frank courtesy and, while bowing in the saddle, forced his dun horse to approach the King sideways.  It was no easy matter, and seemed to please his Majesty, for a smile of satisfaction flitted over his cold features, and we heard him exclaim to Quijada, ’A horseman, and, if the saints so will, a knight well pleasing to Heaven.’

“What more he said to the boy we learned later.  The words which by the movement of his lips we saw that he added to the exclamation were, ’Unless our noble young friend prefers to consecrate himself in humility to the service of the highest of all Masters.’