Don John cut short her words with the cry, “Mother!” and then went on indignantly:  “If any one else had given me this advice, I would deprive him of any inclination to repeat it.  God granted Don Philip the sovereignty.  My oath, my honour, forbid me to rise against him.  He has lost all claim to my love, my gratitude, but he is sure of the fidelity of his ill-treated brother.  Besides,” he added proudly, “my wishes mount higher.”

Barbara had listened to her son with the utmost eagerness; now, taking a locket from the breast of his doublet, he whispered: 

“Do you know whom this lovely picture represents?  No?  Well, these are the features of the fairest and most unfortunate of women.  Mary Stuart, the hapless Queen of Scotland, the devout, patient sufferer for our holy faith, looks at you from this frame.  She does not refuse me her hand.  The Holy Father in Rome and the Guises in France approve the bold enterprise; but I shall take the army under my command by sea to England.  I am sure of victory in this conflict.  With the most beautiful of women, I shall gain the crown which I need and which will best suit me.”

“John!” Barbara exclaimed, carried away by the daring of this proposal, and her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm.  “This desire is worthy of you and your great father.  If I can aid you in its realization——­”

“You can,” Don John eagerly interrupted; “for the first step is to gain the consent of the States-General to despatch the army, which must now be sent back to Spain, thither by sea.  When the troops are once on the way they will steer to England, instead of southward.  But even to embark these forces I shall need the consent of the representatives of the country.  Therefore, difficult as it is for me, the words must be uttered:  Your residence in the provinces will prevent my obtaining it.  Spare me the mention of my reasons; but the circumstance that you always opened your house to the Spanish party must fill the King’s enemies with distrust of you.  Besides, it is scarcely credible; but you must believe Escovedo, to whom I owe this information.  How petty people in the provinces can be about such matters!  An edict was recently issued which commands the removal of every official who can not prove that the union of the parents who gave him life was consecrated by the Holy Church.  Alas, mother, that I should be compelled to wound you at our first meeting!  But if your love is as great as your every glance tells me, as you have just confessed with such touching warmth——­”

“And as I shall confess,” she cried impetuously, “so long as a single breath stirs this bosom; for I love you, John—­love you with all the strength of this poor, sorely tortured soul.  But, child, child!  What you ask of me—­It comes so unexpectedly—­you have no suspicion how deeply it pierces into the very heart of my life.  I must leave the country which has become my home, the city where prejudice and enmity greeted me, and