I distinguish the sound of Kaled neighing; Yezid and Fernando have arrived. Keep up your spirits."

The door opened, and Yezid made his appearance alone. He had in less than two days travelled the sixty leagues which Valencia is distant from Madrid, and he related all that had happened in the latter city to the two old men. He concealed from them, however, his latest intelligence, that Fernando d'Albayda was rendered incapable of again entering into the public service, and condemned to an imprisonment in Valladolid, the termination of which it was impossible to predict, for having failed to show sufficient respect to the king in council; for having de. fended, and perhaps shared, the opinions of a nobleman pronounced to be a traitor to his king and country; and for other reasons not mentioned by the Duke de Lerma and the grand inquisitor, but which will readily occur to us. The latter news would have given the death-blow to Don Juan d'Aguilar, and Yezid satisfied himself by saying only that his nephew was under close surveillance for having, when armed, wished to maintain the honour of his house against all, even the son of the prime minister.

"He will soon," added Yezid, " be free; he will come to you. Meantime, what do you require at his hands, or rather from me? for I represent him, if you will allow me to say so.

D'Aguilar smiled benignantly on the young man, and old Alberique, who fully comprehended him, said,

"I told you Yezid would not fail to be in your good graces. Speak; we are listening.'

D'Aguilar gave a narrative of the events that had taken place from the time Tyrone, chief of the insurgents, joined him with only four thousand men. With this weak force, added to the six thousand Spaniards under his command, he had the courage to attack, near Baltimore, thirty thousand English, commanded by the lord lieutenant of Ireland. The Spanish troops, fighting with their wonted valour, had long maintained the unequal struggle, and rendered doubt ful the issue of the contest, but Tyrone and the Irish having abandoned him in the most cowardly manner, he was compelled to retreat, rallying his troops, however, and manoeuvring to prevent his being surrounded. He succeeded in entrenching himself in Kingale and Baltimore, two towns of which he had previously taken possession. Instead of coming to his aid, the Irish, panic struck, were eager to send in their submission, to escape the vengeance of Elizabeth, without troubling themselves about the situation of the allies who came to their assistance. Thence

forward there was no object to be gained by the expedition, but d'Aguilar wished at least to insure for the service of his king an army whose chances of safety appeared desperate to everybody; attacked by land by the viceroy and his whole army, blockaded at sea by the English fleet, the Spanish general had sent to inform Lord Montjoy that he would bury himself, with his army, in the ruins of Kinsale and Baltimore, and that if that army was lost to Spain, these two towns would be equally lost to England. Lord Montjoy, who was both brave and generous, answered this bold message by offering to accede to such terms of capitulation as d'Aguilar might dictate and which he required, that the honours of war be granted to his army; that English transports be furnished to convey the troops to Spain, with all their artillery and stores; moreover, not wishing to expose the allies who had betrayed and abandoned him to the rage of the victorious army, he stipulated for an amnesty for the inhabitants of Kinsale and Baltimore.

Everything he had stipulated for was granted. "And," exclaimed the old man, with indignation, "it is acts like these that they wish to torture into acts of cowardice and treason: they have caused garbled accounts, which misrepresent the whole of these proceedings, to be circulated. I am accused of having entered into a treaty with heretics, with people who are excommunicated, and they will not listen to my defence until I first surrender myself prisoner to the Inquisition; and how can I make myself heard from its dungeons? They will take care to suppress my defence, and to publish pretended confessions, as coming from me, the falsehood of which my absence will prevent me from being able to proclaim. I have written a narrative of these occurrences, here it is. It must be read not by the Duke de Lerma, but by the king-the king himself. This is the service I looked forward to my nephew to render me, whose age gives him the privilege of admission to the council chamber. None other dare, under the present circumstances, to make an attempt which would be the certain means of subjecting him to the enmity of the Duke de Lerma, and the disgrace which would be sure to follow in its train; and no one now in Spain," added the old man, with much emotion, "has.courage to do this, not even the Marquis de Miranda, our relation, though he is president of the council of Castile."

Undoubtedly," replied Yezid, who had listened attentively to him, "there are still to be found in Spain daring spirits who will run all hazards to serve a friend, but they must not be looked for at court."

"That is precisely my opinion," said d'Aguilar, with bitterness.

"Those I allude to cannot approach the king," continued Yezid; “but it is possible by other means to cause your memorial to reach him. Entrust it to me, and within a fortnight, probably, it will be placed in his hands by one whom nobody would suspect, and who would have nothing to fear from the Duke de Lerma; meantime remain concealed in your present hiding-place, where you are sure not to be discovered, and rely

on me.

Without any further explanation of his design, the entire risk of which he was willing to encounter, Yezid wished to leave instantly, and to proceed on his journey in the middle of the night; with difficulty he was persuaded to postpone it till daybreak. The interval he employed in ques tioning d'Aguilar as to the details of the Irish expedition, especially all that related to Lord Montjoy, with whom Yezid had formerly become acquainted at Cadiz, when a secret commercial treaty of much importance had been negociated between Queen Elizabeth and the Moors of Valencia. He again reiterated his exhortations to d'Aguilar to keep up his spirits, promised speedily to return, and tore himself from the embraces of his parent, and from the affectionate marks of solicitude shown by his faithful servants, dejected at again parting with their young master.

CHAPTER XII.

THE QUEEN.

Meantime at court, and in the principal Spanish towns, nothing was to be heard of but balls, fetes, and rejoicings, on the occasion of the arrival and approaching marriage of the young queen. Margaret of Austria, the youngest of the Archduke Charles III's daughters, could not be pronounced beautiful, but her manners were graceful, frank, and free from all etiquette, and coming to reign over a people where tyranny, ceremony, and dissimulation were considered essentially necessary in the conduct of affairs, no queen appeared more unsuited to the Spanish nation. Taught,, as is the case with most of the German princesses, to attend to their domestic duties, with little restraint, and easily accessible to their dependants, Margaret had brought from her country those exalted notions which, at a later period, Werther and Margaret de Faust were destined to render so exceedingly in vogue. Her lively imagination was tinged slightly with melancholy, which, however, did not exclude a mild gaiety of manner, and her character was not easily understood in the new country of her adoption.

Her features also formed a contrast no less remarkable with those of the natives, for her blue eyes were as different from the dark eyes of the Andalusians, as were the quiet dreamy movements of the German, when compared with the noisy and animated motions of the castinet dance of the country. The same flotilla that had taken her to Genoa had brought her thence to Valencia, where the king was proceeding to celebrate his nuptials, and where the court had previously assembled. Margaret was not much delighted with Valencia, the beautiful, which, with its narrow, winding, and impenetrable streets, appeared to her to have been completely misnamed. She had made her entrance by the public walk, the Alameda, had been received at the palace of the viceroy, where all the ladies of her household had been presented to her, and where Don John Ribeira, archbishop of Valencia, and patriarch of Antioch, had harangued and given her his blessing. Margaret took but little interest in these proceedings, and that which most added to her anxieties was, that among all the great ladies of the court who had come to do her homage, and among whom she was about to pass her life, there was not one to whom she felt favourably disposed, or inclined to give her confidence; none whom she dared to question upon the many subjects about which she was anxious for information. The following day she was to marry a king, of whom she had no knowledge, except that derived from a sight of his portrait; she had been informed only that for some time past Philip loved her, and made choice of her for his spouse; that even in the lifetime of the late king, the marriage was a matter settled and agreed upon; in Germany they attached great value and paid much respect to the notions formed of each other by the betrothed parties, to that engagement which is thus said to be made in heaven previous to its realisation on earth. "I am already his," she thought; "I am his affianced bride-the lady of his choice:" and this thought alone was sufficient to fill her heart, if not with love, at least with gratitude towards her royal lover. She would have given the world to know the nature of his character, his tastes, his ideas, and his habits; but to whom could she apply for the information? She sought, in a court composed of persons who were entire strangers to her; where, moreover, being queen, the natural supposition that occurred was, that every one would either be disinclined or afraid to speak frankly or truly to her.

and

The ladies of the bedchamber had long since retired to rest, but Margaret neither did nor could sleep. She opened a glass door which led to the spacious gardens of the palace. It was a beautiful night;

balmy and refreshing breezes cooled the atmosphere; nothing was to be seen but lofty umbrageous trees in all directions, and the most profound silence prevailed. Margaret ventured at first only a few paces in the path of one of the groves; then, becoming bolder, she continued her walk till she lost her way among the deep recesses of the grove; presently she fancied she heard female voices proceed from an arbour in the grounds, and was about to retire, when her name, and that of the king, struck her ear; her curiosity was so powerfully excited that she concealed herself behind the branches of some lemon trees and listened; the voices were those of two ladies of the court who were in con. versation together.

"We shall now have balls and festivals; his catholic majesty is to be married at last. The match was not formed without much difficulty."

"You are mistaken, marchioness; there never was the least difficulty in bringing it about-quite the reverse."

"How so? relate to me the circumstances under which it took place."

66

You don't know, then, how the marriage was decided upon? there is a very curious history attached to it. The Duke de Lerma (who, though now ungrateful enough to slight me, once made me his confidant) related the anecdote to me, under a strict injunction to secrecy (for he, in common with the rest of the world, was terribly afraid of the king), on the very evening the conversation took place. I should first tell you that Philip's son's weakness and subjection to his father were of the most abject description. Philip II, by all his actions, showed his dread of his ris ing intelligence."

66

Is it possible?"

He was of such a suspicious disposition that in pursuance of the profound policy which he had hit upon, he had conceived the idea of rendering him an idiot. He had accomplished much more difficult designs in his lifetime, but he soon discovered that he had but too well succeeded in his intentions."

66 Proceed."

66

This is a fact, and the anecdote I promised to relate has reference to it. The late king wished his son to be married in his own lifetime. This was the monarch's idea, a notion natural enough to suggest itself to a father and a sovereign; and in the presence of some chosen courtiers, among others the Duke de Lerma, then Marquis de Derria, he declared to him his wish that he should espouse one of the three daughters of the Archduke Charles of Austria."

"That's true; the archduke, I believe, had three daughters."

"Yes, the German princes have gene rally large families, and Philip II showed his son three portraits in handsome frames, and requested him to examine attentively these likenesses of the Austrian princesses, and to declare which he would choose for a wife. What do you think the young prince did?"

"Wished to have all three!"

"His father, sanctimonious as he appeared, would have so chosen, perhaps, but the son, bowing respectfully, answered in his usual submissive manner that in a matter of such importance he should be guided by the decision of his majesty. But,' added the king, it is a question of liking, which you are best able to decide upon.' "I will conform to your majesty's opinion upon it.' But the question is, what is your own inclination?' It is that which your majesty may have.' But surely one of these three persons is most agreeable to you.' The one that is most so to your majesty.' The king then proposed that the three portraits might be taken to the Infant's room, to enable him to study them, and make his choice at leisure."

That was as it should be; a night's reflection would be likely to be succeeded by a wise decision."

"The prince said that it was quite useless to do so; he had already made his choice, to which he was determined to adhere."

"And what was that?"

"To prefer the one which the king should select for him. The king ought to be a better judge on such a subject than I am, he added."

66

Perhaps he spoke the truth."

"It was useless to attempt to get any other reply, and matters remained in this unsatisfactory state."

"And in this grave matter who ultimately had influence enough to bring about

a decision? the Duke de Lerma?"

"No, but a more powerful arbitrator than the Duke de Lerma, or even the late king himself death, which successively carried off two of the archduchesses, so that only one remaining, she was necessarily selected."

"That was fortunate for her."

"More so than for the king, who was not to be blamed for having hesitated so long."

"A propos," asked the marchioness, "what do you think of our new queen?" "She has, I think, a very German appearance, marchioness."

"And I, countess, think a very awkward one."

"That is what I mean."

Scarcely had the queen heard these words than she hastily retreated to her chamber, without any one having been