, Wolf described the great anxiety which,
after Charles's death, overpowered the Quijadas in Villagarcia.

The codicil had existed, and Don Luis was familiar with its contents.
But how would King Philip take it?

Dona Magdalena knew not what to do with herself in her anxiety.

The immediate future must decide Geronimo's fate, so she went on a
pilgrimage with her darling to the Madonna of Guadelupe to pray for the
repose of the Emperor's soul, and also to beseech the gracious Virgin
mercifully to remember him, Geronimo.

Until that time the boy had believed Don Luis and his wife to be his
parents, and had loved Dona Magdalena like the most affectionate son.

He had not even the slightest suspicion that he was a child of the
Emperor, and was perfectly satisfied with the lot of being the son of a
grandee and the child of so good, tender, and beautiful a mother.

This exciting expectation on the part of the Quijadas lasted nearly a
whole year, for it was that length of time before Don Philip finally
left the Netherlands and reached Valladolid.

He spent the anniversary of his father's death in the monastery of Del
Abrojo.

There, or previously, he had read the codicil in which his imperial
father acknowledged the boy Geronimo as his son.

Barbara now desired to learn the contents of the codicil and, as Wolf
had told her yesterday how the boy's fate had changed, he interrupted
his narrative and obeyed her wish.

As a widower, Charles confessed that he had had a son in Germany by an
unmarried woman. He had reason to wish that the boy should assume the
robe of a reformed order, but he must be neither forced nor persuaded to
do so. If he wished to remain in the world, he would settle upon him
a yearly income of from twenty to thirty thousand ducats, which was
to pass also to his heirs. Whatever mode of life he might choose, he
commanded his son Philip to honour him and treat him with due respect.

As on the day before, when Barbara had only learned in general terms
what the codicil contained, her soul to-day, while listening to the more
minute particulars, was filled with grateful joy.

Her sacrifice had not been vain. For years the fear of seeing her son
vanish in a monastery had darkened her days and nights, and Quijada and
Dona Magdalena had also probably dreaded that King Philip might confide
his half-brother to a reformed order, for the monarch had by no means
hastened to inform the anxious pair what he had de