moving, called to him, 'My brother, Don Juan, will be addressed as your
Excellency.'

"He took no notice of Dona Magdalena, probably because she had appeared
here either without or against his orders, and thus offended one of
the forms of etiquette on which he placed so much value. So his Majesty
neither saw nor heard how the son of an Emperor and the brother of a
King rushed up to his foster-mother, threw himself into her outstretched
arms, and exclaimed with warm affection, 'Mother! my dear, dear
mother!'"

Barbara had listened weeping to this description, but the last sentence
dried her tears and, like Frau Traut a short time ago, her friend
regretted that he had not exercised greater caution as he heard her,
still sobbing, but with an angry shrug of the shoulders, repeat the
exclamation which her son--ay, her son only--had poured forth from his
overflowing heart to another woman.

So Wolf did not tell her what he had witnessed in Villagarcia, when Don
Juan and Dona Magdalena had fallen into each other's arms, and that
when he asked about his real mother the lady answered that she was an
unfortunate woman who must remain away from him, but for whom it would
be his duty to provide generously.

Directly after, on the second day of October, Wolf added, the King had
presented her son to the court as his Excellency, his brother Don John
of Austria!

He, Wolf, had set off for Brussels with the grand prior that very day,
and, as his ship sailed from Spain before any other, he had succeeded in
being the first to bring this joyful news to the Netherlands and to her.

When Wolf left Barbara, it seemed as though what had hitherto appeared a
bewildering, happy dream had now for the first time been confirmed. The
lofty goal she had striven to reach, and of which she had never lost
sight, was now gained; but a bitter drop of wormwood mingled with the
happiness that filled her grateful heart to overflowing. Another woman
had forced herself into her place and robbed her of the boy's love,
which belonged to her and, after his father's death, to her alone.

Every thought of the much-praised Dona Magdalena stirred her blood.
How cruel had been the anguish and fears which she had endured for this
child she alone could know; but the other enjoyed every pleasure that
the possession of so highly gifted a young creature could afford. She
could say to herself that, of all sins, the one farthest from her
nature was envy; but what sh