he 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
where I have now obtained the position that befits me. A venerable sick
man is in my house, longing for the return of the nurse who left him for
your sake. My poor--The rest that I must cast aside and abandon is
more than I can enumerate now. Nor could I, this request bewilders me
so--Give rue a little time to collect my thoughts, for you see--But if
you look at me so, John, I can--Yet no!--It certainly is not necessary
that I should say yes or no at once. I must first learn whether
you--whether the sacrifice I made for your glory and grandeur--it was in
Landshut, you know--whether it was really so useless, whether you are in
reality as unhappy as you, the fame-crowned, beloved, and lauded child
of an Emperor, would have me believe, or whether--Forgive me, John, but
before I make this terribly difficult decision I must--yes, I must see
clearly. As surely as your hero soul harbours no falsity, it would be
unworthy of you to show your mother a distorted image of your inner
life; you must confess whether you--"

"Whether," Don