d as
an inevitable evil. Alba, who described her as an extremely obstinate
woman, had advised him to use a stratagem to induce her to yield to his
wish and leave the Netherlands. He was to represent that his sister, the
Duchess Margaret, who was holding her court at Aquila, in the Abruzzi
Mountains, invited her to visit her in order to make her acquaintance.
She would not resist this summons, for she had often made her way to
the government building, and took special pleasure in the society of the
aristocratic Spaniards. When she was once on board a ship, she would
be obliged to submit to being carried to Spain, whence her return could
easily be prevented.

To set such a snare for this woman had been impossible for Don John.
Truth and love had sufficed to induce her to fulfil his wish.

Senor Escovedo had witnessed much that was noble during this hour, but
especially a mother whom in the future he could remember with gratitude
and joy; for Don John's confidant knew that of all he saw and heard here
not a word was false and feigned, yet he knew better than any other man
his master's heart and every look. Barbara, too, believed her son no
less confidently, and as the shout of victory reaches combatants lying
on the ground, wounded by lances and arrows, the cry of a secret voice
within her soul, sorely as she was stricken, great as was the sacrifice
and suffering which she had imposed upon herself, called upon her to
rejoice in the highest of all gifts--the love of her child, to whom
hitherto she had been only a dreaded stranger.

She could not yet obtain a clear insight into the result of the promise
which she had given her son; it seemed as though a veil was drawn over
her active mind.

Yet again and again she asked herself what power could have induced her
to grant so quickly and unconditionally to the son a demand which in
her youth she would have refused, with defiant opposition, even to his
ardently loved father. But she took as little trouble to find the answer
as she felt regret for her compliance.

The world to which she returned after this hour had gained a new
aspect. She had not understood the real nature of the former one. The
exclamation which her son's confession had elicited she still believed
after long reflection. What she had deemed great, was small; what had
seemed to her light and brilliant, was dark. What she had considered
worthy of the greatest sacrifice was petty and trivial; no fountain
of j