the Queen eagerly
interrupted, "it is granted in advance."

The promise reached Quijada just as he gained the threshold; ere he
crossed it, Queen Mary called to him again, saying frankly: "I will not
let you go so, Luis! You are an honest man, and I am ashamed to deceive
you. The cure of his Majesty's melancholy is my principal object, it is
true, but one half the expense of this medicine ought to be credited
to me; for--but do not tell the treasurer--for it will afford me relief
also. I can endure these rooms no longer. The forest is putting forth
its first green leafage. The birds are returning. Red deer are plenty in
the woods along the Danube. I must get out of doors into the open air.
As matters are now, I could not leave his Majesty; but when the band
and the boy choir are at his disposal, they will dispel his melancholy
moods, and I can venture later to leave him to you and Malfalconnet,
whose wit will be freshly seasoned by the payment of his debts. O Luis!
if only I can get out of doors! Meanwhile, may music do for my imperial
brother what we anticipate! And one thing more: Take Master Adrian with
you. I released him from attendance upon the Emperor until midnight. It
was no easy matter. When you have provided the favourites of Apollo
with lodgings, come to me again, however late the hour may be. Sir Wolf
Hartschwert must call early to-morrow morning. The nuncio brought some
new songs from Rome. The music is too high for my voice, and the knight
understands how to transpose the notes for me better than even the
leader of the choir, Appenzelder."

CHAPTER II.

The April sun, ere it sank to rest, had won the victory and kindly
dried the garments of the horsemen who were approaching Ratisbon by the
Nuremberg road.

A young man who had ridden forward in advance of the great train of
travellers behind him checked his steed above the village of Kneiting,
just where the highway descended in many a curve to the valley of the
Danube, and gazed at the landscape whose green spring leafage, freshened
by rain, appeared before him.

His heart throbbed faster, and he thought that he had seen no fairer
prospect in all the wide tract of earth over which he had wandered
during the past five years. Below him were green meadows and fields,
pleasant villages, and the clear, full current of the Danube, along
whose left bank extended a beautifully formed mountain chain, whose
declivity toward the river presented a rich va