They were talking about the approaching abdication, and who knew the
Emperor Charles better than these far-seeing men, who were so near his
person?

If only she had not been obliged to believe this, for what she heard
from them showed in sombre lines what her heart had clothed with golden
radiance.

Everything Wolf had told her concerning the motives which induced
Charles to devote himself for the remainder of his life to quiet
contemplation seemed to her as credible as to the knight himself. But
he had received what he knew from Queen Mary of Hungary, who interpreted
her royal brother's conduct like an affectionate sister, or thought it
advisable to represent it in the most favourable light.

It had not occurred to the warm-hearted, straightforward Wolf to doubt
the royal lady's statement; but Barbara had regarded her friend's
explanation of the Emperor's wonderful act of renunciation as she would
have gazed at a citadel founded on a rock with towers rising to the
clouds, and in imagination had followed to his solitude the world-weary
philosopher, the father yearning for the child he had missed so long.
But how pitilessly what she heard here overthrew the proud edifice!
how cruelly it destroyed what she had deemed worthy of the greatest
admiration, what had rendered her happy and reanimated her wishes and
her hopes!

The wise Granvelle foresaw how the world would judge his master's
abdication, and described it to the Frieslander. It bore a fateful
resemblance to the regent's interpretation, her friend's opinion, and
her own, and the shrewd Viglius accompanied this narrative with so
scornful a laugh that it made her heart ache.

"This is what will be said," concluded the Bishop of Arras, summing
up his previous statements, "of the wise scorner of the world upon the
throne, who cast aside sceptre and crown in order, as a pious recluse,
to secure the salvation of his soul and, like a second Diogenes, to
listen to the wealth of his thoughts and investigate the nature of
things."

"If only the pure spring from which the Greek dipped water in the hollow
of his hand was not changed to a cellar full of fiery wine, his hermit
fare to highly seasoned pasties, stuffed partridges, frozen fruit
juices, truffled pheasants, and such things! But everybody to his taste!
The world will be deceived. Unless you wish to blind yourself, your
Eminence, you will admit that I have seen correctly the most powerful
motives for this unequ