nds, and said in an agitated
voice:

"The writer is no less a personage than Dona Magdalena de Ulloa. May
Heaven reward her for it!"

Barbara gazed beseechingly into his wrinkled face, and from the inmost
depths of her heart rose the cry: "Oh, let me see it, for I--you know
it--I am his mother!"

"So she is," said the old man in a tone of assent, nodded his long head,
whose hair was now snow-white, and glanced questioningly at his wife.
The answer was an assent.

Adrian clasped his chin--during the period of his service he had always
worn it smooth-shaven, but the white stubble of a full beard was
now growing on it--in his emaciated hand, and asked Barbara if she
understood Spanish.

Her knowledge of it was very slight; but Frau Traut, who, like her
husband, had mastered it during the long years of intercourse with the
Castilian court, now undertook to put the contents of the letter into
German.

This was not difficult, for she had already been obliged to read it
aloud three times to Adrian, who could no longer decipher written
characters.

The address was not omitted; it had pleased them both. It ran as
follows:

"To his Majesty's good and faithful servant, Adrian Dubois, from his
affectionate friend of former days, Dona Magdalena de Ulloa, wife of Don
Luis Mendez Quijada, Lady of Villagarcia."

Frau Trout read these noble names aloud to Barbara proudly, as if they
were her own; but before she went on Adrian interrupted--

"As to friendship, you may think, Frau Barbara, that Dona Magdalena is
showing me far too much honour in using those words; but I would still
give my right hand for that lovely creature with her kindly soul. When,
just after Don Luis married her, his Majesty took her young husband
away, she entreated me most earnestly to look after him, and I could
sometimes be of assistance. To be sure, we broke many a piece of bread
together in war and peace in the same service. Ah, Frau Barbara! I am
far better off here than I deserve to be; but sometimes my heart is
ready to break when I think of my Emperor, and that I must leave the
care of him to others."

"But it is hard enough for the major-domo and his Majesty to do without
you," said Frau Traut importantly. "Don Luis, the letter says, would
gladly have written with his own hand, but he had not a single leisure
moment; for, since Adrian had gone, he was obliged to be at hand to
serve his Majesty by day as well as by night. My husband's succes