nied by the Queen of
Hungary and several lords and ladies, took a ride in the open air for the
first time after long seclusion.

According to his custom, he had spent Passion week in the monastery.
Easter had come on the latest day possible--the twenty-fifth of
April--and when he bade farewell to the monks the gout had already
attacked him again.

Now he rode forth into the open country and the green woods like a
rescued man; the younger Granvelle, long as he had been in his service,
had never seen him so gay and unconstrained. He could now understand his
father's tales of his Majesty's better days, his vigorous manly strength
and eager delight in existence.

True, the period of anxiety concerning the tidings of political affairs
which had arrived the day before and that morning appeared to be over,
for Herr von Parlowitz, the minister of Duke Maurice of Saxony, had
expressed his conviction that this active young monarch might be induced
to separate from the other Protestant princes and form an alliance with
the Emperor, especially as his Majesty had not the most distant intention
of mingling; religious matters in the war that was impending.

Despatches had also been sent from Valladolid by Don Philip, the
Emperor's oldest son, which afforded the greatest satisfaction to the
sovereign. If war was waged against the Smalkalds, the allied Protestants
of Germany, Spain, which had been taught to regard the campaign as a
religious war, was ready to aid Charles with large subsidies of money and
men.

Lastly, it seemed as if two betrothals were to be made which promised to
sustain the Emperor's statesmanship. Two of his nieces, the daughters of
his brother Ferdinand, expected to marry--one the heir to the Bavarian
throne, the other the Duke of Cleves.

Thus many pleasant things came to him simultaneously with his recovery,
and his mind, inclined to mysticism, received them as a sign that Heaven
was favourable to his late happiness in love.

Granvelle attributed the Emperor's unexpectedly rapid convalescence and
the fortunate change which had taken place in his gloomy mood to the
favourable political news, and perhaps also to the music which, as a
zealous patron of art, he himself loved. He, who usually did not fail to
note even the veriest trifle when he desired to trace the motives of
events which were difficult to explain, now thought he need seek no
further for causes.

During the ride Barbara was not thought of, b