r
composure during these counsels and the declaration of the servant of the
Holy Church. Faithful to the determination formed during the night, she
imposed silence upon herself, and when De Soto asked for a positive
answer, she begged him to grant her time for consideration.

Soon after Don Luis Quijada was announced. This time he did not appear in
the dark Spanish court costume, but in the brilliant armour of the
Lombard regiment whose command had been entrusted to him.

When he saw Barbara, for the first time after many weeks, he was
startled.

Only yesterday she had seemed to Wolf Hartschwert peerlessly beautiful,
but the few hours which had elapsed between the visit of the physician
and the major-domo had sadly changed her. Her large, bright eyes were
reddened by weeping, and the slight lines about the corners of the mouth
had deepened and lent her a severe expression.

A hundred considerations had doubtless crowded upon her during the night,
yet she by no means repented having showed the leech what she thought of
the betrayer in purple and the demand which he made upon her. De Soto's
attempt at persuasion had only increased her defiance. Instead of
reflecting and thinking of her own welfare and of the future of the
beloved being whose coming she dreaded, yet who seemed to her the most
precious gift of Heaven, she strengthened herself more and more in the
belief that it was due to her own dignity to resist the Emperor's cruel
encroachments upon her liberty. She knew that she owed Dr. Mathys a debt
of gratitude, but she thought herself freed from that duty since he had
made himself the blind tool of his master.

Now the Spaniard, who had never been her friend, also came to urge the
Emperor's will upon her. Toward him she need not force herself to
maintain the reserve which she had exercised in her conversation with the
confessor.

On the contrary!

He should hear, with the utmost plainness, what she thought of the
Emperor's instructions. If he, his confidant, then showed him that there
was one person at least who did not bow before his pitiless power, and
that hatred steeled her courage to defy him, one of the most ardent
wishes of her indignant, deeply wounded heart would be fulfilled. The
only thing which she still feared was that her aching throat might
prevent her from freely pouring forth what so passionately agitated her
soul.

She now confronted the inflexible nobleman, not a feature in whose
clear-