mated 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 unequalled act."

Barbara saw the bishop shake his head in dissent and, while she was
listening with strained ears to his explanation, Viglius, as if singing
bass to Granvelle's tenor, repeated again and again at brief intervals,
in a low tone, the one word, "Debts," while his green eyes sparkled,
sometimes as if asking assent, sometimes combatively.

He believed that the weight of financial cares was causing the Emperor
Charles's abdication. Like a wise man, he said, he would place his own
burden of debt upon his son's shoulders. His Majesty usually uttered
exactly the opposite of his real opinions, and therefore, in the outline
of his abdication speech, he twice emphasized how great a debt of
gratitude Don Philip owed him for the Heritage which while still alive he
bequeathed to him. True, besides the debts, crowns and kingdoms in plenty
passed to Charles's successor; but the father, so long as he drew breath,
would not give up the decision of the most important questions of
government, and therefore this abdication, after all, was merely an
excellent means of divesting himself of burdensome obligations,
embellished with a certain amount of humbug.

The Bishop of Arras made no weighty protest against this severe speech;
nay, he even said, in a tone of assent, that the Emperor Charles's
tire