ch drawing near to
his fellow by means of his own language.

Somewhat apart from the merry tumult, a young German captain, Sir
Heimbert of Waldhausen, was reclining under a cork-tree, gazing
earnestly up at the stars, apparently in a very different mood to the
fresh, merry sociability which his comrades knew and loved in him.
Presently the Spanish captain, Don Fadrique Mendez, approached him;
he was a youth like the other, and was equally skilled in martial
exercises, but he was generally as austere and thoughtful as Heimbert
was cheerful and gentle. "Pardon, Senor," began the solemn Spaniard, "if
I disturb you in your meditations. But as I have had the honor of often
seeing you as a courageous warrior and faithful brother in amrs in many
a hot encounter, I would gladly solicit you above all others to do me
a knightly service, if it does not interfere with your own plans and
projects for this night." "Dear sir," returned Heimbert courteously, "I
have certainly an affair of importance to attend to before sunrise,
but till midnight I am perfectly free, and ready to render you any
assistance as a brother in aims." "Enough," said Fadrique, "for at
midnight the tones must long have ceased with which I shall have taken
farewell of the dearest being I have ever known in this my native city.
But that you may be as fully acquainted with the whole affair as behoves
a noble companion, listen to me attentively for a few moments.

"Some time before I left Malaga to join the army of our great emperor
and to aid in spreading the glory of his arms through Italy, I was
devoted, after the fashion of young knights, to the service of a
beautiful girl in this city, named Lucila. She had at that time scarcely
reached the period which separates childhood from ripe maidenhood, and
as I--a boy only just capable of bearing arms--offered my homage with a
childlike, friendly feeling, it was also received by my young mistress
in a similar childlike manner. I marched at length to Italy, and as you
yourself know, for we have been companions since then, I was in many a
hot fight and in many an enchantingly alluring region in that luxurious
land. Amid all our changes, I held unalterably within me the image of my
gentle mistress, never pausing in the honorable service I had vowed to
her, although I cannot conceal from you that in so doing it was rather
to fulfil the word I had pledged at my departure than from any impelling
and immoderately ardent feel