ched to Beatriz Coello!"

"Beatriz," replied Calderon, abstractedly, with an altered countenance,
"it is a sweet name--it was my mother's!"

"Your mother's! I thought to have heard her name was Mary Sandalen?"

"True--Mary Beatriz Sandalen," replied Calderon, indifferently. "But
proceed. I heard, after your last visit to Madrid, when, owing to my own
absence in Portugal, I was not fortunate enough to see you, that you had
offended the duke by desiring an alliance unsuitable to your birth. Who,
then, is this Beatriz Coello?"

"An orphan of humble origin and calling. In infancy she was left to the
care of a woman who, I believe, had been her nurse; they were settled in
Seville, and the old gouvernante's labours in embroidery maintained them
both till Beatriz was fourteen. At that time the poor woman was disabled
by a stroke of palsy from continuing her labours, and Beatriz, good
child, yearning to repay the obligation she had received, in her turn
sought to maintain her protectress. She possessed the gift of a voice
wonderful for its sweetness. This gift came to the knowledge of
the superintendent of the theatre at Seville: he made her the most
advantageous proposals to enter upon the stage. Beatriz; innocent child,
was unaware of the perils of that profession: she accepted eagerly
the means that would give comfort to the declining life of her only
friend--she became an actress. At that time we were quartered in
Seville, to keep guard on the suspected Moriscos."

"Ah, the hated infidels!" muttered Calderon, fiercely, through his
teeth.

"I saw Beatriz, and loved her at first sight. I do not say," added
Fonseca, with a blush, "that my suit, at the outset, was that which
alone was worthy of her; but her virtue soon won my esteem as well
as love. I left Seville to seek my father and obtain his consent to
a marriage with Beatriz. You know a hidalgo's prejudices--they are
insuperable. Meanwhile, the fame of the beauty and voice of the young
actress reached Madrid, and hither she was removed from Seville by
royal command. To Madrid, then, I hastened, on the pretence of demanding
promotion. You, as you have stated, were absent in Portugal on some
state mission. I sought the Duke de Lerma. I implored him to give me
some post, anywhere--I recked not beneath what sky, in the vast empire
of Spain--in which, removed from the prejudices of birth and of class,
and provided with other means, less precarious than those that depend