earth Calderon! What name is this? Beatriz Coello!
Darest thou have crossed my path? Speak, sir!--speak!"

"Your highness," said Calderon, with a mixture of respect and dignity
in his manner--"your highness, hear me. My first benefactor, my beloved
pupil, my earliest patron, was the same Don Martin Fonseca who seeks
this girl with an honest love. This morning he has visited me, to
implore my intercession on his behalf. Oh, prince! turn not away:
thou knowest not half his merit. Thou knowest not the value of such
subjects--men of the old iron race of Spain. Thou hast a noble and royal
heart: be not the rival to the defender of thy crown. Bless this brave
soldier--spare this poor orphan--and one generous act of self-denial
shall give thee absolution for a thousand pleasures."

"This from Roderigo Calderon!" said the prince, with bitter sneer. "Man,
know thy station and thy profession. When I want homilies, I seek my
confessor; when I have resolved on a vice, I come to thee. A truce with
this bombast. For Fonseca, he shall be consoled; and when he shall learn
who is his rival, he is a traitor if he remain discontented with his
lot. Thou shalt aid me, Calderon!"

"Your highness will pardon me--no!"

"Do I hear right? No! Art thou not my minion--my instrument? Can I not
destroy as I have helped to raise thee? Thy fortunes have turned thy
brain. The king already suspects and dislikes thee; thy foe, Uzeda, has
his ear. The people execrate thee. If I abandon thee, thou art lost.
Look to it!"

Calderon remained mute and erect, with his arms folded on his breast,
and his cheek flushed with suppressed passions. Philip gazed at him
earnestly, and then, muttering to himself, approached the favourite with
an altered air.

"Come, Calderon--I have been hasty-you maddened me; I meant not to wound
you. Thou art honest, I think thou lovest me; and I will own, that
in ordinary circumstances thy advice would be good, and thy scruples
laudable. But I tell thee that I adore this girl; that I have set all
my hopes upon her; that, at whatever cost, whatever risks, she must be
mine. Wilt thou desert me? Wilt thou on whose faith I have ever leaned
so trustingly, forsake thy friend and thy prince for this brawling
soldier? No; I wrong thee."

"Oh!" said Calderon, with much semblance of emotion, "I would lay down
my life in your service, and I have often surrendered my conscience to
your lightest will. But this would be so base a perfidy in