t I had the power to serve and to exalt you; when as confessor to
Philip, I backed the patronage of Lerma, recommended you to the royal
notice, and brought you into the sunshine of the royal favour--it was
because I had read in your heart and brain those qualities of which the
spiritual masters of the world ever seek to avail their cause. I knew
thee brave, crafty, aspiring, unscrupulous. I knew that thou wouldest
not shrink at the means that could secure to thee a noble end. Yea,
when, years ago, in the valley of the Xenil, I saw thee bathe thy hands
in the blood of thy foe, and heard thy laugh of exulting scorn;--when I,
alone master of thy secret, beheld thee afterwards flying from thy home
stained with a second murder, but still calm, stern, and lord of thine
own reason, my knowledge of mankind told me, 'Of such men are high
converts and mighty instruments made!'"

The priest paused; for Calderon heard him not. His cheek was livid,
his eyes closed, his chest heaved wildly. "Horrible remembrance!" he
muttered; "fatal love--dread revenge! Inez--Inez, what hast thou to
answer for!"

"Be soothed, my son; I meant not to tear the bandage from thy wounds."

"Who speaks?" cried Calderon, starting. "Ha, priest! priest! I thought
I heard the Dead. Talk on, talk on: talk of the world--the
Inquisition--thy plots--the torture--the rack! Talk of aught that will
lead me back from the past."

"No; let me for a moment lead thee thither, in order to portray the
future that awaits thee. When, at night, I found thee--the blood-stained
fugitive--cowering beneath the shadow of the forest, dost thou remember
that I laid my hand upon thine arm, and said to thee, 'Thy life is in my
power'? From that hour, thy disdain of my threats, of myself, of thine
own life--all made me view thee as one born to advance our immortal
cause. I led thee to safety far away; I won thy friendship and thy
confidence. Thou becamest one of us--one of the great Order of Jesus.
Subsequently, I placed thee as the tutor to young Fonseca, then heir to
great fortunes. The second marriage of his uncle, and the heir that
by that marriage interposed between him and the honour of his house,
rendered the probable alliance of the youth profitless to us. But thou
hadst procured his friendship. He presented thee to the Duke of Lerma.
I was just then appointed confessor to the king; I found that years had
ripened thy genius, and memory had blunted in thee all the affections o