f
the flesh. Above all, hating, as thou didst, the very name of the Moor,
thou wert the man of men to aid in our great design of expelling the
accursed race from the land of Spain. Enough--I served thee, and thou
didst repay us. Thou hast washed out thy crime in the blood of the
infidel--thou art safe from detection. In Roderigo Calderon, Marquis
de Siete Iglesias, who will suspect the Roderigo Nunez--the murderous
student of Salamanca? Our device of the false father stifled even
curiosity. Thou mayest wake to the future, nor tremble at one shadow in
the past. The brightest hopes are before us both; but to realise them,
we must continue the same path. We must never halt at an obstacle in our
way. We must hold that to be no crime which advances our common objects.
Mesh upon mesh we must entangle the future monarch in our web: thou,
by the nets of pleasure; I, by those of superstition. The day that sees
Philip the Fourth upon the throne, must be a day of jubilee for the
Brotherhood and the Inquisition. When thou art prime minister, and I
grand inquisitor--that time must come--we shall have the power to extend
the sway of the sect of Loyola to the ends of the Christian world. The
Inquisition itself our tool, posterity shall regard us as the apostles
of intellectual faith. And thinkest thou, that, for the attainment of
these great ends, we can have the tender scruples of common men?
Perish a thousand Fonsecas--ten thousand novices, ere thou lose, by the
strength of a hair, thy hold over the senses and soul of the licentious
Philip! At whatever hazard, save thy power; for with it are bound, as
mariners to a plank, the hopes of those who make the mind a sceptre."

"Thy enthusiasm blinds and misleads thee, Aliaga," said Calderon,
coldly. "For me, I tell thee now, as I have told thee before, that I
care not a rush for thy grand objects. Let mankind serve itself--I look
to myself alone. But fear not my faith; my interests and my very life
are identified with thee and thy fellow-fanatics. If I desert thee, thou
art too deep in my secrets not to undo me; and were I to slay thee, in
order to silence thy testimony, I know enough of thy fraternity to know
that I should but raise up a multitude of avengers. As for this matter,
you give me wise, if not pious counsel. I will consider well of it.
Adieu! The hour summons me to attend the king."

CHAPTER V. THE TRUE FATA MORGANA.

In the royal chamber, before a table covered with p