You talk glibly of ruining--but
then you talk to a groom and lackey." The epithets rankled in his mind;
they were poison to his blood, it seemed. It takes a woman to find words
that burn and blister a man. "Yet groom and lackey that I am, I hold you
both in the hollow of my hand. If I close that hand, it will be very bad
for you, very bad for her. If, for instance, I were to tell King Philip
that I have seen her in your arms--"

"You dog!"

"I have--I swear to God I have, with these two eyes--at least with one
of them, applied to the keyhole half an hour ago. Her servants passed me
in; a ducat or two well bestowed--you understand?"

We had reached the door of my house. I paused and turned to him.

"You will come in?" I invited.

"As the wolf said to the lamb, eh? Well, why not?" And we went in.

"You are well housed," he commented, his greedy, envious eyes
considering all the tokens of my wealth. "It were a pity to lose so
much, I think. The King is at the Escurial, I am told."

He was. He had gone thither into retreat, that he might cleanse his
pious, murky soul against the coming of Eastertide.

"You would not, I am sure, compel me to undertake so tedious a journey,"
said he.

"Will you put off this slyness and be plain?" I bade him. "You have some
bargain in your mind. Propound it."

He did, and left me aghast.

"You have temporized long enough, Perez," he began. "You have been
hunting with the dogs and running with the stag. There must be an end
to all that. Stand by me now, and I will make you greater than you are,
greater than you could ever dream to be. Oppose me, betray me--for I am
going to be very frank--and the King shall hear things from me that will
mean your ruin and hers. You understand?"

Then came his demands. First of all the command of the fortress of Mogro
for himself. I must obtain him that at once. Secondly, I must see to
it that Philip pledged himself to support Don John's expedition against
England and Elizabeth and to seat Don John upon the throne with Mary
Stuart for his wife. These things must come about, and quickly, or I
perished. Nor was that all. Indeed, no more than a beginning. He opened
out the vista of his dreams, that having blackmailed me on the one hand,
he might now bribe me on the other. Once England was theirs, he aimed at
no less than a descent upon Spain itself. That was why he wanted Mogro
to facilitate a landing at Santander. Thus, as the Christians had
origina