he
court-yard of the palace at Navarre.

"Pedro Sese, Pedro Sese!" he cried; "my noble Arab El Toro lies dead in
a cleft of the rocks: I have returned to seek another steed for the
chase: such a boar hunt has not been among the forests of Navarre since
the Pyrenees echoed to the horn of Roland: give me forth black Ilderim,
Pedro, my friend; saddle me my father's charger, for there is no other
steed in the king's stables worthy of the hunt of to-day!"

"Don Garcia," replied the master of the horse, "black Ilderim is only
for the king's mounting: I dare not saddle him for any other."

"But the Infante commands it--the king that is to be."

"Chafe not with a faithful servant, Don Garcia: it is but yesterday I
refused the same request of the bastard of Arragon."

"What! darest thou compare me with the base-born Ramiro? Insolent! I
shall bear my complaint to the queen."

To the queen Don Garcia bore his complaint and his petition: "Oh, my
mother, wouldst thou see me dishonored by a menial? Am I not thine only
son, the rightful heir of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre? who may command
here, if I may not? Assert my authority, then, and order the false Pedro
Sese that he give me forth black Ilderim."

"Pedro Sese has faithfully discharged his duty to my lord the king, who
enjoined on him and on me the safe keeping of his favorite horse," said
Dona Nuna. "The royal stables are open; take, my son, any other steed,
but leave black Ilderim till thy father's return."

"Nay, by Heaven and by the saints, I will have Ilderim to ride this day,
or I will have vengeance!"

The headstrong youth returned to the court-yard, and again demanded the
steed: again the master of the horse refused. Don Garcia, pale with
concentrated rage, sprang on another of the king's chargers, and
galloped from the palace. Instead, however, of returning to the hunt, he
urged his horse into the _despoblado_, or open plain, lying to the south
of the castle, and disappeared on the road to Burgos.

Time passed heavily, in her lord's absence, with the gentle Nuna. At
first, she received frequent and joyful tidings of the successes which
crowned his arms, and the brilliant victories gained by his forces over
the Moslem army. Of late, and since the departure of Garcia from the
castle, Sancho's affectionate dispatches had altogether ceased; and
Nuna, now thoroughly wretched, from the wayward perversity of her son,
and from uncertainty as to her husband's fate, h