ch Eminence it took to make a father for me--or how many
duchesses to make a mother? I am labelled as plain Ruy Sandoval and
shipped till called for. If you are to instruct my youth in the path
it should tread--why not start in with a lesson on discretion?"

At this hopeful sign of life from the bundle of bandages on the monk's
bed, Maestro Diego approached and looked over his illustrious charge
with a careful eye.

"Discretion has limped far behind--enterprise, else your highness
would cut a different figure by now--and--"

[Illustration: TO DON RUY, A MESSAGE IN THE MOONLIGHT _Page 63_]

"Choke back your infernal highnesses!" growled the younger man. "I
know well what your task is to be here in this new land:--it is to
send back reports of duty each time I break a rule or get a broken
head. Now by the Blood, and the Cross, if you smother not your titles,
and let me range free, I tell you the thing I will do:--I will send
back a complaint against you to Seville--and to make sure that it
goes, no hand shall carry it but your own. Ere they can find another
nurse maid for my morals, I'll build me a ship and go sailing the
South seas for adventure--and your court tricksters will have a weary
time in the chase! I like you better than many another godly spy who
might have been sent, and I promise myself much joy in the journal of
strange travels it is in your mind to write. But once for all,
remember, we never were born into the world until a week ago!"

"But your Excellency--

"By the Great Duke of Hell! Will you not bridle your tongue when the
damned monks are three deep at the key hole?"

By which it will be seen that the travels of the pious Don Diego were
not all on paths of roses.

A little later the still faced priest of the stealthy glances came in,
and Don Ruy sat on the side of the bed, and looked him over.

"You are the one who picked me up--eh? And the gentlemen of the
streets had tossed me into a corner after discreetly starting my soul
on its travels! Warm trysts your dames give to a stranger in this
land--when you next confess the darlings, whisper their ears to be
less bloodthirsty towards youth innocence!"

The man in the robe smiled.

"That unwise maid will make no more trysts," he said quietly,--"not
if she be one important enough to cause an assault on your Highness."

"Did they--?"

"No--no--harm would not be done to her, but her destiny is without
doubt a convent. The men who spoiled you