e her. She had indeed told Arthur that she
never could be his, but yet avowed that she loved him; and if he
did meet her as the wife of another, what must he believe her? And
Ferdinand, if he did so love her, that preoccupied heart was indeed a
sad requital. She had, however, that evening but little time to think,
for ere either spoke again, the branches at the entrance of the tent
were hastily pushed aside, and a tall manly form stood upon the
threshold. Marie sprang to her feet with a faint cry--could it be that
the vow of an hour was already called upon to be fulfilled?--but
the intruder attributed her alarm to a different cause, and hastily
flinging off his wrapping mantle and deep plumed morion, he exclaimed,
"What! alarmed by me, my gentle cousin? dearest Marie! am I
forgotten?" And Henriquez, forgetting all of bodily exhaustion, all of
mental suffering, in the deep joy his sudden appearance caused, could
only fold the warrior in his feeble arms, and drooping his head on his
shoulder, sob forth expressively, "My son! my son!"

CHAPTER VII.

"And thus how oft do life and death
Twine hand in hand together;
And the funeral shroud, and bridal wreath,
How small a space may sever!"

MS.

One little week did Ferdinand spend within the home of his boyhood;
and in that brief interval the earthly fate of Marie Henriquez was
decided. He had deferred his visit till such peace and prosperity had
dawned for Spain, that he could offer his bride not only a home suited
to his rank, but the comfort of his presence and protection for
an indeterminate time. He had come there purposely to reveal his
long-cherished love; to conjure Marie to bless him with the promise of
her hand; and, if successful, to return, in two short months, for the
celebration of their marriage, according to their own secret rites,
ere the ceremony was performed in the sight of the whole Catholic
world. The intermarriages of first cousins had been so common an
occurrence in his family, that Ferdinand, in spite of some tremblings,
as a lover, had regarded his final union with Marie with almost as
much certainty, and as a thing of course, as his uncle himself.

The effects of that agitating interview between father and daughter
had been visible to Ferdinand; but he attributed it, very naturally,
to the cause privately assigned for it by his kinsman--Marie's first
conviction that her father's days were numbered. He had been greatly
sho