a heavy foreboding; for the idea that his
engagement with Leonor de Aguilar had come to the knowledge of Theodora,
had at first filled his mind with apprehensions. He was accordingly more
at ease, feeling an inward conviction that however distressing the
dreaded intelligence might prove, he should still find resources within
himself to avert its dangers.

"Speak, my Theodora; unfold the cause of your extraordinary sorrow, and
do not weep and tremble thus."

"Oh, Lope!" she despondingly cried, "I must renounce you for ever."

"For heaven's sake, calm this agitation, Theodora, and let me know the
worst. But yesterday you were as happy as a heart teeming with genuine
affection, and blessed with a most unbounded return, can make a mortal,
and now----"

"He is come," she fearfully interrupted him; "my destined husband is
come."

Gomez Arias appeared staggered at this unexpected information, but
immediately recovering himself in apparent calmness, demanded the name
of his rival. "Who is it," he cried, "that boldly claims the hand of my
Theodora?--No doubt some noble and distinguished cavalier."

"Alas! your supposition is but too just," replied the weeping girl; "and
it is that circumstance which adds to the poignancy of my grief: were he
a less estimable character, were he divested of those amiable qualities
that render man dear to the eyes of woman, my reasons for refusing his
addresses would be unanswerable. In that case, if I were made a victim
to parental authority, some consolation might be found in the conviction
that the inextinguishable hatred which I bore him was grounded on
justice. But the man that seeks an alliance with our house is one whose
choice would confer the greatest honor on the most exalted of the land.
Brave, generous, of noble birth, and alike distinguished for the
superiority of his mind and person, he is in the highest favor with the
queen, who has intrusted him with the command of one of the divisions
which are now marching against the rebel Moors."

Theodora made these observations in the perfect simplicity of her heart,
but she unconsciously excited an idea of the most galling nature in the
mind of her lover. Not that he felt the pangs of jealousy, for he was
too confident both in his own merit, and the unparalleled affection of
his beloved; but yet he was inwardly mortified at the encomiums bestowed
on another, inasmuch as they gave rise to a comparison which he could
not easily brook.