Montezuma's Daughter

my birth was built or added to early in the reign of the seventh Henry, but long before his time some kind

g since it has ceased to grow grapes, though the name of the 'Earl's Vineyard' still clings to all that slope of land which lies between this house and a certain health-giving spring that bubbles from the bank the half of a mile away, in the waters of which sick folks come to bathe even from Norwich and Lowestoft. But sheltered

ter has been known to pour into the stables at the back of it, yet being built on sand and gravel there is no healthier habitation in the parish. For the rest the building is of stud-work and red brick, quaint and mellow looking, with many corners and gables that in summer are half hidden in roses and other creeping plants, and with its outlook on the marshes and the common where the lights vary continually with the seaso

us in our history, the last of whom, Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, lost his head for treason when I was young, and the castle passed to the De la Poles with her. But some offshoots of the old Wingfield stock lingered in the neighbourhood, perchance there was a bar sinister on their coat of arms, I know not and do not care to know; at the leas

e smaller sitting-room. The end of it was that the lad was sent to the priory here in Bungay, where his conduct was of such nature that within a year the prior prayed his parents to take him back and set him in some way of secular life. Not only, so said the prior, did my father cause scandal by his actions, breaking out of the priory at night and visiting drinking houses and other places; but, such was the sum of his wickedness, he

ve used it. But my father, who was now nineteen years of age and very stout and strong, twisted it from his hand and flung it full fifty yards, saying

rd Mills. Perhaps there was truth in this belief, or perhaps there was none. What does it matter, seeing that the maid married a butcher at Beccles and died years since at the good age of ninety and five? But true or false, my grandfather believed the tale, and knowin

world, otherwise, however, than through the gratings of a monastery window. So the end of it was that he went to foreign parts in

ate to send him away, though for no reason save that he would mortify his own love and flesh, offering his son for a sacrifice as Abraham would have offered Isaac. But though my father a

he monastery in Seville to his brother, the prior of St. Mary's at Bungay, saying that my father had fled from the m

this he wept, and bemoaned himself that his folly in forcing one into the Church who had no liking for that path, had brought about the shameful end of his only son. After that date also he broke his friendship with the prior of St. Mary's at Bungay, and ceased h

mouth none other than my father, who had been absent some eight years in all. Nor did he come alone, for with him he brought a wife, a young and very l

he fell under the power of the Holy Office, for once when as a little lad I bathed with him in the Elbow Pool, where the river Waveney bends some three hundred yards above this house, I saw that his breast and arms were

nds by him whom I name the chief of the devils, though he is younger than I am by three years, and their pincers and hot irons left these marks upon me. Aye, and they would have burnt me alive also, only I escaped, thanks to your mother-but such tales are not for a little lad's hearing; and see you never speak of them, Thomas, for the Hol

ould always have followed it, for I know that from this blood springs the most of such evil as is in me. Hence come my fixedness of purpose or rather obstinacy, and my powers of unchristian hatred that are not small

ess, that is when my father was not near, for such names angered him. She never learned to speak English very well, but he would suffer her to talk in no other tongue before him. Still, when he was not there she spoke in Spanish, of which language, however, I alone of the family became a master-and that more because of certain volumes of old Spanish romances which she had by her, than for any other reason. From my earliest childhood I was fond of such tales, and it was by bribing me with the promise that I should read them that she persuaded me to learn Spanish. For

, beautiful that he hates me. Others would have wedded me besides you

his road from Yarmouth, and in the course of his talk let it fall that a Spanish ship was at anchor in the Roads, laden with merchandise. My father pricked up his ears at this, and asked who her capta

ed pale beneath her olive s

grant that i

o the man's appearance, but without learning anything more. Then he bade

ft her when I went to my bed, so I found her when I came from it at dawn. I can remember well pushing the door ajar t

en early, mot

ain down, Thoma

What do

future, my son. Would tha

the house of that physician under whom I was learning the art of healing, my f

, saying, 'Be of good cheer, sweet, it c

u see him?'

the night, and I hurried home

een him, husband. He may we

d it be he, and should he dare to set foot in the parish of Ditchingham, there

' she said, and they beg

and started down the bridle-path towards the commo

ay mean. One day your father will tell you. It has to do with a shadow whic

best keep out of reach of this,' I sai

be dealt with otherwise than by blows, Th

best argument at the last, for the

said, smiling and kissing me. 'Remember the old Spa

mother: "Strike before thou art

n the wall of the old house. As was her custom, she wore a mantilla of white lace upon her head, the ends of which were wound beneath her chin, and the arrangement of it was such that at this distance for one moment

er again till