The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series

he False Sebas

he natural daughter of the splendid Don John of Austria, natural son of the Emperor Charles V. and, so, half-brother to the bowelless King

l blood set them in a class apart; their bastardy denied them the worldly advantages of that spurious eminence. Their royal blood prescribed that they must mate with princes; their bastardy raised obstacles to their doing so. Therefore, since the

y. She had youth, and youth's hunger of life, and not even the repressive conditions in which she had been reared had succeeded in extinguishing her high spirit or in concealing from her the fact that she was beautiful. On the threshold of that convent which by her dre

grooms-and conferred upon her the title of Excellency, which she still retained even when after her hurried novitiate of a single year she had taken the veil. She submitted where to have striven would have been to have spent herself in vain; but her resignation was only of the body, and this dejected body moved mechanically through the tasks and recreations that go to make up the grey mon

he grey spirit of the place. But that time was not yet. For the present she must nourish her caged and starving soul with memories of glimpses caught in passing of the bright, active, stirring world

eye-witness. And above all he loved to talk of that last romantic King of Portugal, with whom he had been intimate, that high-spirited, headstrong, gallant, fair-haired lad Sebastia

eyes, her slim body bending forward in her eagerness to miss no word of this great epic. Anon when he came to tell of that disastrous day of Alcacer-el-Kebir, her dark, eager eyes would fill with tears. His tale of it was hardly truthful. He did not say that military incompetence and a presumptuous vanity which would listen to no counsels had been the cause of a ruin that had engulfed the chivalry of Portugal, and finally the very kingdom itself. He represented th

aily thoughts of this ardent girl, his empanoplied figure haunted now her sleep, so real and vivid that her waking senses would dwell fondly upon the dream-figure as upon the memory of someone seen in actual life; likewise she treasured up the memory of the dream-words he had uttered, words it would seem begotten of the longings of her starved and empty heart, words of a kind not calculated to bring peace to the soul of a nun professed. She was enam

thought filled her wi

aw him die, and you tell me that the body surrendered by Mulai-Ahmed-ben-Mahomet

pensive. He did not impatiently scorn the

that he lives, and that one day he will come, like another

... t

eople will always believe

urself?" she

sunshine amid the hum of invisible but ubiquitously pulsating life, three nuns, young and vigorous, their arms bared to the elbows, the skirts of their black habits shortened by a cincture of rope, revealing feet roughly shod in wood, were at work with spade and mattock, digging their o

iguel seemed to

at Lisbon, as befitted one who had been Don Sebastian's preacher, I was warned by a person of eminence to have a

ance, noted the quiver

o sign. At first I thought it possible... there was a story afloat that m

story?" She was trembl

guard refused to open to them, they announced that one of them was King Sebastian, and so won admittance. One of the three

.." she was

mmotion by that tale, it was denied that King Sebastian had been among these horsemen. It w

g to draw from him the admission that it was possible den

ive as high-spirited. The shame of his defeat may have hung so heavily upon him that he preferred to remain in hiding

soul who hoped more fervently than she that Don Sebastian lived, or yearned more passionately to acclaim him should

iar had been the most active of all his coadjutators. In those days Frey Miguel, who was the Provincial of his order, a man widely renowned for his learning and experience of affairs, who had been preacher to Don Sebastian and confessor to Don Antonio, had wielded a vast influence in Portugal. That influence he had unstintingly exerted on behalf of the Pretender, to whom he was profoundly devoted. After Don Antonio's army had been defeated on land by the Duke of Alba, and his fleet shattered

o abate the fervour of his patriotism. The dream of his life was ever the independence of Portugal, with a native prince upon the throne. And because of Anne's fervent hope, a hope that grew almost dail

come, her hopes began to fade again. Gradually she reverted to her earlier frame of mind

he came suddenly face to face with a stranger. A stranger would in any case have drawn his attention, but there was about this man something familiar to the friar, something that stirred in him vague memories of things long forgotten. His g

-who, in the fading light, might have been of any age from thirty to fifty-a puzz

paternity," w

Frey Miguel, still pondering h

all the world forget, your p

" he cried, and set a hand upon the fellow's shoulder, look

pastry

ry-cook

nity was the Vicar of the Convent here, and so for the sake of old times-of happier times-I bethought me t

priest, and then he check

eet. Will your pat

ed, and togethe

f the Mass. But on the morning of the fourth, he went straight from the sacri

She looked at him, and saw the feverish glitter in his sunken eyes, the hecti

tiffened, and swayed upon her feet, and caught at the back of a prie-dieu to steady and save herself from falling. He saw that he had blundered by his abruptness, that he had

at do you say?" she moan

rting all the magnetism of his will to sustain her reelin

e the colour suffused her cheeks, and her eyes glo

ere in M

as all amazement. "B

came to seek me. He comes disguised, under the false name of Gabriel de Espinosa, and setting up as a pastry-cook until his

ion of her thoughts, whom her exalted, ardent, imaginative, starved Soul had come to love with a consuming passion, was a living reality near at hand, to be seen in the flesh by the eyes of her body. It wa

rthy, and to do penance for the pride that had brought him down, by roaming the world in humble guise, earning his bread by the labour of his hands and the swea

that general outline were added in the days that followed details of the wanderings and sufferings of the Hidden Prince. At last, some few weeks after that first

hese years in which we thought him dead, and he is deeply touched.

again; her bosom heaved in tumult. Between d

ns discreetly in the background. Her eager, frightened eyes beheld a man of middle height, dignified of mien and c

ded-his beard of an auburn tint, and his eyes were grey. His face was handsome, and save for the colour of his eyes and the high arch of his nose

orward, and went down

ve your Excellency'

shuddering knees

o has come to Madrigal to set up

your Exc

re that the trade you least unde

his handsome head, an

tood another trade, I should not no

ief on that first occasion. He departed upon a promise to come soon again, and

sacristy and accompany him thence to the convent parlour, where the Princess waited, usually with one or another of her attendant nuns. These daily interviews were brief at f

s really no fault at all, since it is the heart rather than the deed that Heaven judges, and his heart had been pure, his intention in making war upon the Infidel loftily pious. Diffidently he admitted that it might be so, but both he and Fr

h or with such constancy as this. The intimacy between them-fostered and furthered by Frey Miguel-had so ripened in a few weeks that Anne was justified in looking upon him as her saviour from the living tomb to which she had been condemned, in hoping that he would restore her to the life and liberty for which

had the sanction of Frey Miguel, the convent's spiritual adviser. But from without, from the Provincial of the Order of St. Augustine, came at last a letter to Anne, respectfully stern in tone, to inform her that the numerous visits she received from a

eyes scanned it a

been feared," he

st worse follow and all be r

bed her of bre

eeing the look of horror in her face, "What else, what else?" he added, im

n. "I... I shall see him b

r." He flung away in deepest perturbation, leavin

Espinosa was even then in the convent in Frey Miguel's cell. Fearful lest he should be smuggled thence without her seeing him, And careless of the impropriet

ers-they were no less by now-

d, casting all prudence to t

in the morning

e?" She was

Valladolid at first, and t

hall I see

when God

ose you... if I should never see you

time is ripe. I shall return by All Saints, or by Christmas at

of fierceness. "We belong to each other, you and I. But you ar

able. There was an ink-horn, a box of pounce, some quills, and a sheaf of paper there.

ost serene Dona ulna of Austria, daughter of the most serene Prince, Don Jo

nner of the Kings of Portugal

ou, lady?" he pleade

this scrawl

l redeem as soon as

licitude for him, until naught would content her but she must empty into his hands her little store of treasure-a hundred ducats and such jewels as she possessed,

ime he had passionately urged him not to linger; and then Sebastian had done the same by the Princess both weeping now.

oss and desolation, a desolation which at last she sought to mitigate by writing to

liciously spent, which are no more. This privation is for me so severe a punishment of heaven that I should call it unjust, for without cause I find myself deprived of the happiness missed by me for so many years and purchased at the price of suffering and tears. Ah, my lord, how willingly, nevertheless, would I not suffer all over aga

ou I shall keep in life and in death, for death itself could not tear it

How he filled his days we do not know, beyond the fact that he moved freely abroad. For it was in the streets of that town that meddlesome Fa

gh Espinosa's garments were not in their first fres

uoth the intrigued Gregorio, so soon

of his sometime comrade. "Times are changed, friend Gregorio. I

s your prese

orbade further questions. He gathered his cloak about him to proceed upon his way. "If

spinosa must home with Gregorio. Gregorio's wife would be charmed to renew his acquaintance, and to hear from his own lips of his improved and prosperous st

none of the signs of satisfaction at Espinosa's prosperity which Gregorio had promised. Perhaps Espinosa observed her evil envy,

and I will pay you fifty ducat

isplayed a gold watch-most rare possession-set with diamonds, a ring of

Madrid together that you had been a pa

them stricken, he must play upon them further. Nothing, it seems, was sacred to him-not even the portrait of that lovely, desolate roya

beautiful in Spain," he bade them. "A p

un," the woman protested.

e no laws," he told

e offer he had made him. He would come again for the coo

lence by the jealous fear that what he had told them of himself might, after all, be true. Upon that malev

lcalde. He was arrested and dragged before Don Rodrigo to give an account of himself and of certain objects of val

," he answered firmly, "a

me you by th

a to sell for her account. That is the bu

ona Ana's

t

ona Ana's? And do you, then, pretend t

hould they

for that? The Alcalde conned his man more closely, and noted that dignity of bearing, that calm assurance which usually i

rigo's arrival, the friar had abstracted from Espinosa's house a box of papers which he reduced to ashes. Unfortunately Espinosa had been careless. Four letters not co

patriotism and passionate devotion to the cause of Don Antonio, remembered the firm dignity of his prisoner, and leapt at a justifiable conclusion. The man in his hands-the man whom the Princess Anne addressed in such passionate terms by the title of Majesty-was the Prior of Crato. He conceived that he had stumbled here

r wrists in a grip of iron to prevent her, with little regard in that moment for the blood royal in her veins. King Philip was a ster

t, she surrendered the fragments

himself a pastry-cook, and to whom you write

claration she added briefly the story of his escape fro

Catholic Majesty was deeply perturbed. He at once dispatched Don Juan de Llano, the Apostolic Commissary of the Holy Office to Madrigal to

dolid to the prison of Medina del Campo. He was tak

k with so much honour?" he as

and discovered that he spoke both French and German fluently. But when Cervatos addressed him in Portuguese t

ded one another with a wearisome monotony of results. The Apostolic Commissary interrogated the princess and Frey Miguel; Don Rod

ing interrogatories. She insisted that the prisoner was Don Sebastian, and wrote passionate letters to Espinosa, begging him f

not be the Prior of Crato, Don Rodrigo had now assured himself. He fenced skilfully under examination, ever evading the magistrate's practiced point when it sought to pin him, and he was no less careful to say nothing that sh

wn either of them-an answer this which would have fitted the case of Don Sebastian,

the African expedition, and the belief that Espinosa might well be the missing monarch. He protested t

son, Espinosa was roused from sleep by an unexpected visit

raining him, "that is not nec

h tousled hair, and blinking in the light of the torches, inst

nto account that I am a man of honour. He may require my death, but in an honourable manner, and not upon

f the Alcalde was over

ble and lowly origin, and sometimes a person of honourable degree. To hear you at this moment

the Alcalde had detected. In that strong light Don Rodrigo saw that the prisoner's hair and beard had turned grey at the roots, and so received the last proof that he had to do with the b

so, before many weeks were past his hair had faded to its natural grey, and he

in all that yet remained obscure. It was from Frey Miguel, after a thousand prevarications

ey had become acquainted, and Frey Miguel had had an instance of the man's resource and courage. Further, he was of the height of Don Sebastian and of the build to which the king might have grown in the years that were sped, and he presented other superficial resemblances to the late king. The colour of his hair and beard could be corrected; and he might be made to play the part of the Hidden Prince for whose return Portugal was waiting so passionately and confidently. There had been other impostors aforetime, but they had lacked the endowments of Espinosa, and their origins could be traced without difficulty. In addition to these natural endowments, Espinosa should be avouched by Frey Miguel than whom nobody in the world was better qualified in such a matter-and by

servitude, the happiness of a whole people, to weigh in the balance against the fates of a natural daughter of Don John of Austria and a soldier of fortune turned pastry-cook? Frey Miguel thought not, and his plot might well have succeeded but for the base strain in Espinosa and the

I am..." he would sa

lm fortitude. Frey Miguel suffered in the same way with the like di

ed. She was to be transferred to another convent, there to undergo a term of four years' solitary confinement in her cell, and to fast on bread and water every Friday. She was pronounced incapable of ever holding any offi

only sin was that, yielding to the hunger of her starved heart, and chafing under the ascetic life imposed upon her, she had allowed herself to be fascinate

prescription of King Philip, but that which arose from her own broken and humiliated spirit. She had been uplifted a moment by

said, there is in his