person, cruelly as Heaven has destroyed her best gift. On no account--
you hear me--shall she be wounded or injured for my sake so long as she
reminds me only by her eyes that in happier days we were closely
connected. But to-day the ghost ventured to draw nearer to me than is
seemly, and I recognise the object. It entered the park, not on my
account, but the boy's--and, Adrian, from your house. I demand the whole
truth! Did she find the way to the boy, and was your wife, who is
usually a prudent woman, unwise enough to allow her to feast her eyes
upon him?"

"She is the child's mother," the valet answered gently, "and your Majesty
knows--"

"I know," Charles interrupted the faithful attendant in a sterner tone
than he commonly used to him, "that you were most positively forbidden to
permit any one to approach the boy, least of all the person who gazes at
him with greedy eyes, and from whom might proceed measureless perils.
Your wife, Adrian, who is tenderly attached to the child, will now suffer
the most painfully for the disobedience. It must go away from here, go
at once, and to a distant country--to Spain. If politics and Heaven
permit, I shall soon follow.--You, Luis, will now arrange with Adrian the
best plan for the removal. The work must be accomplished in the utmost
secrecy. The boy shall grow up in the wholesome air of the country. No
one who surrounds him must be permitted even to suspect to whom he owes
his life. This child shall be simple in his habits, devout, and modest,
far from flattery and spoiling, among other lads of plain families, who
know nothing of heresy and court follies. This innocent child's soul,
at least, shall not be corrupted at its root. I consecrated him to the
Saviour, and as a pure sacrifice he must receive him from his father's
hand. I have given him a beautiful charge. In the monastery his prayers