promised to accept her voice and enable her to serve her art again with
full pleasure.

The other was Hannibal Melas, who before Granvelle's fall had been
transferred there as one of the higher officials of the government.

She also entered into relations with other heads of the Spanish party,
and thus found in Ghent what she sought. The pension allowed her enabled
her to hire a pretty house, and to furnish it with a certain degree of
splendour. A companion, for whom she selected an elderly unmarried lady
who belonged to an impoverished noble family, accompanied her in her
walks; a major-domo governed the four men-servants and the maids of the
household; Frau Lamperi retained her position as lady's maid; the steward
and cook attended to the kitchen and the cellar; and two pages, with a
pretty one-horse carriage, lent an air of elegance to her style of
living.

For the religious service, which was directed by her own chaplain, she
had had a chapel fitted up in the house, according to the Ratisbon
fashion. The poor were never turned from her door without alms, and
where she encountered great want she often relieved it with a generosity
far beyond her means. Under the instruction of Maestro Feys, she eagerly
devoted herself to new exercises in singing. Doubtless she realized that
time and the long period of hoarseness had seriously injured her voice,
but even now she could compare with the best singers in the city.

Thus Barbara saw her youthful dreams of fortune realized--nay, surpassed
--and in the consciousness of liberty which she now enjoyed, elevated by
the success gained by the person she loved best, she again followed her
lover's motto. With the impelling "More, farther" before her eyes, she