enjoyment of life. She had been carried to the very verge of
recklessness whenever bitter grief had oppressed her heart.

Her greatest sorrow had been that she was not permitted to see and
embrace him, and the knowledge that another filled the place in his heart
which belonged to her; but lesser troubles had also gnawed at her soul.

It had been especially hard to bear that, as the object of the greatest
Emperor's love and the mother of his son, she had so long felt that she
was reluctantly tolerated, and not really recognised in the circles which
should have been hers also. Moreover, the consciousness of exercising an
art over which she had once attained a mastery, yet never being able to
shake off the painful doubt whether the applause that greeted her
performance was genuine, spoiled many a pleasant hour.

Still, all these things had probably been only the tribute which she was
compelled to pay for the proud joy of being the mother of such a son.

Now she at last felt safe from these malicious little attacks. She had
gained a good social position; she was not only valued as a singer, but
always sought wherever the women of Ghent were earnestly pursuing music
and singing. The invitation to the Rassinghams flung wide the doors
which had formerly been closed against her, and she might be sure of not
being deemed the least important among the ladies of her party to whose
hearts the cause of King and Church was dear.

When she returned to Ghent, even if Don John had not been appointed
governor, she might even have ventured to make her house the rendezvous
of the heads of the royalist party.