But Don John, with increasing excitement, exclaimed: "Yes, mother!
I am so ambitious that, if I knew there was another man who more ardently
desired renown and honour, I would throw myself out of this window. 'Who
does not struggle ward, falls back!' has long been my motto, and I am
struggling upward and know the goal."

A startling suspicion seized Barbara, and with anxious caution she
whispered:

"Do I see aright? You have learned from Flanders and Brabant how
bitterly King Philip is hated there, and you now hope to contend with him
for the crown of the Netherlands? The victory you, my hero, my general,
you would surely attain--" But here she was interrupted.

Don John cut short her words with the cry, "Mother!" and then went on
indignantly: "If any one else had given me this advice, I would deprive
him of any inclination to repeat it. God granted Don Philip the
sovereignty. My oath, my honour, forbid me to rise against him. He has
lost all claim to my love, my gratitude, but he is sure of the fidelity
of his ill-treated brother. Besides," he added proudly, "my wishes mount
higher."

Barbara had listened to her son with the utmost eagerness; now, taking a
locket from the breast of his doublet, he whispered:

"Do you know whom this lovely picture represents? No? Well, these are
the features of the fairest and most unfortunate of women. Mary Stuart,
the hapless Queen of Scotland, the devout, patient sufferer for our holy
faith, looks at you from this frame. She does not refuse me her hand.
The Holy Father in Rome and the Guises in France approve the bold