succeed in winning the crown and hand of this--whether she is guilty or
not--beautiful, devout, and, whatever errors she has committed, desirable
Queen, that the troubles which it is so hard for your ambitious soul to
bear will then vanish? When you have won the woman for whom you yearn,
the throne, and the sceptre, will your sore heart be healed and happiness
make its joyous entry, and also remain in your soul, that is so hard to
satisfy? For--I see and feel it--it is carried away by the 'More,
farther,' of your father. Can you, my John, have you really the firm
conviction that, if this lofty desire is fulfilled, you will be content
and believe that you have found the summit and the limit of your feverish
struggle upward and forward?"

"Yes, and again yes," cried Don John in a tone of immovably firm belief,
while his large eyes beamed upon his mother with an expression of full
and genuine trust. "The vainglory which your first sacrifice brought me
was the source of this life full of bitter disappointment. The hand of
Mary Stuart, the lovely martyr, the woman so lavishly endowed with every
mental and physical gift, for whom my heart has yearned ever since I saw
her picture, and the crown of England, the symbol of genuine majesty,
will transform disappointment into the fulfilment which Heaven has
hitherto denied me. If these both fall to the lot of the son, the
mother's sacrifice will not have been in vain; no, it will bring him
golden fruit, for the success of this enterprise will bestow upon your
John, besides the fleeting radiance, the sun whence the light emanates.
It will raise him to the height to which he aspires, and for which Fate
destined him."

Here he hesitated, for the agitated face of Escovedo, who entered with a
despatch in his hand, showed that something unexpected and startling had
occurred.