"Ah, the hated infidels!" muttered Calderon, fiercely, through his teeth.

"I saw Beatriz, and loved her at first sight. I do not say," added
Fonseca, with a blush, "that my suit, at the outset, was that which alone
was worthy of her; but her virtue soon won my esteem as well as love. I
left Seville to seek my father and obtain his consent to a marriage with
Beatriz. You know a hidalgo's prejudices--they are insuperable.
Meanwhile, the fame of the beauty and voice of the young actress reached
Madrid, and hither she was removed from Seville by royal command. To
Madrid, then, I hastened, on the pretence of demanding promotion. You,
as you have stated, were absent in Portugal on some state mission. I
sought the Duke de Lerma. I implored him to give me some post, anywhere
--I recked not beneath what sky, in the vast empire of Spain--in which,
removed from the prejudices of birth and of class, and provided with
other means, less precarious than those that depend on the sword, I might
make Beatriz my wife. The polished duke was more inexorable than the
stern hidalgo. I flew to Beatriz; I told her I had nothing but my heart
and right hand to offer. She wept, and she refused me."

"Because you were not rich?"

"Shame on you, no! but because she would not consent to mar my fortunes,
and banish me from my native land. The next day I received a peremptory
order to rejoin the army, and with that order came a brevet of promotion.
Lover though I be, I am a Spaniard: to have disobeyed the order would
have been dishonour. Hope dawned upon me--I might rise, I might become
rich. We exchanged our vows of fidelity. I returned to the camp. We
corresponded. At last her letters alarmed me. Through all her reserve,
I saw that she was revolted by her profession, and terrified at the