"Oh!" said Calderon, with much semblance of emotion, "I would lay down my
life in your service, and I have often surrendered my conscience to your
lightest will. But this would be so base a perfidy in me! He has
confided his life of life to my hands. How canst even thou count on my
faith if thou knowest me false to another?"

"False! art thou not false to me? Have I not confided to thee, and dost
thou not desert me--nay, perhaps, betray? How wouldst thou serve this
Fonseca? How liberate the novice?"

"By an order of the court. Your royal mother--"

"Enough!" said the prince, fiercely; "do so. Thou shalt have leisure
for repentance."

As he spoke, Philip strode to the door. Calderon, alarmed and anxious,
sought to detain him; but the prince broke disdainfully away, and
Calderon was again alone.




CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL AMBITION, AND ECCLESIASTICAL.

Scarcely had the prince vanished, before the door that led from the
anteroom was opened, and an old man, in the ecclesiastical garb, entered
the secretary's cabinet.