"I believe it. His love of pleasure decoys him from ambition--so it
should be. I am not an austere parent. Keep his favour, Don Roderigo;
it pleases me. Hast thou offended him in aught?"

"I trust I have not incurred so great a misfortune."

"He spoke not of thee with his usual praises--I noticed it. I tell thee
this that thou mayest rectify what is wrong. Thou canst not serve me
more than by guarding him from all friendships save with those whose
affection to myself I can trust. I have said enough."

"Such has ever been my object. Bat I have not the youth of the prince,
and men speak ill of me, that, in order to gain his confidence, I share
in his pursuits."

"It matters not what they say of thee. Faithful ministers are rarely
eulogised by the populace or the court. Thou knowest my mind: I repeat,
lose not the prince's favour." Calderon bowed low, and withdrew. As he
passed through the apartments of the palace, he crossed a gallery, in
which he perceived, stationed by a window, the young prince and his own
arch-foe, the Duke d'Uzeda. At the same instant, from an opposite door,
entered the Cardinal-Duke de Lerma; and the same unwelcome conjunction of
hostile planets smote the eyes of that intriguing minister. Precisely
because Uzeda was the duke's son was he the man in the world whom the
duke most dreaded and suspected.

Whoever is acquainted with the Spanish comedy will not fail to have
remarked the prodigality of intrigue and counter-intrigue upon which its
interest is made to depend. In this, the Spanish comedy was the faithful
mirror of the Spanish life, especially in the circles of a court. Men