contriver of this meeting: but let it not be said that you have done wisely; for well we know that sudden joy is wont to be fatal as well as sudden grief."

So saying, she turned to Isabella and parted her from her mother, who, when they had sprinkled water in her face, soon revived, and being somewhat more collected, knelt before the queen and said; May it please your majesty to pardon my presumption-but it is no wonder that I should lose my senses with the joy of finding that beloved treasure."

The queen told her (Isabella acting as interpreter) that she said very right.

In this manner were her parents made known to Isabella, and she to her parents; whom the queen commanded to remain at the palace, that they might enjoy at leisure the presence and conversation of their daughter.

Ricaredo was greatly rejoiced at this; and again he solicited the queen to fulfil the promise she had made him of giving him his betrothed-in case he had merited her; and if he had not merited her, then he entreated her majesty to command him forthwith upon other services which might entitle him to that which he so much desired.

The queen was well aware that Ricaredo was quite satisfied of his own desert, and of his great valour, which needed not fresh trials to prove it; and so she told him that in four days she would deliver Isabella to him, at the same time doing them both every honour in her power.

With this assurance Ricaredo took leave, most happy in the confident hope of so speedily possessing Isabella without one alarming chance of losing her-which is every lover's fondest aspiration. The time passed on--but not so swiftly as he could have wished; for they who live in hope of a coming boon, ever fancy, not that Time flies, but that he travels with the pace of indolence itself. At length, however, the day arrived, on which Ricaredo expected, not to extinguish his desires, but to find in Isabella new charms, impelling him to love her yet more dearly, if that were possible.

But in that short space of time wherein he thought that the bark of his good fortune was gliding with propitious gale towards the wished for haven, opposing fate raised such a tempest on its track as oftentimes had well nigh overwhelmed it.

CHAP. IV.

It happened, then, that the queen's first lady of the bedchamber, who had charge of Isabella, had a son about one-and

twenty years of age, named Earl Ar nesto, whose elevated rank, high blood, and the great favour which his mother enjoyed with the queen, all together made him excessively arrogant, haughty, and presumptuous. This same Arnesto fell in love with Isabella so ardently that his soul caught fire at her eyes; but al though, during Ricaredo's absence, he had shewn her some marks of his passion, never had Isabella given him any encouragement. Notwithstanding that rejection and disdain in the commencement of a love-suit will usually make a lover desist from his enterprise, quite the contrary effect was worked upon Arnesto by the many open repulses which he received from Isabella; for her constancy did but incite him, and her modesty inflame him.

So, as he found that Ricaredo, in the queen's opinion, had merited Isabella, and that she was so shortly to be given to him in marriage, he was ready to fall into despair. But before he should do a thing so mean-spirited and cowardly, he resolved to speak to his mother, whom he asked to solicit the queen to make Isabella his bride; for that otherwise she might rest assured that death was awaiting him.

The lady of the bedchamber was in astonishment at the words of her son; but knowing the fierceness of his violent temper, and the tenacity with which any desire fixed itself in his breast, she was apprehensive that his passion would have some unhappy issue. Nevertheless, as a mother, in whom it is natural to desire and promote her children's happiness, she promised her son that she would speak to the queen, not with any hope of obtaining from her a thing so unreasonable as the forfeiture of her word, but that, at all events, she might not leave the last desperate remedy untried.

Accordingly, Isabella being that morning dressed, by the queen's command, in a manner splendid beyond description; and the queen having with her own hand thrown about her neck a string of pearls, from among the best that had been brought in the prize-ship, valued at twenty thousand ducats, and put a diamond ring upon her finger worth six thousand escudos; all the ladies being in a bustle of preparation for the approaching espousals; the first lady of the bedchamber came into the queen's presence, knelt down before her, and petitioned her to postpone Isabella's nuptials for two days longer, saying, that if her majesty would do her but that favour, she should consider it as an ample payment

of all favours else that she might have merited or hoped for.

The queen desired to know first of all, why she so earnestly solicited that postponement, which would be directly contrary to the word she had given to Ricaredo; but the lady would not tell her until she had first obtained a promise that her request should be acceded to― so strong was the queen's desire to have the occasion of this demand.

And so, when the lady of the bedchamber had obtained what she desired for the time, she informed the queen of her son's passion, and of her own apprehensions that, unless Isabella were given him to wife, he would either go into despair, or commit some scandalous act; and that she had asked for the two days' delay, solely to give her majesty time to consider what might be the fittest means of relieving her son's unhappi

ness.

The queen replied, that had not her royal word interposed, she might have found means to obviate so urgent a difficulty; but that she would not break that word, nor deceive the hopes of Ricaredo, for all the interest upon earth.

This answer the lady communicated to her son; and he, without a moment's delay, burning with desire and jealousy, went and put on full armour; then, mounting a fine and powerful horse, he went and presented himself before the house of Clotaldo, calling out aloud for Ricaredo to come to the window. The latter had already put on his decorated bridegroom's habit, and was just on the point of setting out for the palace with the requisite attendance. But when he heard this call, and was told from whom it came, he, with some agitation, went up to one of the windows, and as soon as Arnesto perceived him, he said:

"Ricaredo, mark what I have to say to you. The queen, my mistress, commanded you to go upon her service, and perform deeds that should make you deserving of the peerless Isabella. You went, and brought back your ships laden with gold, wherewith you think you have purchased and merited Isabella. Now, although the queen, my mistress, has promised her to you, it was because she thought there was no other about her court that could serve her better than you, or do more to deserve Isabella. But therein, forsooth, she may have been mistaken; and so she is, in my opinion, which I hold to be very truth; and therefore I tell you, that neither have you done anything to make you worthy of Isabella, nor can you ever do anything

to raise you to such fortune and in maintenance of this my declaration that thou dost not deserve her, if thou think fit to contradict me, I here defy thee to mortal combat."

The earl was now silent, and Ricaredo answered him thus :-

"I am nowise concerned to answer your challenge, my lord; for I freely declare, not only that I do not deserve Isabella, but that there is no man breathing who does; so that, acknowledging as I do the truth of what you say, I once more tell you that I am not called upon to meet your challenge; but yet I accept it, on account of the presumption you have shewn in challenging me at all."

So saying, he retired from the window, and called hastily for his arms. His relatives, and all who had come to attend him to court, were thrown into perturbation. Among the many who had seen Arnesto armed, and heard him vociferating his challenge, there were those who did not fail to go and relate the whole to the queen, who ordered the captain of her guard to go and seize the earl. The captain made such speed that he arrived just at the moment when Ricaredo was coming away from his father's house, clad in the very same armour in which he had landed from his expedition, and mounted upon a beautiful horse.

When the earl saw the officer, he immediately guessed for what purpose he came, and resolved not to let himself be taken. So he called out aloud to Ricaredo-" You see, Ricaredo, what impediment comes between us; but if you have a mind to chastise me, you will seek me out; and with the mind which I have to chastise you, I shall seek out you; and as two men that seek each other do not long seek in vain, let us leave till then the performance of our wishes."

"Agreed," answered Ricaredo.

The captain now came up, with all his guard, and told the earl that he must make him prisoner in her majesty's

name.

The earl replied, that he submitted, but not to be taken anywhere else than into the queen's presence.

To this the captain assented; and taking him in the midst of his guard, he carried him to the palace and before the queen, whom her lady of the bedchamber had already apprised of her son's violent passion for Isabella, entreating her majesty to pardon the earl, who, as a youth and in love, was liable to even greater errors. Arnesto arrived before the queen,

who, without waiting to hear anything he had to say, ordered him to be deprived of his sword, and carried prisoner to a certain tower.

All these things were torturing the hearts of Isabella and her parents, who beheld the tranquillity of their fortune thus suddenly disturbed.

The lady of the bedchamber advised the queen that, in order to obviate the mischief that might arise between her kindred and Ricaredo's, she should remove the cause out of the way, by sending off Isabella to Spain, and so the effects that were to be feared would be avoided; enforcing her arguments by adding, that Isabella was a catholic, and so firm a one that none of her persuasions, and she had used many, had been able to make her swerve in the least from her attachment to her religion.

To this the queen answered, that she esteemed her the more on that account, for adhering to the faith which her parents had taught her; and that as for sending her to Spain, she would not hear of it, for that she took great pleasure in contemplating her lovely aspect, her many graces and virtues; and that assuredly, if not on that day, on some other she should give her in marriage to Ricaredo, as she had promised him.

This determination of the queen's left her lady of the bedchamber so disconsolate, that she was unable to answer a word; and thinking, as she had already thought, that if Isabella could not be removed out of the way, there was no other means whatever, either of soothing her son's violent temper, or inducing him to keep peace with Ricaredo, she resolved to commit one of the greatest cruelties that ever entered the imagination of a woman of rank, especially so elevated as hers; she resolved to take off Isabella by poison; and as the temper of women is, for the most part, hasty and eager, she administered the poison that very evening, in a conserve, which she forced her to take as being good for a sinking of the heart, by which she was then affected.

Not long after she had taken it, Isabella's tongue and throat began to swell, her lips to turn black, her voice to grow hoarse, her eyes to look wild, and her bosom to feel oppressed-all evident signs that poison had been given her. The ladies hurried to the queen, and told her what had happened, assuring her at the same time that her first lady of the bedchamber was the author of the mischief. The queen found no great difficulty in crediting this statement; and so she

went to see Isabella, who already was almost expiring.

The queen ordered her physicians to be summoned with all speed; and while awaiting their arrival she made her attendants give the patient a quantity of certain powders, with many other antidotes, such as great sovereigns keep always in readiness for the like emergencies. The physicians came, administered their remedies with all diligence, and solicited the queen that the lady of the bedchamber might be made to declare what kind of poison she had given, as there was no cause to suspect that it had been administered by any one but herself. She made the required disclosure; and upon this information the physicians applied their remedies so abundantly and efficaciously, that by their means, and by God's blessing, Isabella's life was spared, or at least there appeared good hopes of saving it.

The queen ordered her lady of the bedchamber to be taken and kept in close custody in a small room in the palace, intending to punish her as her crime deserved; although the latter defended herself by saying, that in killing Isabella she was only offering up a sacrifice to heaven, by ridding the earth of a catholic, at the same time that she was removing the occasion of strife to her

son.

When these melancholy news reached the ears of Ricaredo, they drove him almost to distraction, so wild were his movements, and so heart-rending his complaints. Isabella, however, was not doomed to die; nature having, as it were, commuted that sentence into the leaving her without eye-lashes, eyebrows, or hair, with her face swollen, her colour gone, her skin blistered, and her eyes watery; in short, so unsightly did she remain that, as hitherto she had appeared a miracle of beauty, so now she seemed a monster of ugliness. They who had known her before thought it more unfortunate for her to be left in that condition, than it would have been had the poison killed her. Nevertheless Ricaredo solicited her hand of the queen; and entreated her majesty that she would permit him to take her to his own residence, for that the love which he bore her possessed the soul as well as the body, and that if Isabella had lost her beauty, she could not have lost her inestimable virtues.

"take her,

"True," said the queen; Ricaredo; and mark well that you bear with you a most precious jewel enclosed in a homely casket. God is my witness,

how fain would I have given it to you such as you delivered it to me; and perhaps, by the punishment which I will inflict on the perpetrator of so heinous a crime, vengeance at least will be satisfied."

Ricaredo used many arguments with the queen in extenuation of her lady's guilt; entreating that she would forgive her, as, he said, the excuses she alleged were sufficient to make even greater offences pardonable.

In fine, Isabella and her parents were presented to him, and he carried them home to his parents' house; the queen having added to the rich pearls and the diamond ring other jewels and apparel, which testified her great affection for Isabella. The latter remained in her deformity for two months, without giving any signs of ever recovering her pristine beauty; but at the end of that period her skin began to clear, and her lovely complexion to return.

Meanwhile, Ricaredo's parents, seeing no possibility of Isabella's perfect reco very, determined to send for the young Scottish lady, to whom they had originally proposed to marry their son, and to send without his knowledge, not doubt ing that the present beauty of the new bride would soon make him forget the departed charms of Isabella, whom they designed to send to Spain with her parents, bestowing upon them at the same time property sufficient to compensate their past losses.

Scarcely six weeks had elapsed when, unexpected by Ricaredo, the intended bride entered the gates with an attendance suited to her rank, and looking so beautiful that, after the Isabella that used to be, there was not another so handsome in all London. Ricaredo was startled at the unlooked-for presence of this young lady; and was fearful lest the alarm of her arrival should prove fatal to Isabella; and so, to allay it, he went straight to her bedside, and found her parents with her, in whose presence he said:

"Dearest Isabella,- my parents, in the great affection they bear me, not yet aware how great a one I bear to you, have brought to our house a young Scotchwoman, to whom they intended to marry me before I had come to the knowledge of your own perfections; and this, I believe, they have done to the intent that this damsel's great beauty may banish the impression of yours, which is fixed in my heart. But, Isabella, from the first moment of my passion, my love for you was far different

from that which tends only to sensual gratification; for, although your personal charms enchained my senses, your inestimable virtues captivated my soul;-so that if in your beauty I loved you, in your deformity I still adore you; in confirmation whereof let me take this hand;" and grasping her right hand, which she held out to him, he continued: "By that catholic faith which my religious parents taught me—which if it be not in all due integrity, then by that I swear which the Roman pontiff sanctions, that which in my heart I confess, believe, and hold,—and by the true God who now hears us, I promise thee, Isabella, my dearer half, to be thy husband-and such henceforth I am, if thou wilt so elevate me as to make me thine."

Isabella was surprised at Ricaredo's words, and her parents were in utter astonishment. She knew not what to say, nor how to do otherwise than to kiss Ricaredo's hand repeatedly, and tell him, with tears in her eyes, that she accepted him for hers, and yielded herself to be his slave. Ricaredo then pressed his lips to the unsightly cheek which in its beauty he had never ventured to approach; and Isabella's parents solemnized the espousals with tender and plenteous tears.

Ricaredo told them that he would contrive, in the manner they should afterwards see, to get the marriage with the Scottish lady postponed; and that when his father should desire to send them all three to Spain, they must not refuse, but go and wait for him at Cadiz or at Seville for two years, within which time he pledged himself to join them, should heaven grant him so long to live; and should that term expire without their seeing him, then they were to set it down for certain that some serious impediment-most likely, death-had interposed.

Isabella replied, that she would wait for him not only two years, but all the years of her life, until she should be convinced that his own was at an end, for that she could never survive the intelligence of his death.

These tender assurances drew fresh tears from them all, and Ricaredo withdrew, to go and tell his parents that he would by no means be married, nor give his hand to the Scottish lady, without first going to Rome to satisfy his conscience. Such arguments on this point did he use to them, and to the relatives who were come with Clisterna-so the Scottish lady was named that, being all

catholics, they admitted them without difficulty; and Clisterna consented to remain at her father-in-law's house until Ricaredo's return, who had requested the postponement for a twelvemonth.

This being agreed and decided, Clotaldo informed Ricaredo of his determination to send Isabella and her parents to Spain; that the queen had given him permission; and that perhaps Isabella's native air would hasten and facilitate that recovery of which she had begun to shew some symptoms. Ricaredo, that he might give no indication of his intentions, answered his father coolly, that he must do what he thought best; only he en treated him not to take from Isabella any of the valuables which the queen had given her.

Clotaldo promised him that he would not; and the same day he went to ask the queen's leave, both to marry his son to Clisterna, and to send Isabella and her parents to Spain. The queen gave her consent in both instances, and thought Clotaldo had taken a prudent resolution. The very same day, without either holding legal consultation, or subjecting her lady of the bedchamber to judicial examination, she condemned her to perpetual exclusion from her office about her person, and to a fine of ten thousand escudos in gold for Isabella's use. And Earl Arnesto, for giving the challenge, she banished from England for six years.

Within four days Arnesto was prepared to depart in pursuance of his sentence, and the money was in readiness. The queen sent for a rich merchant residing in London, who, being himself a Frenchman, had correspondents in France, Italy, and Spain. To him she delivered the ten thousand escudos, and requested bills for the payment of the money to Isabella's father at Seville or some other Spanish port. The merchant, reckoning up his discounts and allowances, told the queen that he would give bills, perfectly safe, upon another French merchant, his correspondent, at Seville -after this manner. That he would write to Paris to get the bills drawn there by another correspondent of his, so that they might bear a French date instead of an English one, communication being prohibited between England and Spain; and that then it would only be necessary to carry a letter of advice from him without any date, but with his signature, in order to have the money paid over by the merchant at Seville, as he would already have received advice to that effect from the one at Paris. Fi

nally, the queen took so many securities of the merchant as satisfied her that the transaction was perfectly safe.

She moreover sent for the master of a Flemish vessel which was to sail the next day for France, merely to take a certifi cate from some French port, which should enable it to enter a Spanish one, as coming from France instead of England; and him she earnestly requested to take Isabella and her parents on board, and with every care for their safety and good treatment, to land them at the first Spanish port he should touch at. The sea-captain, desirous of gratifying the queen, told her that he would do so, and would land them either at Lisbon, at Cadiz, or at Seville.

Having taken the merchant's securities, the queen sent word to Clotaldo that he must not take from Isabella any article of what she had given her in jewels or apparel. The next day, Isabella and her parents went to take leave of the queen, who received them with great kindness. She gave then the merchant's letter; and made them many additional presents in money and in articles of pleasure for their voyage. In such terms did Isabella express her gratitude, that the queen felt more than ever bound to do her kindness. She then took leave of the ladies of the court, who, now that she was no longer handsome, desired not her departure, finding themselves relieved from the envy which they had borne her beauty, and well pleased to have the enjoyment of her graceful conversation. The queen embraced all three; and commending them to their good stars, and to the captain's care, and requesting Isabella to send her information of her safe arrival in Spain, and ever after of her health, through the hands of the French merchant, she took final leave of herself and her parents.

They embarked the same evening, not without tears from Clotaldo and his lady, and from all their household, by whom Isabella was exceedingly beloved. Ricaredo was not present at this parting; for, in order to avoid betraying the real state of his feelings, he had got some of his friends to take him out that day on a hunting party. The presents which the Lady Catalina made to Isabella for her voyage were many; her embraces, endless; her tears, abundant; her injunctions that she would write, without number; and Isabella and her parents answered them with such ample acknowledgments, that those whom they left weeping, they still left satisfied.