The Constant Prince

by Mrs. Molesworth

for therest of the company.

  Dom Pedro had led out Queen Leonor; and the king excusing himself on theplea of fatigue, sat down a little apart, watching the dancers with sad,unseeing eyes. Presently Enrique came up and joined him.

  "I have a petition to present to you, my brother," he said.

  "What is it, then?" asked Duarte; "what is it you wish?"

  "Will you give me leave to go with the envoys who offer the Moors thisransom? Who could plead as I? And at least I should see my Fernandoonce more."

  "I cannot refuse you," said Duarte; "but, Enrique, my mind misgives me.I would not be too long without your counsel."

  "_My_ counsel!" said Enrique, bitterly; "take any counsel rather thanmine."

  Duarte smiled.

  "Your presence, then," he said. "But I think it is well that you shouldgo, though I have little hope, Enrique, in my heart--"

  "Dare to utter such a threat, and you shall answer for it with yourlife!"

  These words, in tones of high indignation, suddenly interrupted thebrothers' colloquy.

  "How now? Young gentlemen, remember where you are?" said Enrique,advancing, and confronting with his stately presence Hartsed andAlvarez, who, with flashing eyes, and hands on their sword-hilts, hadbeen so carried away by their dispute as to forget entirely the royalpresence.

  Alvarez collected himself at once, bowed, and drew back; but Harry criedout, fiercely, "My lord, I care not where I am! Dom Alvarez hasinsulted me foully, and I defy him to repeat his base slander!"

  "The cause of your dispute, sir," said the prince, "can be of no momentto me, unless it were confided to me in a more suitable manner. Suchviolence argues ill for your cause, be it what it may."

  The prince was himself very sore-hearted, and Harry had committed agreat breach of propriety; but he felt himself deeply injured, and flungaway without a word. Alvarez followed him into the court outside, andthen the two young men turned and faced each other, and Alvarez spoke.

  "I believe you to have been cognisant of the treason of your friend, themiscreant priest, Martin."

  "Speak at your peril," shouted Harry, "or I will go back and before allthe princes give you the lie!"

  "As you will, senor. I will not yield the Lady Eleanor to a traitor,nor see my prince's confidence abused by a foreigner."

  "Foreigner!" cried Harry. "No one but a rascally _foreigner_ wouldutter such an insult. Draw, and defend yourself!"

  Alvarez was not slow to answer this demand, but the clash of arms in thepalace precincts soon collected an indignant crowd, and among them SirWalter Northberry.

  "Now, Master Hartsed," he cried, wrathfully, "brawling in the palacecourt. What means all this? Put up your swords this moment,gentlemen--for shame?"

  "Master Hartsed challenged me and gave me the lie," said Alvarez.

  "Dom Alvarez insulted me and called me traitor," cried Harry.

  "This is not the first time that I have heard this wrangling," said SirWalter. "Senor Dom Alvarez, it would be well if you would explain yourcharge against a member of my household. And you, Harry, be silentuntil I question you."

  Trembling with indignation, Harry put a great force upon himself andremained silent; while Alvarez bowed, and looking at Sir Walter with hisdark, flashing eyes, said--

  "Sir, I had not meant in any way to make public my suspicions, butMaster Hartsed's violence towards me, in especial after the honour whichyou this morning have done me, obliges me to speak."

  Sir Walter bowed, and Alvarez continued--"Perceiving some slight tokensof favour which the lady whom I am unworthy to name had the grace tobestow on me, Master Hartsed lost patience and demanded how I dared toaddress Mistress Northberry."

  "That is false?" cried Harry, "you lie in your teeth!"

  "Master Harry, will you be silent at my desire?" said Northberry,sternly, "and hear Dom Alvarez to the end!"

  "I," said Dom Alvarez, "was fain to tell him, that I marvelled how thefriend and defender of the traitor Martin, whose name was on all men'slips, should dare to raise his eyes to an honourable lady. Upon whichhe threatened, and finally drew upon me."

  "And on what grounds, Senor Dom Alvarez, do you accuse Master Hartsed ofcognisance of this foul treason?"

  "Master Hartsed," said Alvarez, "was ever in the company of the traitor,he has denied the possibility of his treason, and still calls him his_friend_. He must choose, I think, between this friend and loyalgentlemen."

  "Into my house he comes not if he takes the traitor's name on his lips,"said Northberry. "Now, Master Harry, what have you to say?"

  "Nothing, before those who call me traitor," said Harry, with somedignity; then his anger getting the better of him he exclaimed--"DomAlvarez knows best whether it was not he who threatened to interrupt_my_ suit with his foul slander."

  "Your suit, ha, ha!" said Sir Walter, roughly, "'tis the first I haveheard of it. Now, to put an end to this folly, I will tell you, sir,that I have betrothed my daughter to Senor Dom Alvarez de Pereira. Nordo you make a fit return for my hospitality by raising your eyes to her.And this matter of your intimacy with the traitor priest must be lookedto. Not that I hold you guilty of his treason, but it misbecomes youeven to name his name."

  Those present noticed, that instead of violent self-defence HarryHartsed received this speech in silence, only turning very pale as hebowed stiffly to Sir Walter and walked away by himself.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

  AT ABZELLA.

  "My Arthur, whom I shall not see Till all my widowed race be run."

  Many miles inland, out of sight of the blue sea, on the other side ofwhich was home and freedom, the Portuguese captains waited at Arzellafor the news of their deliverance. They had been hurried away fromTangier almost immediately after the Portuguese had embarked, and thoughno positive cruelties were inflicted on them, the Moorish promises ofcourteous treatment did not prevent their escort from making theirjourney as wretched as they could. Intentional forgetfulness of needfulcomforts, rude jests, over-haste, and much ill-temper, tried the hotspirits of the Portuguese nobles sorely, and they were less wretched nowthat they remained under the charge of Zala-ben-Zala, and were allowed acertain amount of freedom and solitude, during which they could solacethemselves with speculations as to the turn events were taking inPortugal, and how soon Ceuta would be handed over to the Moors. Theprince never joined in these discussions, and when they were urged uponhim would reply gravely--"As God wills;" though he sometimes endeavouredto pass the time by tales of the old Crusaders, of the sufferings theyendured, and of the support which was granted to them. And once, whensome of the younger nobles repeated to him the insulting language usedtowards them by their jailers, he pointed to a gang of slaves who weretoiling over some of the fortifications of Arzella.

  "So suffer our fellow-Christians," he said.

  "They are not peers of Portugal," said the young man, sullenly.

  "Stripes wound and blows hurt, be they who they may," said Fernando."We can but endure; but oh, my friends," he added with tears in hiseyes, "would that I were alone to suffer!"

  "Alas, sir!" cried the young man, yielding, "it is your indignities thatcut us the most."

  It was after some weeks of dreary waiting that the prisoners becameaware that envoys had arrived from Portugal and had been brought under asafe-conduct to Arzella, where Zala-ben-Zala was to discuss with themthe terms of their deliverance, and one day the prince was summonedalone to meet them.

  Fernando turned as he left his companions and said, in a tone ofpeculiar earnestness--

  "My friends, remember, were we free, we would all give our lives to saveCeuta to the Church of Christ."

  Fernando was conducted from the fortress where he had been lodged acrossthe town of Arzella to the governor's palace, and ushered with muchstate and ceremony into the great hall, where stood Zala-ben-Zala,surrounded by a crowd of Moorish nobles and officers in their splendiddresses of state; opposite them a few Portuguese in full armour, and infront Dom Enrique
himself, also armed, his dark surcoat givingadditional dignity to his great height and stately presence, he wasbareheaded, and as pale as death.

  "You are at liberty to speak with one another," said Zala-ben-Zala."Maybe the interview may change the mind of your highness."

  "I speak the mind of the council of Portugal," said Enrique, in a voiceof deep sadness. Then he stretched out his arms: "Oh, my Fernando, thechoice was not for me," he said.

  Fernando held him fast for a moment, all the surroundings forgotten; andthen they sat down together on a great divan and looked into eachother's face, and Fernando knew that