Padilla, when he left the Hall, joined the king in his antechamber, and
the two made various hurried preparations for a sudden journey.
“Are the horses ready?” asked Pedro, quickly, as his groom appeared.
“They are ready, sire.”
“And the guard, Fernando?”
“In their saddles, sire.”
“Garcia, we will take a hasty meal ere starting,” said Pedro, leading
the way to a small dining-hall which opened on the court.
Scarcely were they seated at a table by the window, when Garcia sprung
to his feet, and pointed to the opposite corridor where the dowager and
the chancellor were seen moving toward them.
“They turn to the left, Garcia; they do not seek us. How soon shall we
reach Madrigala?”
“By four o’clock, if the night holds clear, and we meet with no
obstruction.”
“When saidst thou did Maria arrive at Montalban?”
“The third day back, sire.”
As Padilla spoke, a moment’s debate with the guard was followed by the
appearance of Alburquerque, who conducted the queen dowager into the
room. Overcome by emotion, she knelt speechless at her son’s feet, while
tears streamed from her eyes. Pedro, in spite of his surprise, rose and
received her with the greatest courtesy, but for some moments she was
unable to speak. When at last she told him that she knew of his
intention to desert his queen for a former love, he affected extreme
astonishment, and disclaimed all such intention.
“Pedro!” she exclaimed, stung still more deeply by his duplicity, “think
not I am so easily deceived. If thou seek’st not to join Maria de
Padilla, why does her brother accompany thee? Why does thy courier
precede thee to Montalban, where Maria now is? Pedro, how canst thou so
easily desert thy queen? Bethink thee, thy court is with thee; the
French nobles are still here; Blanche’s friends are around her; the
ambassador of the French king is in yon hall. What may not be the
consequences of such imprudence? Can such an insult be slightly passed?”
Pedro, though very much surprised at the accuracy of her information,
was still unshaken, and replied.
“Sweet mother! thou mistakest me entirely. My courier went to say that I
should not go to Montalban. I am suddenly called from festal joys to
meet a traitorous band who have ventured within two days’ march of this
fair city and thy home. Come, Garcia, we must to horse. Señor
Alburquerque, I leave my mother in thy charge. Disabuse her of her
singular fears.”
The indignant chancellor vouchsafed no reply to such unmitigated
falsehood, but led the weeping and disconsolate dowager to her
apartments.
Blanche retired early from the feast, and on joining her new mother, her
first question was for Pedro. The information which had been acquired by
Alburquerque was too precise and certain to admit of doubt; and as the
scouts whom he had sent to observe the king’s course, had confirmed it
by reporting him as being far on the road to Montalban, it had been
decided, perhaps unwisely, to inform Blanche at once. The queen dowager,
whose guest Blanche had been since her entrance into Spain, loved her as
if she were indeed her daughter, and felt almost as if the relationship
were reversed, and Pedro’s course had been the insult of some fickle
gallant to her own child.
Blanche had struggled with the auguries of ill which had beset her since
she entered the Alcazar as a queen and bride; and her gentle nature,
unused to such harsh strivings, had almost sunk beneath the accumulation
of coolness and absence on the part of Pedro, who should have shared
with her the rejoicings of the time. But when at last the queen dowager,
with every care and delicacy which affection could suggest, displayed
the unvarnished truth, she was unable to control her feelings longer.
“Gone! gone from me!” she exclaimed, in bitter anguish; “how could he
leave the love which chained him here! Burst not, my heart, before thy
flood of grief! Oh life! Oh love! Oh worthless crown! your dignity is
flown! Idle and hollow. Fierce Tagarote! to plunge thy sharp beak in my
life-blood! Oh Heaven! give strength!” Trembling and exhausted she sunk
into the arms of the dowager, who placed her on a couch, and covered her
hands with tears and passionate kisses. “Oh mother! has he indeed gone!”
“My child, be calm. God is with us. To-morrow we shall know all.”
“To-morrow! to-morrow! how like an evil genius does it promise ill.
To-morrow will have its own grief. Tell me all to-night. Tell me
his—his—Ah! he is my husband yet. Never will I be false to love and
honor. Pedro—” The revulsion of her feelings was more than she could
bear, and she fell back insensible.
Through the dark hours which preceded morning the mother watched her
with the utmost care; and as the bright dawn streamed through the
lattice, the chilled blood bounded once again with the full speed of
life, as if it sought the light. Sense and memory returned, both chained
forever to the fearful past.
Great was the anger and indignation of the Viscount Narbonne, and the
other French lords, when the news of Pedro’s flight was known throughout
the city. Those who the day before had rejoiced in the brilliant fortune
of the idolized lady of Bourbon, now cursed the hour in which she
entered Spain. The Spanish nobles of the court, themselves felt degraded
and insulted, and sullenly retired from the city. The chancellor, a
politic old statesman, used every effort in his power to allay the fury
of the Frenchmen, but in vain. They endeavored to persuade Blanche to
return with them; but no entreaty could prevail upon her to remove—and
they crossed the Pyrenees without her. Alone in her new country, a wife,
homeless and husbandless; a queen, sceptreless and powerless, she did
not despair. Duty was the main star of her faith in life, and no
consideration of personal ease or even insult could induce her to swerve
from the fulfillment of its dictates. Confident in the power of love and
virtue, she aimed to bring her erring lord to his allegiance.
The chancellor, disgraced by his master, retired to his fortress near
Portugal, whither he was shortly followed by Don Enrique and Don
Fadrique, the half-brothers of the king. The three, fully aware of the
energy and resolution of Pedro, not only made good preparation for
defense, but organized a formidable rebellion, which had for its object
the enthronement of Don Enrique.