Calderon’s eyes were fixed musingly on the door which closed on
Fonseca’s martial and noble form.
“Great contrasts among men!” said he, half aloud. “All the classes
into which naturalists ever divided the animal world contained not the
variety that exists between man and man. And yet, we all agree in one
object of our being--all prey on each other! Glory, which is but the
thirst of blood, makes yon soldier the tiger of his kind; other passions
have made me the serpent: both fierce, relentless, unscrupulous--both!
hero and courtier, valour and craft! Hein! I will serve this young
man--he has served me. When all other affection was torn from me, he,
then a boy, smiled on me and bade me love him. Why has he been so long
forgotten? He is not of the race that I abhor; no Moorish blood flows in
his veins; neither is he of the great and powerful, whom I dread; nor of
the crouching and the servile, whom I despise: he is one whom I can aid
without a blush.”
While Calderon thus soliloquised, the arras was lifted aside, and a
cavalier, on whose cheek was the first down of manhood, entered the
apartment.
“So, Roderigo, alone! welcome back to Madrid. Nay, seat thyself,
man--seat thyself.”
Calderon bowed with the deepest reverence; and, placing a large fauteuil
before the stranger, seated himself on stool, at a little distance.
The new comer was of sallow complexion; his gorgeous dress sparkled with
prodigal jewels. Boy as he was, there was a yet a careless loftiness,
a haughty ease, in the gesture--the bend of the neck, the wave of the
hand, which, coupled with the almost servile homage of the arrogant
favourite, would have convinced the most superficial observer that he
was born of the highest rank. A second glance would have betrayed,
in the full Austrian lip--the high, but narrow forehead--the dark,
voluptuous, but crafty and sinister eye, the features of the descendant
of Charles V. It was the Infant of Spain that stood in the chamber of
his ambitious minion.
“This is convenient, this private entrance into thy penetralia,
Roderigo. It shelters me from the prying eyes of Uzeda, who ever seeks
to cozen the sire by spying on the Son. We will pay him off one of these
days. He loves you no less than he does his prince.”
“I bear no malice to him for that, your highness. He covets the smiles
of the rising sun and rails at the humble object which, he thinks,
obstructs the beam.”
“He might be easy on that score: I hate the man, and his cold
formalities. He is ever fancying that we princes are intent on the
affairs of state, and forgets that we are mortal and that youth is the
age for the bower, not the council. My precious Calderon, life would be
dull without thee: how I rejoice at thy return, thou best inventor of
pleasure that satiety ever prayed for! Nay, blush not: some men despise
thee for thy talents: I do thee homage. By my great grandsire’s beard,
it will be a merry time at court when I am monarch, and thou minister!”
Calderon looked earnestly at the prince, but his scrutiny did not serve
to dispel a certain suspicion of the royal sincerity that ever and anon
came across the favourite’s most sanguine dreams. With all Philip’s
gaiety, there was something restrained and latent in his ambiguous
smile, and his calm, deep, brilliant eye. Calderon, immeasurably above
his lord in genius, was scarcely, perhaps, the equal of that beardless
boy in hypocrisy and craft, in selfish coldness, in matured depravity.
“Well,” resumed the prince, “I pay you not these compliments without
an object. I have need of you--great need; never did I so require your
services as at this moment; never was there so great demand on your
invention, your courage, your skill. Know, Calderon, I love!”
“My prince,” said the marquis, smiling, “it is certainly not first love.
How often has your highness--”
“No,” interrupted the prince, hastily,--“no, I never loved till now. We
never can love what we can easily win; but this, Calderon, this heart
would be a conquest. Listen. I was at the convent chapel of St. Mary of
the White Sword yesterday with the queen. Thou knowest that the abbess
once was a lady of the chamber, and the queen loves her.”
“Both of us were moved and astonished by the voice of one of the
choir--it was that of a novice. After the ceremony the queen made
inquiries touching this new Santa Cecilia; and who dost thou think
she is? No; thou wilt never guess!--the once celebrated singer--the
beautiful, the inimitable Beatriz Coello! Ah! you may well look
surprised; when actresses turn nuns, it is well-nigh time for Calderon
and Philip to turn monks. Now, you must know, Roderigo, that I, unworthy
though I be, am the cause of this conversion. There is a certain Martin
Fonseca, a kinsman of Lerma’s--thou knowest him well. I learned, some
time since, from the duke, that this young Orlando was most madly
enamoured of a low-born girl--nay, desired to wed her. The duke’s story
moved my curiosity. I found that it was the young Beatriz Coello, whom
I had already admired on the stage. Ah, Calderon, she blazed and set
during thy dull mission to Lisbon! I sought an opportunity to visit her.
I was astonished at her beauty, that seemed more dazzling in the
chamber than on the stage. I pressed my suit-in vain. Calderon, hear you
that?--in vain! Why wert thou not by? Thy arts never fail, my friend!
She was living with an old relation, or governante. The old relation
died suddenly--I took advantage of her loneliness--I entered her house
at night. By St. Jago, her virtue baffled and defeated me. The next
morning she was gone; nor could my researches discover her, until, at
the convent of St. Mary, I recognised the lost actress in the young
novice. She has fled to the convent to be true to Fonseca; she must fly
from the convent to bless the prince. This is my tale: I want thy aid.”
“Prince,” said Calderon, gravely, “thou knowest the laws of Spain; the
rigour of the Church. I dare not--”
“Pshaw. No scruples--my rank will bear thee harmless. Nay, look not so
demure; why, even thou, see, hast thy Armida. This billet in a female
hand--Heaven and earth Calderon! What name is this? Beatriz Coello!
Darest thou have crossed my path? Speak, sir!--speak!”
“Your highness,” said Calderon, with a mixture of respect and dignity
in his manner--“your highness, hear me. My first benefactor, my beloved
pupil, my earliest patron, was the same Don Martin Fonseca who seeks
this girl with an honest love. This morning he has visited me, to
implore my intercession on his behalf. Oh, prince! turn not away:
thou knowest not half his merit. Thou knowest not the value of such
subjects--men of the old iron race of Spain. Thou hast a noble and royal
heart: be not the rival to the defender of thy crown. Bless this brave
soldier--spare this poor orphan--and one generous act of self-denial
shall give thee absolution for a thousand pleasures.”
“This from Roderigo Calderon!” said the prince, with bitter sneer. “Man,
know thy station and thy profession. When I want homilies, I seek my
confessor; when I have resolved on a vice, I come to thee. A truce with
this bombast. For Fonseca, he shall be consoled; and when he shall learn
who is his rival, he is a traitor if he remain discontented with his
lot. Thou shalt aid me, Calderon!”
“Your highness will pardon me--no!”
“Do I hear right? No! Art thou not my minion--my instrument? Can I not
destroy as I have helped to raise thee? Thy fortunes have turned thy
brain. The king already suspects and dislikes thee; thy foe, Uzeda, has
his ear. The people execrate thee. If I abandon thee, thou art lost.
Look to it!”
Calderon remained mute and erect, with his arms folded on his breast,
and his cheek flushed with suppressed passions. Philip gazed at him
earnestly, and then, muttering to himself, approached the favourite with
an altered air.
“Come, Calderon--I have been hasty-you maddened me; I meant not to wound
you. Thou art honest, I think thou lovest me; and I will own, that
in ordinary circumstances thy advice would be good, and thy scruples
laudable. But I tell thee that I adore this girl; that I have set all
my hopes upon her; that, at whatever cost, whatever risks, she must be
mine. Wilt thou desert me? Wilt thou on whose faith I have ever leaned
so trustingly, forsake thy friend and thy prince for this brawling
soldier? No; I wrong thee.”
“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.