With emotions of joy and triumph, such as had never yet agitated his
reckless and abandoned youth, the Infant of Spain bent his way towards
the lonely house on the road to Fuencarral. He descended from his
carriage when about a hundred yards from the abode, and proceeded on
foot to the appointed place.
The Jew opened the door to the prince with a hideous grin on his hollow
cheek; and Philip hastened up the stairs, and entering the chamber we
have before described, beheld, to his inconceivable consternation and
dismay, the form of Beatriz clasped in the arms of Calderon, her head
leaning on his bosom; while his voice half choked with passionate sobs
called upon her in the most endearing terms.
For a moment the prince stood, spell-bound and speechless, at the
threshold; then, striking the hilt of his sword fiercely, he exclaimed,
“Traitor! is it thus that thou hast kept thy promise? Dost thou not
tremble at my vengeance?”
“Peace! peace!” said Calderon, in an imperious, but sepulchral tone, and
waving one hand with a gesture of impatience and rebuke, while with the
other he removed the long clustering hair that fell over the pale face
of the still insensible novice. “Peace, prince of Spain; thy voice
scares back the struggling life--peace! Look up, image and relic of the
lost--the murdered--the martyr! Hush! do you hear her breathe, or is
she with her mother in that heaven which is closed on me? Live! live! my
daughter--my child--live! For thy life in the World Hereafter will _not_
be mine!”
“What means this?” said the prince, falteringly. “What delusion do thy
wiles practise upon me?”
Calderon made no answer; and at that instant Beatriz sighed heavily, and
her eyes opened.
“My child! my child!--thou art my child! Speak--let me hear thy
voice--again let it call me ‘father!’”
And Calderon dropped on his knees, and, clasping his hands fervently,
looked up imploringly in her face. The novice, now slowly returning to
life and consciousness, strove to speak: her voice failed her, but her
lips smiled arms fell feebly but endearingly upon Calderon, and her
round his neck.
“Bless thee! bless thee!” exclaimed Calderon. “Bless thee in thy sweet
mother’s name!”
While he spoke, the eyes of Beatriz caught the form of Philip, who stood
by, leaning on his sword; his face working with various passions, and
his lip curling with stern and intense disdain. Accustomed to know human
life but in its worst shapes, and Calderon only by his vices and his
arts, the voice of nature uttered no language intelligible to the
prince. He regarded the whole as some well got-up device--some trick of
the stage; and waited, with impatience and scorn, the denouement of the
imposture.
At the sight of that mocking face, Beatriz shuddered, and fell back; but
her very alarm revived her, and, starting to her feet, she exclaimed,
“Save me from that bad man--save me! My father, I am safe with thee!”
“Safe!” echoed Calderon;--“ay, safe against the world. But not,” he
added, looking round, and in a low and muttered tone, “not in this
foul abode; its very air pollutes thee. Let us hence: come--come--my
daughter!” and winding his arm round her waist, he hurried her towards
the door.
“Back, traitor!” cried Philip, placing himself full in the path of the
distracted and half delirious father, “Back! thinkest thou that I, thy
master and thy prince, am to be thus duped and thus insulted? Not for
thine own pleasures hast thou snatched her whom I have honoured with
my love from the sanctuary of the Church. Go, if thou wilt; but Beatriz
remains. This roof is sacred to my will. Back! or thy next step is on
the point of my sword.”
“Menace not, speak not, Philip--I am desperate. I am beside myself--I
cannot parley with thee. Away! by thy hopes of Heaven away! I am no
longer thy minion--thy tool. I am a father, and the protector of my
child.”
“Brave device--notable tale!” cried Philip, scornfully, and placing his
back against the door. “The little actress plays her part well, it must
be owned,--it is her trade; but thou art a bungler, my gentle Calderon.”
For a moment the courtier stood, not irresolute, but overcome with
the passions that shook to their centre a nature, the stormy and stern
elements of which the habit of years had rather mastered than quelled.
At last, with a fierce cry, he suddenly grasped the prince by the collar
of his vest; and, ere Philip could avail himself of his weapon, swung
him aside with such violence that he lost his balance and (his foot
slipping on the polished floor) fell to the ground. Calderon then opened
the door, lifted Beatriz in both his arms, and fled precipitately down
the stairs. He could no longer trust to chance and delay against the
dangers of that abode.