But she plied him with questions, and
so elicited from him a very circumstantial story.
Sebastian, after his defeat and escape, had made a vow upon the
Holy Sepulchre to lay aside the royal dignity of which he deemed
that he had proved himself unworthy, and to do penance for the
pride that had brought him down, by roaming the world in humble
guise, earning his bread by the labour of his hands and the sweat
of his brow like any common hind, until he should have purged his
offense and rendered himself worthy once more to resume the
estate to which he had been born.
It was a tale that moved her pity to the point of tears. It
exalted her hero even beyond the eminence he had already held in
her fond dreams, particularly when to that general outline were
added in the days that followed details of the wanderings and
sufferings of the Hidden Prince. At last, some few weeks after
that first startling announcement of his presence, in the early
days of August of that year 1594, Frey Miguel proposed to her the
thing she most desired, yet dared not beg.
"I have told His Majesty of your attachment to his memory in all
these years in which we thought him dead, and he is deeply
touched.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112