Part 2 (1/2)
”Don Enriquez is my brother, Beatriz; and thine and my royal master.”
”Ah! bravely did you tell them all,” continued Beatriz de Bobadilla, with sparkling eyes, and a feeling of exultation that caused her to overlook the quiet rebuke of her mistress; ”and worthy was it of a princess of the royal house of Castile! 'The Infantas of Castile,' you said, 'could not be disposed of, in marriage, without the consent of the n.o.bles of the realm;' and with that fit reply they were glad to be content.”
”And yet, Beatriz, am I about to dispose of an Infanta of Castile, without even consulting its n.o.bles.”
”Say not that, my excellent mistress. There is not a loyal and gallant cavalier between the Pyrenees and the sea, who will not, in his heart, approve of your choice. The character, and age, and other qualities of the suitor, make a sensible difference in these concerns. But unfit as Don Alfonso of Portugal was, and is, to be the wedded husband of Dona Isabella of Castile, what shall we say to the next suitor who appeared as a pretender to your royal hand--Don Pedro Giron, the Master of Calatrava! truly a most worthy lord for a maiden of the royal house! Out upon him! A Pachecho might think himself full honorably mated, could he have found a damsel of Bobadilla to elevate his race!”
”That ill-a.s.sorted union was imposed upon my brother by unworthy favorites; and G.o.d, in his holy providence, saw fit to defeat their wishes, by hurrying their intended bridegroom to an unexpected grave!”
”Ay! had it not pleased his blessed will so to dispose of Don Pedro, other means would not have been wanting!”
”This little hand of thine, Beatriz,” returned the princess, gravely, though she smiled affectionately on her friend as she took the hand in question, ”was not made for the deed its owner menaced.”
”That which its owner menaced,” replied Beatriz, with eyes flas.h.i.+ng fire, ”this hand would have executed, before Isabella of Castile should be the doomed bride of the Grand Master of Calatrava. What! was the purest, loveliest virgin of Castile, and she of royal birth--nay, the rightful heiress of the crown--to be sacrificed to a lawless libertine, because it had pleased Don Henry to forget his station and duties, and make a favorite of a craven miscreant!”
”Thou always forgettest, Beatriz, that Don Enriquez is our lord the king, and my royal brother.”
”I do not forget, Senora, that you are the royal sister of our lord the king, and that Pedro de Giron, or Pachecho, whichever it might suit the ancient Portuguese page to style him, was altogether unworthy to sit in your presence, much less to become your wedded husband. Oh! what days of anguish were those, my gracious lady, when your knees ached with bending in prayer, that this might not be! But G.o.d would not permit it--neither would I! That dagger should have pierced his heart, before ear of his should have heard the vows of Isabella of Castile!”
”Speak no more of this, good Beatriz, I pray thee,” said the princess, shuddering, and crossing herself; ”they were, in sooth, days of anguish; but what were they in comparison with the pa.s.sion of the Son of G.o.d, who gave himself a sacrifice for our sins! Name it not, then; it was good for my soul to be thus tried; and thou knowest that the evil was turned from me--more, I doubt not, by the efficacy of our prayers, than by that of thy dagger. If thou wilt speak of my suitors, surely there are others better worthy of the trouble.”
A light gleamed about the dark eye of Beatriz, and a smile struggled toward her pretty mouth; for well did she understand that the royal, but bashful maiden, would gladly hear something of him on whom her choice had finally fallen. Although ever disposed to do that which was grateful to her mistress, with a woman's coquetry, Beatriz determined to approach the more pleasing part of the subject coyly, and by a regular gradation of events, in the order in which they had actually occurred.
”Then, there was Monsieur de Guienne, the brother of King Louis of France,” she resumed, affecting contempt in her manner; ”_he_ would fain become the husband of the future Queen of Castile! But even our most unworthy Castilians soon saw the unfitness of that union. Their pride was unwilling to run the chance of becoming a fief of France.”
”That misfortune could never have befallen our beloved Castile,”
interrupted Isabella with dignity; ”had I espoused the King of France himself, he would have learned to respect me as the Queen Proprietor of this ancient realm, and not have looked upon me as a subject.”
”Then, Senora,” continued Beatriz, looking up into Isabella's face, and laughing--”was your own royal kinsman, Don Ricardo of Gloucester; he that they say was born with teeth, and who carries already a burthen so heavy on his back, that he may well thank his patron saint that he is not also to be loaded with the affairs of Castile.”[1]
[Footnote 1: NOTE--The authorities differ as to which of the English princes was the suitor of Isabella; Edward IV. himself, Clarence, or Richard. Isabella was the grand-daughter of Catherine of Lancaster, who was a daughter of John of Gaunt.]
”Thy tongue runneth riot, Beatriz. They tell me that Don Ricardo is a n.o.ble and aspiring prince; that he is, one day, likely to wed some princess, whose merit may well console him for his failure in Castile.
But what more hast thou to offer concerning my suitors?”
”Nay, what more can I say, my beloved mistress? We have now reached Don Fernando, literally the first, as he proveth to be the last, and as we know him to be, the best of them all.”
”I think I have been guided by the motives that become my birth and future hopes, in choosing Don Ferdinand,” said Isabella, meekly, though she was uneasy in spite of her royal views of matrimony; ”since nothing can so much tend to the peace of our dear kingdom, and to the success of the great cause of Christianity, as to unite Castile and Aragon under one crown.”
”By uniting their sovereigns in holy wedlock,” returned Beatriz, with respectful gravity, though a smile again struggled around her pouting lips. ”What if Don Fernando is the most youthful, the handsomest, the most valiant, and the most agreeable prince in Christendom, it is no fault of yours, since you did not make him, but have only accepted him for a husband!”
”Nay, this exceedeth discretion and respect, my good Beatriz,” returned Isabella, affecting to frown, even while she blushed deeply at her own emotions, and looked gratified at the praises of her betrothed. ”Thou knowest that I have never beheld my cousin, the King of Sicily.”
”Very true, Senora; but Father Alonso de Coca hath--and a surer eye, or truer tongue than his, do not exist in Castile.”
”Beatriz, I pardon thy license, however unjust and unseemly, because I know thou lovest me, and lookest rather at mine own happiness, than at that of my people,” said the princess, the effect of whose gravity now was not diminished by any betrayal of natural feminine weakness--for she felt slightly offended. ”Thou knowest, or ought'st to know, that a maiden of royal birth is bound princ.i.p.ally to consult the interests of the state, in bestowing her hand, and that the idle fancies of village girls have little in common with her duties. Nay, what virgin of n.o.ble extraction, like thyself, even, would dream of aught else than of submitting to the counsel of her family, in taking a husband? If I have selected Don Fernando of Aragon, from among many princes, it is, doubtless, because the alliance is more suited to the interests of Castile, than any other that hath offered. Thou seest, Beatriz, that the Castilians and the Aragonese spring from the same source, and have the same habits and prejudices. They speak the same language”--
”Nay, dearest lady, do not confound the pure Castilian with the dialect of the mountains!”
”Well, have thy fling, wayward one, if thou wilt; but we can easier teach the n.o.bles of Aragon our purer Spanish, than we can teach it to the Gaul. Then, Don Fernando is of my own race; the House of Trastamara cometh of Castile and her monarchs, and we may at least hope that the King of Sicily will be able to make himself understood.”