Fair Margaret | Page 3

of them;" but aloud he said, "No wonder that our Church rejoices
in such a son, and that her enemies tremble when he lifts her sword.
But, Señor, you have not told me what you think of all this ceremony
and people."
"The people I know well, Excellency, for I dwelt among them in past
years and speak their language; and that is why I have left Granada to
look after itself for a while, and am here to-day, to watch and make
report----" He checked himself, then added, "As for the ceremony, were
I a king I would have it otherwise. Why, in that house just now those
vulgar Commons--for so they call them, do they not?--almost
threatened their royal master when he humbly craved a tithe of the
country's wealth to fight the country's war. Yes, and I saw him turn pale
and tremble at the rough voices, as though their echoes shook his
throne. I tell you, Excellency, that the time will come in this land when
those Commons will be king. Look now at that fellow whom his Grace
holds by the hand, calling him 'sir' and 'master,' and yet whom he
knows to be, as I do, a heretic, a Jew in disguise, whose sins, if he had
his rights, should be purged by fire. Why, to my knowledge last night,
that Israelite said things against the Church----"
"Whereof the Church, or its servant, doubtless made notes to be used
when the time comes," broke in de Ayala. "But the audience is done,
and his Highness beckons us forward to the feast, where there will be
no heretics to vex us, and, as it is Lent, not much to eat. Come, Señor!
for we stop the way."
Three hours had gone by, and the sun sank redly, for even at that spring
season it was cold upon the marshy lands of Westminster, and there
was frost in the air. On the open space opposite to the banqueting-hall,
in front of which were gathered squires and grooms with horses, stood
and walked many citizens of London, who, their day's work done, came

to see the king pass by in state. Among these were a man and a lady,
the latter attended by a handsome young woman, who were all three
sufficiently striking in appearance to attract some notice in the throng.
The man, a person of about thirty years of age, dressed in a merchant's
robe of cloth, and wearing a knife in his girdle, seemed over six feet in
height, while his companion, in her flowing, fur-trimmed cloak, was,
for a woman, also of unusual stature. He was not, strictly speaking, a
handsome man, being somewhat too high of forehead and prominent of
feature; moreover, one of his clean-shaven cheeks, the right, was
marred by the long, red scar of a sword-cut which stretched from the
temple to the strong chin. His face, however, was open and manly, if
rather stern, and the grey eyes were steady and frank. It was not the
face of a merchant, but rather that of one of good degree, accustomed to
camps and war. For the rest, his figure was well-built and active, and
his voice when he spoke, which was seldom, clear and distinct to
loudness, but cultivated and pleasant--again, not the voice of a
merchant.
Of the lady's figure little could be seen because of the long cloak that
hid it, but the face, which appeared within its hood when she turned
and the dying sunlight filled her eyes, was lovely indeed, for from her
birth to her death-day Margaret Castell--fair Margaret, as she was
called--had this gift to a degree that is rarely granted to woman.
Rounded and flower-like was that face, most delicately tinted also, with
rich and curving lips and a broad, snow-white brow. But the wonder of
it, what distinguished her above everything else from other beautiful
women of her time, was to be found in her eyes, for these were not blue
or grey, as might have been expected from her general colouring, but
large, black, and lustrous; soft, too, as the eyes of a deer, and overhung
by curling lashes of an ebon black. The effect of these eyes of hers
shining above those tinted cheeks and beneath the brow of ivory
whiteness was so strange as to be almost startling. They caught the
beholder and held him, as might the sudden sight of a rose in snow, or
the morning star hanging luminous among the mists of dawn. Also,
although they were so gentle and modest, if that beholder chanced to be
a man on the good side of fifty it was often long before he could forget

them, especially if he were privileged to see how well they matched the
hair