Part 88

“I beg your Majesty’s forgiveness,” he said, “but you cannot know what I know of this man, or you would not receive him. This may be another horrible plot; for he is the Marqués de Casa Triana, suspected of throwing a bomb in Barcelona some years ago, who not only has broken his parole and come secretly to Spain, but has been following you about from place to place in his motor-car, and—”

The King burst out laughing, in his boyish way.

“All the better for me if he has, since he has continually found the way to do me some good turn. If it hadn’t been for him and his motor-car I’m not sure that I would be here—and happy—to-day.” He held out his hand to me. “So you are the Marqués de Casa Triana,” he said. “And that was why you wouldn’t tell me your name, when your friend let me know I had one more thing to thank you for besides those I knew—on the day of the brigands?”

He smiled at Dick, who presumed on his notice.

“Your Majesty,” he ventured, “may I mention the name of the man who employed those brigands, not to injure you, but one he had already injured—Casa Triana himself? Well, it’s the Duke of Carmona; and when the brigands failed, he tried having Casa Triana knocked on the head and shut up in a house of his at Granada, so that he could marry the girl who was engaged to my friend. You can ask Lady Monica Vale, sir, if I’m not telling you the truth—as far as she knows it.”

The King, without answering, turned his eyes on Monica.

“It is true, sir, that we were engaged,” she replied to the question in his look. “I love him still, and only promised to marry the Duke because he said, if I did, he would save Ramón from imprisonment—and worse. He told me he had helped Ramón to get out of Spain to England, when he was on the point of being arrested for—something that happened in Seville. Now I know it wasn’t true;—that he—lied, and that he’s been horribly treacherous to Ramón, as well as to me. I’ll not keep my promise to him to-morrow, or ever.”

“This seems a strange story,” said the King. “I must hear it at length, later. But you shall not marry against your wish. You shall marry the man you love; we will see to that, whether Carmona can clear himself or not. As for my friend Casa Triana, I owe him a triple debt. Part of it I can repay by giving him certain estates in the South which I believe I’ve been—keeping in trust for him. Part I can never repay; and part—well, if I can give him a bride who loves him, perhaps he will consider himself repaid?”

“I thank your Majesty a thousand times,” I said.

Monica looked at me. She was very pale; but there was heaven in her eyes.

“Viva el Rey!” shouted Dick; and the crowd, though they had not heard or understood what passed, took up the cry with all their hearts—

“Viva el Rey!”

THE END

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THE McCLURE PRESS, NEW YORK

1 Love and oranges How similar are they. For however sweet their taste, They are always a little bitter.

LEONARD WILLIAMS’ Translation.