horse-jockey and cock-fighter were not their glories; and the prelates, who sprung from such blood, partook of the spirit of their sires: They were not rarely foremost in the civil wars, that formed the chief business of mankind in the middle age; and Don Alonso Carrillo, Archbishop of Toledo, for it was no less a personage who sat in that presence, had played his part undauntedly among the boldest knights of Castile.

He was earnestly conversing in a low voice with a lady near, whose face was slightly turned from the door; while Doña Beatriz and a third lady stood in the apartment, who, with the Archbishop and Don Gutierre, composed the whole party. Doña Beatriz had the full black eye and the raven tresses, which we associate with a southern clime, and that brown shade of complexion, which, but for the healthfulness of her tint and the animation of her whole face, would scarcely have escaped the charge of tending to sallowness of aspect. Time had not yet touched the beauty of her, who was afterwards the celebrated Condesa de Moya. The lady, who stood by her side, Don Gutierre saluted as Doña Mencia de la Torre; and both these ladies waited, with all the subdued respect of tone and deference of deportment due to the highest rank, upon the youthful incarnation of loveliness, with whom the Archbishop conferred.

A low bodice of black velvet, fitted closely to her waist, displayed the perfect proportions of a bust

blooming out into womanhood. A brial, or close petticoat of the same rich material, depended over the full, but well formed and graceful contour of her limbs. This part of her dress was fastened at the waist by a kind of brocaded belt, embroidered with jet and brilliants, and a band of similar workmanship ran from the belt down the middle of the brial or skirt, and was continued in a border around the bottom of it; a border of the same general description running around the upper part of the bodice next to the neckkerchief. The tight wristbands of the dress were adorned by several bands of corresponding make and material. Above the bodice she wore a wrought kerchief of the costliest Flanders' lace, fastened at the throat with a gold brooch, and having a border of very peculiar workmanship. It was narrow, as compared with the belt and bands of her brial, and instead of the wreaths and fanciful figures embroidered on them, it bore the forms alternately of a castle and a lion, wrought in rich gems of various kinds on a silver ground, forming a splendid edging to the kerchief, double in front, and passing all around the neck. A large diamond cross, set in pearls, was suspended over her bosom from the rich pearl collar, which, as being the princely gift of him whose coming she awaited, was the fitting ornament of her person on this occasion. To complete her habiliments, a flowing tabard, as it was then called, or rich mantle of crimson silk bordered with damask, was thrown

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over her shoulders and arms, hanging down to the floor, and a white veil of thin delicate lace, gauzelike and transparent as woven air, covered, without concealing, her dark brown tresses, and being fastened in front by the brooch on her bosom, could be dropped over her face at will,-so as to increase the effect of the beauty which it veiled, like the light fleecy clouds flitting along the moon's orb in a bright autumnal eve.

It is easy to give a description of garments; but how describe that surpassing loveliness of form and countenance, which consists not in the peculiar shape of each separate feature or limb, but in the perfect harmony of parts and heavenly combination of elements in the entire person? She, of whom I speak, was of middling stature, and rather fuller in form than might be considered consistent with a faultless model: but the grace of every movement, and the mingled dignity and sweetness of her whole manner would alone have sufficed to mark the royal daughter of a line of kings. Her face was not of that stamp, which fancy is apt to attribute to the maidens of Spain. We have already seen that her hair was brown; and her complexion was pure red and white, the unclouded carnation of the fairest youthful beauty. A broad open brow, an oval face gently curving off into a rounded chin, even, well-defined lips, expressing a firm character united with a gentle spirit, and eyes of dark grey deepening into blue,-ojos entre

verdes y azules, says a good father of her day, who seems to have studied the constituents of beauty rather more attentively than became a monk,such were the separate features' of the fair young maiden. Her general cast and look did not speak her more than eighteen, although a certain maturity of expression in her face, and a grave and somewhat devotional air, increased by the appearance of a richly illuminated missal, which she held in her hand, would have suited a much riper age.

To the low salutation of Don Gutierre she graciously nodded in reply, without interrupting her conversation with the Archbishop. So earnestly, indeed, was it continued, that a young cavalier had entered the open door unobserved by her, and advanced towards the centre of the room. He stood with one foot set slightly forward, his short cloak of the finest cloth of Segovia flung back on his shoulders, displaying the close jacket of Genoese velvet which covered his manly form, the gold hilted sword which hung over his slashed underclothes, and a chain of massive chased gold links, with the cross of Montesa, suspended from his neck, -while in his left hand he held a black velvet hat, ornamented with a plain diamond aigrette and a single tuft of white plumes, leaving uncovered a high noble brow and expressive manly features, with sparkling eyes that gazed on the beautiful vision before him, entranced as it were with love and admiration. "Tis he, 't is he,' cried Don

Gutierre,* pointing with his finger to the stranger; and as the lady started with a slight exclamation of surprise, Fernando de Aragon kneeled at her feet, and seizing her not unwilling hand, covered it with the kisses of her accepted lover, whom she now for the first time saw, and that in secrecy and disguise. Need I say that the lady was Isabel of Castile, the lovely and the loved, the model of queens, of wives, and of mothers, the unaffected reality of all that her false-hearted namesake of England, Elizabeth, affected to be, but was not,-a woman, namely, with all a woman's sensibilities, and yet a great and high-souled princess, that Isabel, whose reign is the golden age of prosperity and glory in the annals of fallen Spain?

At the time when the events of our story happened, Henry the Imbecile held the sceptre of Castile and Leon; and in his reign the disorders of a sickly state had reached such an intolerable excess, that the body politic appeared to be fast sinking under its unceasing convulsions. Don Enrique ascended the throne under circumstances of the most unfavorable nature. The kingdom was devastated and exhausted by the long and bloody civil wars, which preceded the accession of his

• Don Gutierre had the letters SS inserted on his coat of arms in memory of this occasion. Y al entrar fue, quando Gutierre de Cárdenas, señalando al principe con el dedo, dijo a la princesa, ese es, ese es, de donde quedan las SS en el escudo de sus armas.'