“Our people are ready; go to them with those blood-red rubies in your ears; give them of Papita’s gold, and they will make you greater than Chaleco—greater than Papita ever was.”
Again I recoiled from the thought.
“Where else will you go?” asked the gipsy; “who else will receive you? What other friend have you on earth but me—me, the man whom your mother betrayed? Yet who has spent his life in guarding her child. If not with your own people, where will you go, Zana?”
Where could I go? Deserted by the whole world, who would receive me save the gipsy hordes of my mother’s race, or those to whom friendship for me would bring ruin on themselves?
I did not attempt to answer. On the broad earth that strange gipsy man was the only human being that would not turn away in scorn, or become imperilled by defending me.
“You will go to Granada, Zana?” he continued, bending over me with paternal interest. “Had Lord Clare but lived to sign that will, then, indeed, you might have remained here to triumph over your mother’s foes. Many of her tribe could have crossed the sea to render homage to Papita’s great-grandchild—the inheritance of her gold, and the symbols of her power. In these old walls, Zana, should your court have been; these great oaks clothing the uplands should have sheltered a thousand tents. Oh, Zana, we would have built up a little kingdom here in the midst of our enemies. Why did you not have that will signed, Zana? It was for this we brought you back to England—for this you have been left among her destroyers so long.”
“Hush!” I said, shuddering—“hush! I dare not think of it. Great heavens, were all his estates mine at this moment, I would give them to forget that death-scene. Thank God, he did not sign that will!”
“Bah! it was a bad move—but let that drop. Granada is still open, and Papita’s gold will do wonders among our people there!”
“But they are ignorant, rude, untaught. My poor mother pined among them, even before Lord Clare came to turn her discontent into aversion.”
“But they are capable of learning—they will follow Papita’s child in all things. She has but to will it, and the young ones of her tribe can be wise and deeply read as their queen.”