"I have never seen you till--ere yesterday."
"That is quite true; and yet--"
"Nay, nay," interrupted the old man; "you are speaking wild words to me. I had but one boy--Juan--Juan Rodrigo. The heir of the house of Alvarez de Meñaya was always called Juan."
"He lives. He is Captain Don Juan now, the bravest soldier, and the best, truest-hearted man on earth. How you would love him! Would you could see him face to face! Yet no; thank God you cannot."
"My babe a captain in His Imperial Majesty's army!" said Don Juan, in whose thoughts the great Emperor was reigning still.
"And I," Carlos continued, in a broken, agitated voice--"I, born when they thought you dead--I, who opened my young eyes on this sad world the day God took my mother home from all its sin and sorrow--I am brought here, in his mysterious providence, to comfort you, after your long dreary years of suffering."
"Your mother! Did you say your mother? My wife, Costanza mia. Oh, let me see your face!"
Carlos raised himself to a kneeling attitude, and the old man laid his hand on his shoulder, and gazed at him long and earnestly. At length Carlos removed the hand, and drawing it gently upwards, placed it on his head. "Father," he said, "you will love your son? you will bless him, will you not? He has dwelt long amongst those who hated him, and never spoke to him save in wrath and scorn, and his heart pines for human love and tenderness."
Don Juan did not answer for a while; but he ran his fingers through the soft fine hair. "So like hers," he murmured dreamily. "Thine eyes are hers too--zarca.[#] Yes, yes; I do bless thee--But who am I to bless? God bless thee, my son!"
[#] Blue; a word applied by the Spaniards only to blue eyes.