become the Abbess of the great Convent of San Marcos, outside the gate of Leon, which he is building. So averse to love is he himself——”
“Then why in the foul fiend’s name did he marry Queen Berta?” puts in the younger man, evidently of an impatient temperament, but Don Ricardo passes the question by as irrelevant and proceeds:
“When he found that the Infanta preferred a mortal to an immortal spouse, and had actually gone the length of bearing him a child, he fell into such a state of blind rage that he declared she had never married, and shut her up with such rigour that she died.”
“By Santiago, a most barbarous act,” is the response; “but saints are always cruel.”
“About as barbarous,” answers Don Ricardo, “as calling in to inherit the Gothic throne a foreigner, Charlemagne, a Frank, to whom he offers the succession, when his own sister’s child is beside him branded with infamy.”
“If this is the Church’s teaching, I would fain be a Mussulman. What will Bernardo say when he hears of it?”