Pious ejaculation––thanks to all the saints he could think of––horror that the son of an Eminence should be thus abused––prophecies of the wrath to come when the duchess, his mother––At this Don Ruy groped for a sword, and found a boot, and flung it, with an unsanctified word or two, in the direction of the lamentation.
“You wail worse than a dog of a Lutheran under the yoke,” he said in as good a voice as he could muster with a cut in his lip. “What matter how much Eminence it took to make a father for me––or how many duchesses to make a mother? I am labelled as plain Ruy Sandoval and shipped till called for. If you are to instruct my youth in the path it should tread––why not start in with a lesson on discretion?”
At this hopeful sign of life from the bundle of bandages on the monk’s bed, Maestro Diego approached and looked over his illustrious charge with a careful eye.
“Discretion has limped far behind––enterprise, else your highness would cut a different figure by now––and––”
To Don Ruy, a Message in the Moonlight Page 63
“Choke back your infernal highnesses!” growled the younger man. “I know well what your task is to be here in this new land:––it is to send back reports of duty each time I break a rule or get a broken head. Now by the Blood, and the Cross, if you smother not your titles, and let me range free, I tell you the thing I will do:––I will send back a complaint against you to Seville––and to make sure that it goes, no hand shall carry it but your own. Ere they can find another nurse maid for my morals, I’ll build me a ship and go sailing the South seas for adventure––and your court tricksters will have a weary time in the chase! I like you better than many another godly spy who might have been sent, and I promise myself much joy in the journal of strange travels it is in your mind to write. But once for all, remember, we never were born into the world until a week ago!”
“But your Excellency––