"I am not in the habit of making confidants of people whom I meet with in the streets at midnight. You can do me one favour, however. I am a stranger here. Will you direct me to the river?"
Philip acceded to the stranger's wish and allowed him to depart, but followed at a distance without losing sight of him.
The young man proceeded to the river-side, and climbed a rugged height which he discovered by the moonlight. There he fell upon his knees and repeated a short prayer. Then he arose, and was in the act of leaping into the water, when he felt a powerful hand grasp him by the collar and he was flung backwards on the ground.
It was the King.
"Do not force me to commit a crime before I die," exclaimed the Spaniard, as he drew a dagger. "I must choose between death or crime. Let me die, or I will stab you to the heart."
"Are you a Christian," cried the King, "and yet attempt to commit suicide?"
"It is singular that you assume to question and to judge me; and stranger still that I should answer you. But as fate has willed it, I will relate to you my history. I left Lisbon in the hope of finding a young lady whom I dearly love, but whose parents refuse their consent to our marriage. This young lady has left Brussels with her father. I have spent all my money. I cannot find a way to earn a single maravediz. What would you have me do? To follow your advice—to rob?"
"You wish to marry!" cried the King. "Are you thinking seriously of such a thing when you are in such poverty?"
"Oh, I should not have been so in Lisbon! Believe me, had the parents of Doña Luiza Reinaldo consented to our union, I should undoubtedly by this time have been the painter of Doña Juana, the sister of your King Philip II.; but the grandees would not consent to having an artist for their son-in-law. They have therefore, departed to the Low Countries, where her father has just concluded an important mission for the King. I would have followed them, for they have borne away my very life and heart; but as they travelled in a carriage and I on foot, they had already left when I arrived here, and I was unable to find out where they had gone. Yesterday I was famished. I had no money left. I besought an inn-keeper to allow me to paint his portrait for the price of a supper, but he kicked me out of doors. Leave me, then, to fling myself into the river, for the Evil One is putting thoughts of crime into my soul. Oh! misery is indeed a fearful counsellor!"
"Come, come, you must not so readily lose heart."
"But when one is hungry, what would you have him do? Not eat?"
"Come, come! You said just now that you offered to take a portrait for the value of a supper. I should greatly like to have mine taken, and I will give you twenty livres to gratify my whim. Take this gold coin; it is worth more than I have stated, but you can give me the change to-morrow."
"I do not want to receive alms," replied the Spaniard proudly, as he rejected the proffered coin.
"Now sign it."
