courtesies for the disappointment of her tender projects; and
Margaret, if she did not find a lover at Namur, found the most
assiduous of knights.

Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French princess were
as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was as completely
absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as her highness by
the desire of converting them into the subjects of France. It was
only those admitted into the confidence of Don John who possessed the
clue to the mystery.

Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with which he
had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint him with the
suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had given rise.

"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said he,
when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels have
been recounted in Spain of your fêtes and jousts of honour, that I
had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but the silken
pastimes of a court."

"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in my
steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the trumpets of my
camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder lines," continued he,
(pointing from a window of the citadel, near which they were
standing, commanding the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse,) "and my
utmost diversion, an occasional charge against the boars in yonder
forest of Marlagne!"

"I cannot but suppose it more than _occasional_," rejoined Gonzaga;