Alva

“ And he drank the pretty prattle— For the baby knew no fear— Till his eye, so fierce in battle, Softened with a pearly tear.
For a babe arose before him In fair Spain, ere war’s alarms,— Thus his father’s sword upbore him. Alva caught the boy in arms, And, the pretty forehead baring, Cried, “A kiss!” The child obeyed; Then unto those men despairing Alva said, “Your ransom’s paid.” ”

“ Rise, Alva! thou hast now my royal promise; Rise, and speak fearlessly! ALVA (rising) . Your majesty, Perchance, may bear in your remembrance still What happened in the garden at Aranjuez. You found the queen deserted by her ladies, With looks confused—alone, within a bower,— KING. Proceed. What further have I yet to hear? ALVA. The Marchioness of Mondecar was banished Because she boldly sacrificed herself To save the queen! It has been since discovered She did no more than she had been commanded. Prince Carlos had been there. KING (starting) . The prince! What more? ”

“ But we must turn our attention from other interests for awhile to follow the fortunes of our unhappy heroine, lovely Floy.
How sadly her fortunes had altered since we first saw her flashing through the streets of Mount Vernon on her bicycle, a vision of beauty, light of heart, and careless as a joyous little humming-bird!
Love and sorrow had come to her as it comes to many, hand in hand, saddening her heart and changing her life.
Her life in those weeks with Alva had been widened in its scope. The clever and intelligent Alva had taught her many things. ”

“ My lord of Alva has always been to me loving and indulgent. As such he will not refuse my request. I have heard him speak of you, my Guido, as the bravest man in the army of Spain; that means a great deal where so many men are brave. That march you made will make him love you as it does me.”
This praise of the dead man in whose shoes he stands drives from Guy’s tongue a confession that has been almost upon it once or twice in these last two days. He fears the effect of revelation upon his sweetheart and thinks tremblingly: “God help me if she loves my name, not me!” ”

“ And as Alva’s thoughts followed him with a strange interest, so did the handsome Englishman’s fancy return to her during his brief journey to New York, dwelling with pleasure on her beauty.
“What a magnificent creature! The most beautiful American I ever saw! There was soul in those large dark eyes—soul and feeling as of one who has suffered! But what sorrow could come to the beautiful heiress, Miss Beresford?” he wondered, with deep sympathy, resolving that he would be very certain to accept her brother’s invitation, for the sake of seeing her again. ”

“ He typified the worst of the Spanish folk, even as the young girl did the best. To a keen student of physiognomy the mental attitude of the Duke of Alva would have been an open book. To Maria Theresa, loyal to family and countrymen, he was the symbol of her own strata in Spain—yet, beneath her gracious forgiveness of and enforced indifference to many things, there lurked a latent mistrust, which she had never yet defined in practical, applicable terms. ”

“ Alva had despaired of putting on canvas the face of Cupid as it appeared to her fancy.
Beautiful faces she could find in plenty, but the arch, radiant smile, the laughing eyes so brightly blue, these eluded her brush.
“If I could only find a living face like my ideal and put it on canvas!” she cried, eagerly, over and over to her [90] mother, who at last became almost as anxious over the subject as Alva herself.
It was no wonder that the lady had told Floy she had looked at her as at a beautiful picture, for in the young girl’s enchanting face she had seen the realization of Alva’s dream. ”

“ On the afternoon of the fourth, the duke of Alva had sent for Martin Rithovius, bishop of Ypres; and, communicating to him the sentence of the nobles, he requested the prelate to visit the prisoners, acquaint them with their fate, and prepare them for their execution on the following day. The bishop, an excellent man, and the personal friend of Egmont, was astounded by the tidings. He threw himself at Alva's feet, imploring mercy for the prisoners, and, if he could not spare their lives, beseeching him at least to grant them more time for preparation. ”

“ There is but one place when war is raging against the flag of Spain for the affianced of Alva’s daughter, and that is where the battle flags are waving! There you may win rank high enough and glory great enough to claim my hand.”
“Don’t doubt me, I’ll be where the fighting is,” mutters Chester grimly, “and it’ll be you I fight for, though perhaps Alva will not appreciate my efforts.”
“My father always rewards bravery and conduct, remember that, Major Guido Amati de Medina—bravery and conduct. You may have the courage of a Paladin, but it will not give you promotion without brains. ”

“ From time to time he wrote to his father—letters full of high and loyal sentiments, which were printed next week in the Octavius Transcript, and the week after in the Thessaly Banner of Liberty. Whenever any of us thought about the War—and who thought much of anything else?—it was always with Alva as the predominant figure in every picture.
Sometimes the arrival of a letter for Aunt Em, or a chance remark about a broken chair or a clock hopelessly out of kilter, would recall for the moment the fact that Abel Jones was also at the seat of war. ”

“ Kutrov adheres to the "onward and upward" school of linear progress, while Alva is more or less of a Spenglerian. More when he goes along by himself; less when you try to pin him down to it. And since the subject of tonight's revelations would be the pre-Mohammed Arabian Culture, I'd find Alva inclined toward my side of the debate, which is strictly morphological and without any pious theories of "progress".
I'd completely forgotten that Jocelyn had mentioned something about having a special attraction: a "Mr. Fayliss", who, she insisted, was a troubadour. ”

“ He turns and takes a look at Hermoine de Alva.
She has her back to him, and in graceful pose and with twistings of lithe limbs is striving, without the loosening of bodice or stomacher, to clutch something that eludes her—some article she must treasure as it lies close to her beating heart.
As Guy closes the door she gives a little cry of success, and a moment after is in his arms again, murmuring: “That poor Bodé Volcker will be here in a moment, then you must go. ”

“ The rain was now over and the moon had risen large and yellow, showing the encampment and the motionless lines of the ruined windmill that crowned the high hill 345opposite. Behind this hill flowed the Geta on the opposite bank of which Count de Genlis waited for William.
Beyond, where the dark clouds lay heavy on the horizon, was Alva, like a crouching beast, following his prey cautiously and waiting for it to fall exhausted ere he sprang. ”

“ In Flanders Story resumed his activity in persecuting protestants, and it is said to have been largely due to his instigation that the inquisition was established at Antwerp in 1565. He received a pension from Philip II and gained the confidence of the Duke of Alva. When Alva, in order to check the spread of heresy in the Netherlands, determined to exclude all English books, he gave Story a commission to search ships coming into Flemish ports. This commission supplied the English government with a means of kidnapping him. ”

“ If his Highness of Alva hadn’t chanced along I imagine she’d have bought all in Bodé Volcker’s warehouses.”
“A—ah,” sighs Guy, passing over the money, “I’d give everything I have for another tête-à-tête with my—my promised wife,” he struggles with a tear as he thinks of the beautiful being whose love he has captured by a coup de main.
“Your promised wife!” gasps Oliver. “Morbleu! you have been making hay,” next shortly says: “By heaven, if Alva ever puts hand on you and knows this, dread the reckoning, my audacious Englishman. ”

“ Every one is bowing down to the beauty and the wit of the Countess Hermoine de Alva—generals and nobles.” Then he continues commandingly: “You must open this letter. The game you are playing forces you to use every card. It is apparently not a confidential communication, and must apply to you, for she told you to deliver it with your own hand.”
While he is speaking, and before Guy can interpose, Oliver has rapidly lighted a taper, passed the letter over it with the deft hand of one accustomed to such business, and is presenting it, seal removed, open to the inspection of the Englishman. ”

“ Your father's abject submission to Alva has eaten into his very soul. From a gay, light-hearted lad he has become a stern and silent man. What schemes for the overthrow of tyrants go on within his mind, I dare not even think. That awful bloodhound de Vargas--murderer, desecrator, thief--he loathes with deadly abomination. When the order came forth from your father that he should forthwith prepare for his early marriage to the daughter of that execrable man, he even thought of death as preferable to a union against which his innermost soul rose in revolt. ”

“ Also it made acquaintances, possibly through these dealings, with people who were entirely unknown in those circles in which the family had always moved. One of these in particular was a man named Alva, who had once been a professor of physics at Chapultepec. He was, I understand, a peculiar sort of person, a cripple, who made a boast of his Indian ancestry. Alva bore a bad reputation, and was considered wonderfully clever in many ways. There was another of these new-made friends—an American—named Evans, a fat, smooth individual——’”
“Hello!” ”

“ The father is all right, so is the younger son Mark--younger, I believe, by only a couple of hours--a wastrel and something of a drunkard, so I understand; but the mother and the other son are impudent adherents of Orange: they have more than once drawn the attention of the Chief Inquisitor on themselves, and if I had my way with such cattle, I would have had the men hanged and the woman burned long before this."
"Van Rycke," said Alva coldly, "is High-Bailiff of Ghent. He is a good Catholic and so is his wife: he is a man of great consideration in the city and his sons are popular. ”

“ With these extensive powers, and with an army of about 10,000 men, chiefly composed of Spanish veterans, Alva reached Genoa on the 17th of May. Thence he marched to the Mont Cenis, and, passing the Alps, pressed northwards. His advance caused considerable apprehension at once to the city of Geneva and the French court. Condé, indeed, offered to raise a force and overwhelm him as he deployed from the mountain passes. But Catherine declined, and contented herself with levying a body of Swiss Catholics to watch his progress.Alva reaches Brussels, Aug. ”

“ It is to get word with Hermoine de Alva.” Then he goes on, sternly, “No matter what she may do, no matter what she may think, keep away from her for God’s sake, until this business is settled. Suspicion upon you now would ruin everything. Forget you are Major Guido Amati de Medina, a dashing soldier and lover of the Viceroy’s daughter; remember you are only Andrea Blanco, a common merchant captain, who cares but for grog and charter money; get to unloading your vessel to-morrow morning.”
“Very well,” mutters Guy, the painter’s advice being sound but unpalatable. ”

“ They are men of all classes from Brabant, Flanders, Friesland, Holland—everywhere that Alva rules, driven by cruelty and persecution to take to the sea, for to live on the land means execution by fire, with torture additional. ”

“ Alva calls his men to turn about—but it is too late—they all have been so concerned in the execution that they have not noticed the rush of men who are now upon them headed by Corker, with a wild English cheer. ”

“ The arrest of Egmont and Hoorne was known, in a few hours after it took place, to every inhabitant of Brussels; and the tidings soon spread to the furthest parts of the country. "The imprisonment of the lords," writes Alva to the king, "has caused no disturbance. The tranquillity is such that your majesty would hardly credit it." [990] True; but the tranquillity was that of a man stunned by a heavy blow. If murmurs were not loud, however, they were deep. ”

“ O that Alvaro was here, that I might hear the sound of his voice,—that he might hear mine for the last time, before I pass to the world of shadows. He will be lonely in the world without me. Alvaro is the last of his race,—the last of a long line of illustrious hidalgos. Holy Lady of Majorga,—sweet San Juan de Dios, intercede for me! Dearest Ronald, kiss me—kiss me for the last time, while I have yet feeling, for death is chilling my whole frame. ”

“ When I revived alone in the waiting-room and found myself unhurt, I ran away, and what more natural than that I should hide [157] myself in the only refuge that belonged to me—my old home.”
She might have told her story, with all its romantic embellishments, to Alva, and made herself a very heroine of romance in that young lady’s eyes; but she shrunk from doing so. She dreaded ridicule, perhaps disbelief of her strange story.
“I am safe from my enemy’s machinations now, so I will spare him until I can pour the whole story into St. George’s ears,” she decided. ”

“ Alva crawls to Lulu's door.) Gloves, nothing more! (Turns the coat round, searches the inside pockets, pulls a book out that he gives to Alva.) Just see what that is. (Alva holds the book to the light.)
ALVA. (Wearily deciphering the title-page.) Warnings to pious pilgrims and such as wish to be so. Very helpful. Price, 2 s. 6 d.
SCHIGOLCH. It looks to me as if God had left him pretty completely. (Lays the coat over the chair again and makes for the cubby-hole.) There's nothing doing with these people. The country's best time's behind it!
ALVA. Life is never as bad as it's painted. ”