Free Daughters of Spain by Jean Plaidy, 6.95 Page A

with rigorous justice if he had been in the place of Ximenes.
    Perhaps, thought Ximenes, I lack his strength. But he has had longer in which to discipline himself.
    Ximenes went on: 'But I believe you have not come here to talk of illness.'
    'No, I am on my way to Court and, because I know I shall have your support in the matter which I have decided to bring to the notice of the Sovereigns, I have called to acquaint you with my mission. It concerns the Princess Isabella, who has been a widow too long.'
    'Ah, you are thinking that with the Habsburg marriages, the eldest daughter should not be forgotten.'
    'I doubt she is forgotten. The Princess is reluctant to go again into Portugal.'
    'Such reluctance is understandable,' said Ximenes.
    ' I cannot understand it,' Torquemada retorted coldly. 'It is clearly her duty to make this alliance with Portugal.'
    'It has astonished me that it has not been made before,' Ximenes put in.
    'The Queen is a mother who now and then turns her face from duty.'
    They, who had both been confessors to Isabella the Queen, exchanged nods of understanding.
    'She is a woman of great goodness,' Torquemada acceded, 'but where her children are concerned she is apt to forget her duty in her desire to please them.'
    'I know it well.'
    'Clearly,' Torquemada went on, 'the young Isabella should be sent immediately into Portugal as the bride of Emanuel. But there should be one condition, and it is this which I wish to put before the Sovereigns.'
    'Condition?'
    'When I drove the Jews from Spain,' said Torquemada, 'many of them found refuge in Portugal.' His face darkened suddenly; his eyes gleamed with wild fanaticism; they seemed like living things in a face that was dead. All Torquemada's hatred for the Jewish race was in his eyes, in his voice at that moment. 'They pollute the air of Portugal. I wish to see them driven from Portugal as I drove them from Spain.'
    'If this marriage were made we should have no power to dictate Emanuel's policy towards the Jews,' Ximenes pointed out.
    'No,' cried Torquemada triumphantly, 'but we could make it a condition of the marriage. Emanuel is eager for this match. He is more than eager. It is not merely to him agrand marriage ... union with a wealthy neighbour. This young King is a weak and emotional fellow. Consider his tolerance towards the Jews. He has strange ideas. He wishes to see all races living in harmony side by side in his country following their own faiths. You see he is a fool; he is unaware of his duty to the Christian Faith. He wishes to rule with what he foolishly calls tolerance. But he is a love-sick young man.'
    'He saw the Princess when she went into Portugal to marry Alonso,' murmured Ximenes.
    'Yes, he saw her, and from the moment she became a widow he has had one plan: to make her his wife. Well, why not? Isabella must become the Queen of Portugal, but on one condition: the expulsion of the Jews from that country as they have been expelled from our own.'
    Ximenes lay back on his pillows exhausted and Torquemada rose.
    'I am tiring you,' he said. 'But I rely on your support, should I need it. Not that I shall.' All the fire had come back to this old man who was midway in his seventies. 'I shall put this to the Queen and I know I shall make her see her duty.'
    When Torquemada had taken his leave of Ximenes the Archbishop lay back considering the visit.
    Torquemada was a stronger man than he was. Neither of them thought human suffering important. They had sought to inflict it too often on themselves to be sorry for others who bore it.
    But at this time Ximenes was more concerned with his own problem than that of Isabella and Emanuel. He had decided what he must do with Bernardin. He would send his brother back to his monastery; he would give him a small pension; butit should be on condition that he never left his monastery and never sought to see his brother again.
    I am a weak man where my own are concerned, thought Ximenes. And he wondered at himself who