While this was passing, the abbess proceeded to the table, on which writing materials were placed, and wrote a few words on a sheet of paper, which she folded up, and, delivering it to the Prince, observed, in a significant tone, “You may need this anon. Not a word,” she added, with a gesture of caution. After glancing at the paper, Philip placed it within his doublet. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] CHAPTER XIV. FATHER ALFONSO DE CASTRO. Shortly afterwards, the usher announced the Bishop of Cuença and Father Alfonso de Castro. No fitting opportunity having hitherto occurred of describing these two personages, we will now say a few words respecting them. The Bishop of Cuença was a perfect courtier, polished in manner, witty, sarcastic, and a _bon vivant_. His features were handsome, and his looks intelligent, but wily. His attire was as elegant as his position as an ecclesiastic permitted. His person was tall, well formed, his complexion olive, his eyes dark and intelligent. A far more striking personage than the bishop was Father Alfonso de Castro. He possessed one of those austere countenances in which the old Spanish painters delighted. In age he was about sixty, and his long life seemed to have been spent in practices of penance and devotion. A few scattered locks, marked by the tonsure, clothed his reverend head. His figure, once tall and erect, was now bent, and his gait feeble and slow. His complexion was sickly, and his eyes deep sunken, but still full of lustre. Father de Castro was a profound theologian, and had written much against heresy, menacing the professors of the new doctrines with such severe punishments, that he had not unjustly acquired the title of “_Hæresio-mastrix acerrimus_.” A grave salutation passed between the Bishop of Cuença and the abbess, but, when the Prince presented his confessor to her, she said,— “I am already acquainted with Father de Castro through his writings. I have perused his learned commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets, and his homilies on the Psalms. I have also read his three books on the Just Punishment of Heresy, and I entirely agree with him. But the work that has afforded me the deepest gratification is his masterly treatise on the Validity of the Marriage between Henry VIII. and Katherine of Aragon. That treatise has been the Queen their daughter’s constant companion, and has solaced her during many an hour of affliction.”