‘Highness . . . you refuse!’

‘The friends of Alvaro Yanez de Lugo do not know me, or they would not have dared bring such a dishonourable proposal to me. You should leave immediately before I decide to have you arrested for attempted bribery.’

The man bowed and hurried from the apartment.

Ferdinand’s face was white with anger.

‘I see that you do not wish to pursue this holy war against the Moors.’

‘I wish it with all my heart,’ Isabella replied mildly.

‘And as we are debarred from fighting this war because of the low state of the treasury you turn your back on forty thousand gold doblas!’

‘I turn my back on bribery.’

‘But forty thousand doblas . . .’

‘My kingdom shall be built on justice,’ Isabella told him simply. ‘How could that be if I brought to justice only those who could not buy their release?’

Ferdinand lifted his hands in an exasperated gesture. ‘We need money . . . desperately.’

‘We need honour more,’ she told him with dignity.

Ferdinand turned away from her. He could not trust himself to speak. Money . . . gold was in question; and Isabella was learning that her husband loved gold with a fervour he rarely bestowed on anything else.

Alonso de Ojeda had returned to the Monastery of St Paul in Seville a disappointed man. He had hoped by this time to have seen the Inquisition flourishing in Seville; and he feared that since Torquemada – who he knew desired, as much as he did himself, to see the Inquisition set up – could not persuade the Queen to it, there was little hope that anyone else could.

The fiery Ojeda stormed at his fellow Dominicans; he harangued the saints in his prayers. ‘How long, how long,’ he demanded, ‘must you look on at the sin of this city? How long before to us there is given a means of punishing these heretics that they may have a chance of salvation? Give me a sign . . . a sign.’

Then – so Ojeda believed – came the sign, when there arrived at the monastery a young man who asked that he might be allowed an interview with the Prior, as he was deeply disturbed by something he had witnessed. He needed immediate advice.

Ojeda agreed to see him.

The man was young and good looking, and Ojeda, recognising him immediately as a member of the noble house of Guzman, took him into a small cell-like apartment.

‘Now, my son,’ said the Prior, ‘you look distraught. What is this you want to confess, and why did you not take the matter to your own confessor?’

‘Most Holy Prior, I feel this matter to be more than a confession. I feel it could be of the utmost importance. I know that you journeyed to Court recently and saw the Queen. For this reason, I believed I should come to you.’

‘Well, let me hear the nature of this confession.’

‘Holy Prior, I have a mistress.’

‘The lusts of the flesh must be subdued. You must do penance and sin no more.’

‘She is a Marram.’

Ojeda’s lids fell over his eyes, but his heart leaped with excitement.

‘If she is a true Christian her Jewish blood should be of small account.’

‘Holy Prior, I believed her to be a true Christian. Otherwise I should never have consorted with her.’

Ojeda nodded. Then he said: ‘She lives in the Jewish quarter?’

‘Yes, Holy Prior. I visited her father’s house in the juderia. She is very young, and it is naturally against the wishes of her family that she should take a lover.’

‘That is understandable,’ said Ojeda sternly. ‘And you persuaded her to defy her father’s commands?’

‘She is very beautiful, Holy Prior, and I was sorely tempted.’

‘How was it that you visited her father’s house when he had forbidden her to take a lover?’

‘I went in secret, Holy Prior.’

‘Your penance must be harsh.’

‘It may be, Holy Prior, that my sin will be readily forgiven me because had I not gone in secret I should never have discovered the evil that was going on in the house of my mistress.’

Ojeda’s voice shook with excitement. ‘Pray continue,’ he said.

‘This is Holy Week,’ went on the young man. ‘I had forgotten that it was also the eve of the Jewish Passover.’

‘Go on, go on,’ cried Ojeda, unable now to suppress his eagerness.

‘My mistress had secreted me in her room, and there we made love. But, Holy Prior, I became aware of much bustle in the house. Many people seemed to be calling, and this was not usual. There were footsteps outside the room in which I lay with my mistress, and I grew alarmed. It occurred to me that her father had discovered my presence in the house and was calling together his friends to surprise us and perhaps kill me.’

‘And this was what they were doing?’

‘They had not a thought of me, Holy Prior, as I was to discover. I could no longer lie there, so I rose hastily and dressed. I told my mistress that I wished to leave as soon as I could, and she, seeming to catch my fear, replied that the sooner I was out of the house the better. So we waited until there was quietness on the stairs, and then we slipped out of her room. But as we reached the hall we heard sounds in a room nearby, and my mistress, in panic, opened a door and pushed me into a cupboard and shut the door. She was only just in time, for her father came into the hall and greeted friends who had just arrived. They were close to the cupboard in which I was hidden, and they did not lower their voices; so I heard all that was said. The friends had arrived at the house to celebrate the Passover. My mistress’s father laughed aloud and jeered at Christianity. He laughed because he, a professing Christian, in secret practised the Jewish religion.’

Ojeda clenched his fists and closed his eyes. ‘And so we have caught them,’ he cried; ‘we have caught them in all their wickedness. You did right, my friend; you did right to come to me.’

‘Then, Holy Prior, I am forgiven?’

‘Forgiven! You are blessed. You were led to that house that you might bring retribution on those who insult Christianity. Be assured the holy saints will intercede for you. You will be forgiven the sin you have committed, since you bring these evil doers to justice. Now tell me, the name of your mistress’s father? The house where he lives? Ah, he will not long live in his evil state!’

‘Holy Prior, my mistress . . .’

‘If she is innocent all will be well with her.’

‘I would not speak against her.’

‘You have saved her from eternal damnation. Living in such an evil house, it may well be that she is in need of salvation. Have no fear, my son. Your sins are forgiven you.’

The Marrano family was brought before Ojeda.

‘It is useless,’ he told them, ‘to deny your sins. I have evidence of them which cannot be refuted. You must furnish me with a list of all those who took part with you in the Jewish Passover.’

The head of the house spoke earnestly to Ojeda. ‘Most Holy Prior,’ he said, ‘we have sinned against the Holy Catholic Church. We reverted to the religion of our Fathers. We crave pardon. We ask for our sins to be forgiven and that we may be taken back into the Church.’

‘There must have been others who joined in these barbarous rites with you. Who were these?’

‘Holy Prior, I beg of you, do not ask me to betray my friends.’

‘But I do ask it,’ said Ojeda.

‘I could not give their names. They came in secrecy and they were promised secrecy.’

‘It would be wiser for you to name them.’

‘I cannot do it, Holy Prior.’

Ojeda felt a violent hatred rising in his heart. It should be possible now to take this man to the torture chambers for a little persuasion. Oh, he could stand there very nobly defending his friends. How would he fare if he were put on the rack, or had his limbs dislocated on the hoist? That would be a very different story.