[277] Brantôme, who repays the favors he had received from Henry the Second by giving him a conspicuous place in his gallery of portraits, eulogizes his graceful bearing in the tourney and his admirable horsemanship.

"Mais sur tout ils l'admiroient fort en sa belle grace qu'il avoit en ses armes et à cheval; comme de vray, c'estoit le prince du monde qui avait la meilleure grace et la plus belle tenuë, et qui sçavoit aussi bien monstrer la vertu et bonté d'un cheval, et en cacher le vice." Œuvres tom. II. p. 353.

[278] Ibid, p. 351.—De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. III. p. 367.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 20.—Campagna Filippo Secondo, parte II. lib. 11.—Forbes, State Papers, vol. I. p. 151.

[279] The English commissioner, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, bears testimony to the popularity of Henry.—"Their was marvailous great lamentation made for him, and weaping of all sorts, both men and women." Forbes, State Papers, vol. I. p. 151.

[280] This pleasing anticipation is not destined to be realised. Since the above was written, in the summer of 1851, the cloister life of Charles the Fifth, then a virgin topic, has become a thrice-told tale,—thanks to the labors of Mr. Stirling, M. Amédée Pichot, and M. Mignet; while the publication of the original documents from Simancas, by M. Gachard, will put it in the power of every scholar to verify their statements.—See the postscript at the end of this chapter.

[281] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 611.

[282] "Una sola silla de caderas, que mas era media silla, tan vieja y ruyn que si se pusiera en venta no dieran por ella quatro reales." Ibid., tom. II. p. 610.—See also El Perfecto Desengaño, por el Marqués de Valparayso, MS.

The latter writer, in speaking of the furniture, uses precisely the same language, with the exception of a single word, as Sandoval. Both claim to have mainly derived their account of the cloister life of Charles the Fifth from the prior of Yuste, Fray Martin de Angulo. The authority, doubtless, is of the highest value, as the prior, who witnessed the closing scenes of Charles's life, drew up his relation for the information of the Regent Joanna, and at her request. Why the good father should have presented his hero in such a poverty-stricken aspect, it is not easy to say. Perhaps he thought it would redound to the credit of the emperor, that he should have been willing to exchange the splendors of a throne for a life of monkish mortification.

[283] The reader will find an extract from the inventory of the royal jewels, plate, furniture, &c., in Stirling's Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth, (London, 1852,) Appendix, and in Pichot's Chronique de Charles-Quint, (Paris, 1854,) p. 537 et seq.

[284] Mignet has devoted a couple of pages to an account of this remarkable picture of which an engraving is still extant, executed under the eyes of Titian himself. Charles-Quint, pp. 214, 215.

[285] Vera y Figueroa, Vida y Hechos de Carlos V., p. 127.

A writer in Fraser's Magazine for April and May, 1851, has not omitted to notice this remarkable picture, in two elaborate articles on the cloister life of Charles the Fifth. They are evidently the fruit of a careful study of the best authorities, some of them not easy of access to the English student. The author has collected some curious particulars in respect to the persons who accompanied the emperor in his retirement; and on the whole, though he seems not to have been aware of the active interest which Charles took in public affairs, he has presented by far the most complete view of this interesting portion of the imperial biography that has yet been given to the world.

[I suffer this note to remain as originally written, before the publication of Mr. Stirling's "Cloister Life" had revealed him as the author of these spirited essays.]

[286] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 610.—Siguença, Historia de la Orden de San Geronimo, (Madrid, 1595-1605,) parte III. p. 190.—Ford, Handbook of Spain, (London, 1845,) p. 551.

Of the above authorities, Father Siguença has furnished the best account of the emperor's little domain as it was in his day, and Ford as it is in our own.

[287] See the eloquent conclusion of Stirling's Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth.

Ford, in his admirable Handbook, which may serve as a manual for the student of Spanish in his closet, quite as well as for the traveller in Spain, has devoted a few columns to a visit which he paid to this sequestered spot, where, as he says, the spirit of the mighty dead seemed to rule again in his last home. A few lines from the pages of the English tourist will bring the scene more vividly before the reader than the colder description in the text. "As the windows were thrown wide open to admit the cool thyme-scented breeze, the eye in the clear evening swept over the boundless valley; and the nightingales sang sweetly, in the neglected orange-garden, to the bright stars reflected like diamonds in the black tank below us. How often had Charles looked out, on a stilly eve, on this selfsame and unchanged scene, where he alone was now wanting!" Handbook of Spain, p. 553.

[288] Carta de Martin de Gaztelu al Secretario Vazquez, 5 de Febrero, 1557, MS.

[289] Their names and vocations are specified in the codicil executed by Charles a few days before his death. See the document entire, ap. Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 662.

A more satisfactory list has been made out by the indefatigable Gachard from various documents which he collected, and which have furnished him with the means of correcting the orthography of Sandoval, miserably deficient in respect to Flemish names. See Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint, tom. I. p. 1.

[290] "Las vistas de las pieças de su magestad no son muy largas, sino cortas, y las que se véen, o es una montaña de piedras grandes, ó unos montes de robles no muy altos. Campo llano no le ay, ni como podesse pasear, que sea por un camino estrecho y lleno de piedra. Rio yo no vi ninguno, sino un golpe de agua que baza de la montana: huerta en casa ay una pequeña y de pocos naranjos....... El aposento baxo no es nada alegre, sino muy triste, y como es tan baxo, creo será humido....... Esto es lo que me parece del aposento y sitio de la casa y grandissima soledad." Carta de Luis Quixada á Juan Vazquez, 30 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

The major-domo concludes by requesting Vazquez not to show it to his mistress, Joanna, the regent, as he would not be thought to run counter to the wishes of the emperor in anything.

[291] "Plegue á Dios que los pueda sufrir, que no será poco, segun suelen ser todos muy importunos, y mas los que saben menos." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu, MS.

[292] "Llamando al Emperador paternidad, de que luego fué advertido de otro frayle que estava á su lado, y acudió con magestad." Ibid.

[293] "Emperador semper augusto de Alemania."

[294] His teeth seem to have been in hardly better condition than his fingers.—"Era amigo de cortarse el mismo lo que comia, aunque ni tenia buenas ni desembueltas las manos, ni los dientes." Siguença, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 192.

[295] De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. III. p. 293.

[296] "Quando comia, leya el confesor una leccion de San Augustin." El Perfecto Desengaño, MS.

[297] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 15.—Vera y Figueroa, Vida y Hechos de Carlos V., p. 123.—Siguença, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 195.

The last writer is minute in his notice of the imperial habits and occupations at Yuste. Siguença was prior of the Escorial; and in that palace-monastery of the Jeronymites he must have had the means of continually conversing with several of his brethren who had been with Charles in his retirement. His work, which appeared at the beginning of the following century, has become rare,—so rare that M. Gachard was obliged to content himself with a few manuscript extracts, from the difficulty of procuring the printed original. I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy, and a very fine one, through my booksellers, Messrs. Rich, Brothers, London,—worthy sons of a sire who for thirty years or more stood preëminent for sagacity and diligence among the collectors of rare and valuable books.

[298] "Mandò pregonar en los lugares comarcanos que so pena de cien açotes muger alguna no passasse de un humilladero que estasa como dos tiros de ballesta del Monasterio." Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 612; and Sandoval's double, Valparayso, El Perfecto Desengaño, MS.

[299] "Si alguno se errava dezía consigo mismo: O hideputa bermejo, que aquel erro, ò otro nombre semejante." Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 613.

I will not offend ears polite by rendering it in English into corresponding Billingsgate. It is but fair to state that the author of the Perfecto Desengaño puts no such irreverent expression into Charles's mouth. Both, however, profess to follow the MS. of the Prior Angulo.

[300] "Non aspernatur exercitationes campestres, in quem usum paratam habet tormentariam rhedam, ad essedi speciem, præcellenti arte, et miro studio proximis hisce mensibus a se constructam." Lettres sur la Vie Intérieure de l'Empereur Charles-Quint, écrites par Guillaume van Male, gentilhomme de sa chambre, et publiées, pour la première fois, par le Baron de Reiffenberg, (Bruxelles, 1843, 4to,) ep. 8.

[301] "Interdum ligneos passerculos emisit cubículo volantes revolantesque." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 15.

[302] Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 552.

[303] "A nemine, ne a proceribus quidem quacumque ex causa se adiri, aut conveniri, nisi ægre admodum patiebatur." Sepulveda, Opera, tom. II. p. 541.

[304] "Le hizo mas preguntas que se pudieran hazer á la donzella Theodor, de que todo dió buena razon y de lo que vió yoy ó en Francia, provisiones de obispados, cargos de Italia, y de la infantería y caballeria, artilleria, gastadores, armas de mano y de otras cosas." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu á Juan Vazquez, 18 de Mayo, 1558, MS.

[305] "Retirose tanto de los negocios del Reyno y cosas de govierno, como si jamas uviera tenido parte en ellos." Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 614.—See also Valparayso, (El Perfecto Desengaño, MS.,) who uses the same words, probably copying Angulo, unless, indeed, we suppose him to have stolen from Sandoval.

[306] "Ut neque aurum, quod ingenti copia per id tempus Hispana classis illi advexit ab India, neque strepitus bellorum, ... quidquam potuerint animum ilium flectere, tot retro annis assuetum armorum sono."—Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 14.

[307] It is singular that Sepulveda, who visited Charles in his retreat, should have been the only historian, as far as I am aware, who recognized the truth of this fact, so perfectly established by the letters from Yuste.—"Summis enim rebus, ut de bello et pace se consuli, deque fratris, liberorum et sororum salute, et statu rerum certiorem fieri non recusabat." Opera, tom. II. p. 541.

[308] "Supplicando con toda humildad e instancia á su Magestad tenga por bien de esforzarse en esta coyuntura, socorréindome y ayudandome, no solo con su parecer y consejo que es el mayor caudal que puedo tener, pero con la presencia de su persona y autoridad, saliendo del monasterio, á la parte y lugar que mas comodo sea á su salud." Retiro, Estancia, etc., ap. Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 256, note.

[309] "Siempre, en estas cosas, pregunta si no hay mas." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu á Juan Vazquez, 8 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

[310] "Pues no se puede hazer otra cosa, y el Rey se ha justificado en tantas maneras cumpliendo con Dios y el mundo, por escusar los daños que dello se seguiran, forzado sera usar del ultimo remedio." Carta del Emperador á Vazquez, 8 de Agosto, 1557, MS.

[311] "Del Papa y de Caraffa se siente aquí que no haya llegado la nueva de que se han muerto." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu á Juan Vazquez, 8 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

[312] "Sobre que su magestad dizo algunas cosas con mas colera de la que para su salud conviene." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu á Juan Vazquez, 10 de Enero, 1558, MS.

[313] See, in particular, Carta del Emperador á Su Alteza, 4 de Febrero, 1558. MS.

[314] "Su Magestad está con mucho cuidado por saber que camino ará tomado el Rey despues de acabada aquella empresa." Carta de Luis de Quixada á Juan Vazquez, 27 de Setiembre, 1557, MS.

[315] Brantôme, Œuvres, tom. I. p. 11.

Whether Charles actually made the remark or not, it is clear from a letter in the Gonzalez collection that this was uppermost in his thoughts.—"Su Magestad tenia gran deseo de saber que partido tomaba el rey su hijo despues de la victoria, y que estaba impacientissimo formando cuentas de que ya deberia estar sobre Paris." Carta de Quixada, 10 de Setiembre, 1557, ap. Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 279.

It is singular that this interesting letter is neither in M. Gachard's collection nor in that made for me from the same sources.

[316] Cartas del Emperador á Juan Vazquez, de Setiembre 27 y Octubre 31, 1557, MS.

[317] The Emperor intimates his wishes in regard to his grandson's succession in a letter addressed, at a later period, to Philip. (Carta del Emperador al Rey, 31 de Marzo, 1558, MS.) But a full account of the Portuguese mission is given by Cienfuegos, Vida de S. Francisco de Borja, (Barcelona, 1754,) p. 269. The person employed by Charles in this delicate business was no other than his friend Francisco Borja, the ex-duke of Gandia, who, like himself, had sought a retreat from the world in the shades of the cloister. The biographers who record the miracles and miraculous virtues of the sainted Jesuit, bestow several chapters on his visits to Yuste. His conversations with the emperor are reported with a minuteness that Boswell might have envied, and which may well provoke our scepticism, unless we suppose them to have been reported by Borja himself. One topic much discussed in them was the merits of the order which the emperor's friend had entered. It had not then risen to that eminence which, under its singular discipline, it subsequently reached; and Charles would fain have persuaded his visitor to abandon it for the Jeronymite society with which he was established. But Borja seems to have silenced, if not satisfied, his royal master, by arguments which prove that his acute mind already discerned the germ of future greatness in the institutions of the new order.—Ibid., pp. 273-279.—Ribadeneira, Vita Francisci Borgiæ, (Lat. trans., Antverpiæ, 1598,) p. 110 et seq.

[318] Carta del Emperador al Rey, 25 de Mayo, 1558, MS.

On the margin of this letter we find the following memoranda of Philip himself, showing how much importance he attached to his father's interposition in this matter. "Volvérselo a suplicar con gran instancia, pues quedamos in tales términos que, si me ayudan con dinero, los podríamos atraer à lo que conviniesse." "Besalle las manos por lo que en esto ha mandado y suplicalle lo lleve adelante y que de acá se hará lo mismo, y avisarle de lo que se han hecho hasta agora."

[319] Carta del Emperador á Juan Vazquez, 31 de Marzo, 1557, MS.

[320] Carta del Emperador á la Princesa, 31 de Marzo, 1557, MS.—The whole letter is singularly characteristic of Charles. Its authoritative tone shows that, though he had parted with the crown, he had not parted with the temper of a sovereign, and of an absolute sovereign too.

[321] "Es tal su indignacion y tan sangrientas las palabras y vehemencia con que manda escribir á v.m. que me disculpará sino lo hago con mas templança y modo." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu á Juan Vazquez, 12 de Mayo, 1557, MS.

[322] "His majesty was so well," writes Gaztelu, early in the summer of 1557, "that he could rise from his seat, and support his arquebuse, without aid." He could even do some mischief with his fowling-piece to the wood-pigeons. Carta de Gaztelu, á Vazquez, 5 de Junio, 1557, MS.

[323] "Porque desde tantos de noviembre hasta pocos dias hame ha dado [la gota] tres vezes y muy rezio, y me ha tenido muchos días en la cama, y hestado hasta de poco acá tan trabajado y flaco que en toda esta quaresma no he podido oyr un sermon, y esto es la causa porque no os escribo esta de mi mano." Carta del Emperador al Rey, 7 de Abril, 1558, MS.

[324] "Sintiólo cierto mucho, y se le arrasáron los ojos, y me dijo lo mucho que él y la de Francia se habian siempre querido, y por cuan buena cristiana la tenia, y que le llevaba quince meses de tiempo, y que, según él se iba sintiendo, de poco acá podria ser que dentro de ellos le hiciese compañía." Carta de Gaztelu á Vazquez, 21 de Febrero, 1558, ap. Gachard, Retraite et Mort, tom. I, p. 270.—See also Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 339.

[325] "Y que para ello les deis y mandeis dar todo el favor y calor que fuere necenario y para que los que fueren culpados sean punidos y castigados con la demostracion y rigor que la cualidad de sus culpas mereceran y esto sin exception de persona alguna." Carta del Emperador á la Princesa, 3 de Mayo, 1558, MS.

[326] "No se si toviera sufrimiento para no salir de aqui arremediallo." Carta del Emperador á la Princesa, 25 de Mayo, 1568, MS.

[327] The history of this affair furnishes a good example of the crescit eundo. The author of the MS. discovered by M. Bakhuizen, noticed more fully in the next note, though present at the ceremony, contents himself with a general outline of it. Siguença, who follows next in time and in authority, tells us of the lighted candle which Charles delivered to the priest. Strada, who wrote a generation later, concludes the scene by leaving the emperor in a swoon upon the floor. Lastly, Robertson, after making the emperor perform in his shroud, lays him in his coffin, where, after joining in the prayers for the rest of his own soul, not yet departed, he is left by the monks to his meditations!—Where Robertson got all these particulars it would not be easy to tell; certainly not from the authorities cited at the bottom of his page.

[328] "Et j'assure que le cœur nous fendait de voir qu'un homme voulût en quelque sorte s'enterrer vivant, et faire ses obsèques avant de mourir." Gachard, Retraite et Mort, tom. I. p lvi.

M. Gachard has given a translation of the chapter relating to the funeral, from a curious MS. account of Charles's convent life, discovered by M. Bakhuizen in the archives at Brussels. As the author was one of the brotherhood who occupied the convent at the time of the emperor's residence there, the MS. is stamped with the highest authority; and M. Gachard will doubtless do a good service to letters by incorporating it in the second volume of his "Retraite et Mort."

[329] Siguença, Hist. de la Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. pp. 200, 201.

Siguença's work, which combines much curious learning with a simple elegance of style, was the fruit of many years of labor. The third volume, containing the part relating to the emperor, appeared in 1605, the year before the death of its author, who, as already noticed, must have had daily communication with several of the monks, when, after Charles's death, they had been transferred from Yuste to the gloomy shades of the Escorial.

[330] Such, for example, were Vera y Figueroa, Conde de la Roca, whose little volume appeared in 1613; Strada, who wrote some twenty years later; and the marquis of Valparayso, whose MS. is dated 1638. I say nothing of Sandoval, often quoted as authority for the funeral, for, as he tells us that the money which the emperor proposed to devote to a mock funeral was after all appropriated to his real one, it would seem to imply that the former never took place.

It were greatly to be wished that the MS. of Fray Martin de Angulo could be detected and brought to light. As prior of Yuste while Charles was there, his testimony would be invaluable. Both Sandoval and the marquis of Valparayso profess to have relied mainly on Angulo's authority. Yet in this very affair of the funeral they disagree.

[331] Siguença's composition may be characterized as simplex munditiis. The MS. of the monk of Yuste, found in Brussels, is stamped, says M. Gachard, with the character of simplicity and truth. Retraite et Mort, tom. I. p. xx.

[332] Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 1.

[333] "Estuvo un poco contemplandole, devia de pedirle, que le previniesse lugar en el Alcazar glorioso que habitava." Vera y Figueroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127.

[334] This famous picture, painted in the artist's best style, forms now one of the noblest ornaments of the Museo of Madrid. See Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 758.

[335] For the above account of the beginning of Charles's illness, see Siguença, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 201; Vera y Figueroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127; Valparayso, el Perfecto Desengaño, MS.

[336] Vera y Figueroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127.—Siguença, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 201.—Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, 17 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.

[337] The Regent Joanna, it seems, suspected, for some reason or other, that the boy in Quixada's care was in fact the emperor's son. A few weeks after her father's death she caused a letter to be addressed to the major-domo, asking him directly if this were the case, and intimating a desire to make a suitable provision for the youth. The wary functionary, who tells this in his private correspondence with Philip, endeavored to put the regent off the scent by stating that the lad was the son of a friend, and that, as no allusion had been made to him in the emperor's will, there could be no foundation for the rumor. "Ser ansy que yo tenya un muchacho de hun caballero amygo myo que me abia encomendado años a, y que pues S. M. en su testamento ni codecilyo, no azia memorya del, que hera razon tenello por burla." Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, 28 de Noviembre, 1558, MS.

[338] Codicilo del Emperador, ap. Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 657.

[339] "Si bien no sea necessario no os parece, que es buena compañía para jornada tan larga." Ibid., p. 617.

[340] Carta sobre los últimos momentos del Emperador Carlos V., escrita en Yuste, el 27 de Setiembre, 1558, ap. Documentos Inéditos, tom. VI. p. 668.

[341] Carta de Luis Quixada á Juan Vazquez, 25 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.—Carta del mismo al Rey, 30 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.—Carta del Arzobispo de Toledo á la Princesa, 21 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.

[342] "Tomo la candela en la mano derecha la qual yo tenya y con la yzquyerda tomo el crucifixo deziendo, ya es tiempo, y con dezir Jesus acabo." Carta de Luis Quixada á Juan Vazquez, 25 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.

For the accounts of this death-bed scene, see Carta del mismo al mismo, 21 de Setiembre, MS.—Carta del mismo al Rey, 21 de Setiembre, MS.—Carta del mismo al mismo, 30 de Setiembre, MS.—Carta del Arzobispo de Toledo á la Princesa, 21 de Setiembre, MS.—Carta del Medico del Emperador (Henrico Matisio) á Juan Vazquez, 21 de Setiembre, MS.—Carta sobre los ultimos momentos del Emperador, 27 de Setiembre, ap. Documentos Inéditos, vol. VI. p. 667.—Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 618.

The MSS. referred to may now be all found in the printed collection of Gachard.

[343] "Temiendo siempre no lo poder tener en aquel tiempo." Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, 30 de Setiembre, MS.

[344] Documentos Inéditos, tom. VI. p. 669.

[345] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 620.

[346] At least, such were the images suggested to my mind, as I wandered through the aisles of this fine old cathedral, on a visit which I made to Brussels a few years since,—in the summer of 1850. Perhaps the reader will excuse, as germaine to this matter, a short sketch relating to it, from one of my letters written on the spot to a distant friend:—

"Then the noble cathedral of Brussels, dedicated to one Saint Gudule,—the superb organ filling its long aisles with the most heart-thrilling tones, as the voices of the priests, dressed in their rich robes of purple and gold, rose in a chant that died away in the immense vaulted distance of the cathedral. It was the service of the dead, and the coffin of some wealthy burgher probably, to judge from its decorations, was in the choir. A number of persons were kneeling and saying their prayers in rapt attention, little heeding the Protestant strangers who were curiously gazing at the pictures and statues with which the edifice was filled. I was most struck with one poor woman, who was kneeling before the shrine of the saint, whose marble corpse, covered by a decent white gauze veil, lay just before her, separated only by a light railing. The setting sun was streaming in through the rich colored panes of the magnificent windows, that rose from the floor to the ceiling of the cathedral, some hundred feet in height. The glass was of the time of Charles the Fifth, and I soon recognized his familiar face,—the protruding jaw of the Austrian line. As I heard the glorious anthem rise up to heaven in this time-honored cathedral, which had witnessed generation after generation melt away, and which now displayed, in undying colors, the effigies of those who had once worshipped within its walls, I was swept back to a distant period, and felt I was a contemporary of the grand old times when Charles the Fifth held the chapters of the Golden Fleece in this very building."

[347] "De Rege vero Cæsare ajunt, qui ab eo veniunt, barbatum jam esse." Petri Martyris Opus Epistolarum, (Amstelodami, 1670, fol.,) ep. 734.

[348] In this outline of the character of Charles the Fifth, I have not hesitated to avail myself of the masterly touches which Ranke has given to the portrait of this monarch, in the introduction to that portion of his great work on the nations of Southern Europe which he has devoted to Spain.

[349] "Qualche fiate io son fermo in le cattive." Contarini, cited by Ranke, Ottoman and Spanish Empires, p. 29.

[350] See Bradford, Correspondence of the Emperor Charles the Fifth and his Ambassadors at the Courts of England and France, with a connecting Narrative and Biographical Notices of the Emperor, (London, 1850,) p. 367,—a work which contains some interesting particulars, little known, respecting Charles the Fifth.

[351] "Nel mangiare ha S. Maestà sempre eccesso...... La mattina svegliata ella pigliava una scodella di pesto cappone con latte, zucchero et spezierie, popoi il quale tornava a riposare. A mezzo giorno desinava molte varietà di vivande, et poco da poi vespro merendava, et all'hora di notte se n'andava alla cena mangiando cose tutte da generare humori grossi et viscosi." Badovaro, Notizie delli Stati et Corti di Carlo Quinto Imperatore et del Re Cattolico, MS.

[352] "Disse una volta al Maggior-domo Monfalconetto con sdegno, ch'aveva corrotto il giudicio a dare ordine a'cuochi, perche tutti i cibi erano insipidi, dal quale le fu risposto: Non so come dovere trovare pin modi da compiacere alla maestà V. se io non fo prova di farle una nuova vivanda di pottaggio di rogoli, il che la mosse a quel maggiore et più lungo riso che sia mai stato veduto in lei." Ibid.

[353] Briefe an Kaiser Karl V., geschrieben von seinem Beichtvater, (Berlin, 1848,) p. 159 et al.

These letters of Charles's confessor, which afford some curious particulars for the illustration of the early period of his history, are preserved in the archives of Simancas. The edition above referred to contains the original Castilian, accompanied by a German translation.

[354] "Si hallais," said the royal author with a degree of humility rarely found in brethren of the craft, "que alguna vanidad secreta puede mover la pluma (que siempre es prodigioso Panegerista en causa propria), la arrojaré de la mano al punto, para dar al viento lo que es del viento." Cienfuegos, Vida de Borja, p. 269.

[355] "Factus est anagnostes insatiabilis, audit legentem me singulis noctibus facta cœnula sua, mox librum repeti jubet, si forte ipsum torquet insomnia." Lettres sur la Vie Intérieure de Charles-Quint, écrites par G. Van Male, ep. 7.

[356] "Scripsi ... liberalissimas ejus occupationes in navigatione fluminis Rheni, dum ocii occasione invitatus, scriberet in navi peregrinationes et expeditiones quas ab anno XV. in præsentem usque diem, suscepisset." Ibid., ep. 5.

[357] "Statui novum quoddam scribendi temperatum effingere, mixtum ex Livio, Cæsare, Suetonio, et Tacito." Ibid.

[358] At the emperor's death, these Memoirs were in possession of Van Male, who afterwards used to complain, with tears in his eyes, that Quixada had taken them away from him. But he remembered enough of their contents, he said, to make out another life of his master, which he intended to do. (Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. VI. p. 29.) Philip, thinking that Van Male might have carried his intention into execution, ordered Granvelle to hunt among his papers, after the poor gentleman's death, and if he found any such MS. to send it to him, that he might throw it into the fire! (Ibid., p. 273.) Philip, in his tenderness for his father's memory, may have thought that no man could be a hero to his own valet-de-chambre. On searching, however, no memoirs were found.

[359] "Bono jure, ait, fructus ille ad Gulielmum redeat, ut qui plurimum in opere illo sudarit." Ibid., ep. 6.

[360] "Ne in proemio quidem passus est ullam solertiæ suæ laudem adscribí." Ibid.

Van Male's Latin correspondence, from which this amusing incident is taken, was first published by the Baron Reiffenberg for the society of Bibliophiles Belgiques, at Brussels, in 1843. It contains some interesting notices of Charles the Fifth's personal habits during the five years preceding his abdication. Van Male accompanied his master into his retirement; and his name appears in the codicil, among those of the household who received pensions from the emperor. This doubtless stood him in more stead than his majesty's translation, which, although it passed through several editions in the course of the century, probably put little money into the pocket of the chamberlain, who died in less than two years after his master.

A limited edition only of Van Male's correspondence was printed, for the benefit of the members of the association. For the copy used by me, I am indebted to Mr. Van de Weyer, the accomplished Belgian minister at the English court, whose love of letters is shown not more by the library he has formed—one of the noblest private collections in Europe—than by the liberality with which he accords the use of it to the student.