[1488] Letter of Fourquevaulx, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.

[1489] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1490] "Quella per il Rè conteneva specificatamente molti agravii, che in molti anni pretendi, che li siano statti fatti da Sua Maestà, et diceva ch'egli se n'andava fuori delli suoi Regni per no poter sopportare tanti agravii, che li faceva." Lettera del Nunzio, Marzo 2, 1568, MS.

[1491] Ibid.

[1492] "Vi è ancora una lista, dove scriveva di sua mano gli amici, et li nemici suoi, li quali diceva hi havere a perseguitare sempre fino alla morte, tra li quali il primo era scritto il Rè suo padre, di poi Rui Gomez et la moglie, il Presidente, il Duca d'Alba, et certi altri." Lettera del Nunzio, Marzo 2, 1568, MS.

[1493] "No salio el Rey de Madrid, ni aun a Aranjuez, ni a San Lorenço a ver su fabrica, tan atento al negocio del Principe estaba, i sospechoso a las murmuraciones de sus pueblos fieles i reverentes, que ruidos estraordinarios en su Palacio le hazian mirar, si eran tumultos para sacar a su Alteza de su camara." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5.

[1494] "Onde fù chiamato il confessore et il medico, ma egli seguitando nella sua disperatione non volse ascoltare nè l'unno nè l'altro." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.

My copy of this letter, perhaps through the inadvertence of the transcriber, is without date.

[1495] "Ne volendo in alcun modo curare nè il corpo nè l'anima, la quai cosa faceva stare il Rè et gli altri con molto dispiacere, vedendoli massima di continuo crescere il male, et mancar la virtù." Ibid.

[1496] "Vea V. A. que harán y dirán todos quando se entienda que no se confiesa, y se vayan descubriendo otras cosas terribles, que le son tanto, que llegan á que el Santo Oficio tuviera mucha entrada en otro para saber si era cristiano ó no." Carta de Hernán Suarez de Toledo al Príncipe, Marzo 18, 1568, MS.

[1497] "Spogliarsi nudo, et solo con una robba di taffetà su le carni star quasi di continuo ad una finestra, dove tirava vento, caminare con li piedi discalzi per la camara que tuttavia faceva stare adacquata tanto che sempre ci era l'acqua per tutto." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.

[1498] "Farsi raffredare ogni notte due o tre volti il letto con uno scaldaletto pieno di neve, et tenerlo le notte intiere nel letto." Ibid.

[1499] Three days, according to one authority. (Lettera di Nobili di 30 di Luglio, 1568, MS.) Another swells the number to nine days (Carta de Gomez Manrique, MS.); and a third—one of Philip's cabinet ministers—has the assurance to prolong the prince's fast to eleven days, in which he allows him, however, an unlimited quantity of cold water. "Ansi se determinó de no comer y en esta determinacion passaron onze dias sin que bastasen persuasiones ni otras diligencias á que tomase cosa bevida ni que fuese para salud sino aqua fria." Carta de Francisco de Erasso, MS.

[1500] "Doppo essere stato tre giorni senza mangiare molto fantastico et bizzaro mangiò un pasticcio fredolo di quatri perdici con tutta la pasta: et il medesimo giorno bevve trecento once d'aqqua fredda." Lettera di Nobili, Luglio 30 1568, MS.

Yet Carlos might have found warrant for his proceedings, in regard to the use of snow and iced water, in the prescriptions of more than one doctor of his time. De Castro—who displays much ingenuity, and a careful study of authorities, in his discussion of this portion of Philip's history—quotes the writings of two of these worthies, one of whom tells us, that the use of snow had increased to such an extent, that not only was it recommended to patients in their drink, but also to cool their sheets; and he forthwith prescribes a warming-pan, to be used in the same way as it was by Carlos. Historia de los Protestantes Españoles, p. 370.

[1501] "Visitabale el Doctor Olivares Protomedico i salia a consultar con sus conpañeros en presencia de Rui Gomez de Silva la curacion, curso i accidentes de la enfermedad." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 22.

[1502] "Mostrando molta contritione, et se bene si lassava curare il corpo per non causarsi egli stesso la morte, mostrava pero tanto disprezzo delle cose del mondo, et tanto desiderio delle celesti; che pareva veramente che Nostro Signore Dio gli havesse riserbato il cumulo di tutti le gratie à quel ponto." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.

[1503] "Tanto hanno da durare le mie miserie." Ibid.

[1504] "And so," says Cabrera, somewhat bluntly, "the king withdrew to his apartment with more sorrow in his heart, and less care."—"Algunas oras antes de su fallecimiento, por entre los onbros del Prior don Antonio i de Rui Gomez le echò su benedicion, i se recogiò en su camara cō mas dolor i menos cuidado." Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5.

[1505] "Il Rè non l'ha visitato, ne lassato che la Regina ne la Principessa lo veggiano, forse considerando che poi che già si conosceva disperato il caso suo, queste visite simili poterono più presto conturbare l'una at l'altra delle parti, che aiutarli in cosa nessuna." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.

[1506] "Il Prencipe di Spagna avante la morte diceva, che perdoneva a tutti, et nominatamenta al Padre, che l'haveva carcerato, et a Ruy Gomez, cardinal Presidente Dottor Velasco, et altri, per lo consiglio de'quali credeva essere stato preso." Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 28, 1568, MS.

[1507] "Et battendosi il petto come poteva, essendoli mancata la virtù a poco a poco, ritirandosi la vita quasi da membro in membro espirò con molta tranquilità et constanza." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.

[1508] "Et testificono quelli, che vi si trovorno che Christiano nessuno può morir più cattolicamente, ne in maggior sentimento di lui." Lettera di Nobili, Luglio 30, 1568, MS.

[1509] See, among others, Quintana, Historia de la Antigüedad Nobleza y Grandeza de la Villa y Corte de Madrid, (1629,) fol. 368; Colmenares, Historia de la Insigne Ciudad de Segovia, (Madrid, 1640,) cap. 43; Pinelo, Anales de Madrid, MS.; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5; Herrera, Historia General, lib. XV. cap. 3; Carta de Francisco de Erasso, MS.; Carta de Gomez Manrique, MS.

[1510] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 147.

Von Raumer has devoted some fifty pages of his fragmentary compilation to the story of Don Carlos, and more especially to the closing scenes of his life. The sources are of the most unexceptionable kind, being chiefly the correspondence of the French ministers with their court, existing among the MSS. in the Royal Library at Paris. The selections made are pertinent in their character, and will be found of the greatest importance to illustrate this dark passage in the history of the time. If I have not arrived at the same conclusions in all respects as those of the illustrious German scholar, it may be that my judgment has been modified by the wider range of materials at my command.

[1511] Llorente, Histoire de l'Inquisition, tom. III. p. 171 et seq.

[1512] "Quoique ces documens ne soient pas authentiques, ils méritent qu'on y ajoute foi, en ce qu'ils sont de certaines personnes employées dans le palais du roi." Ibid., p. 171.

[1513] Thus, for example, he makes the contradictory statements, at the distance of four pages from each other, that the prince did, and that he did not, confide to Don John his desire to kill his father (pp. 148, 152). The fact is, that Llorente in a manner pledged himself to solve the mystery of the prince's death, by announcing to his readers, at the outset, that "he believed he had discovered the truth." One fact he must be allowed to have established,—one which, as secretary to the Inquisition, he had the means of verifying,—namely, that no process was ever instituted against Carlos by the Holy Office. This was to overturn a vulgar error, on which more than one writer of fiction has built his story.

[1514] "Le cicalerie, et novellacce, che si dicono, sono molto indigne d'essere ascoltate, non che scritte, perchè in vero il satisfar al popolaccio in queste simil cose è molto difficile; et meglio è farle, siccome porta il giusto et l'honesto senza curarsi del giudicio d'huomini insani, et che parlono senza ragione di cose impertinenti et impossibili di autori incerti, dappochi, et maligni." Lettera di Nobili, Luglio 30 1568, MS.

[1515] Letter of Antonio Perez to the counsellor Du Vair, ap. Rauner, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 153.

[1516] "Mais afin de sauver l'honneur du sang royal, l'arrêt fut exécuté en secret et on lui fit avaler un bouillon empoisoné, dont il mourut quelques heures après, au commencement de sa vingt-troisième année." De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. V. p. 436.

[1517] "Mas es peligroso manejar vidrios, i dar ocasion da tragedias famosas, acaecimientos notables, violentas muertes por los secretos executores Reales no sabidas, i por inesperadas terribles, i por la estrañeza i rigor de justicia, despues de largas advertencias a los que no cuidando dellas incurrieron en crimen de lesa Magestad." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 22.

The admirable obscurity of the passage, in which the historian has perfectly succeeded in mystifying his critics, has naturally led them to suppose that more was meant by him than meets the eye.

[1518] "Ex morbo ob alimenta partim obstinate recusata, partira intemperanter adgesta, nimiamque nivium refrigerationem, super animi aigritudinem (si modò vis abfuit), in Divi Jacobi pervigilio extinctus est." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 378.

[1519] Apologie, ap. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. V. par. i. p. 389.

[1520] "Parquoy le roi conclud sur ses raisons que le meilleur estoit de le faire mourir; dont un matin on le trouva en prison estouffé d'un linge." Brantôme, Œuvres, tom. I. p. 320.

A taste for jesting on this subject seems to have been still in fashion at the French court as late as Louis the Fourteenth's time. At least, we find that monarch telling some one that "he had sent Bussy Rabutin to the Bastile for his own benefit, as Philip the Second said when he ordered his son to be strangled." Lettres de Madame de Sevigné, (Paris, 1822.) tom. VIII. p. 368.

[1521] A French contemporary chronicler dismisses his account of the death of Carlos with the remark, that, of all the passages in the history of this reign, the fate of the young prince is the one involved in the most impenetrable mystery. Matthieu, Breve Compendio de la Vida Privada de Felipe Segundo, (Span, trans.,) MS.

[1522] The Abbé San Real finds himself unable to decide whether Carlos took poison, or, like Seneca, had his veins opened in a warm bath, or, finally, whether he was strangled with a silk cord by four slaves sent by his father to do the deed, in Oriental fashion. (Verdadera Historia de la Vida y Muerte del Príncipe Don. Carlos, Span, trans., MS.) The doubts of San Real are echoed with formal solemnity by Leti, Vita di Flippo II., tom. I. p. 559.

[1523] Von Raumer, who has given an analysis of this letter of Antonio Perez, treats it lightly, as coming from "a double-dealing, bitter enemy of Philip," whose word on such a subject was of little value. (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 155.) It was certainly a singular proof of confidence in one who was so habitually close in his concerns as the prince of Eboli, that he should have made such a communication to Perez. Yet it must be admitted that the narrative derives some confirmation from the fact, that the preceding portions of the letter containing it, in which the writer describes the arrest of Carlos, conform with the authentic account of that event as given in the text.

It is worthy of notice, that both De Thou and Llorente concur with Perez in alleging poison as the cause of the prince's death. Though even here there is an important discrepancy; Perez asserting it was a slow poison, taking four months to work its effect, while the other authorities say that its operation was immediate. Their general agreement, moreover, in regard to the employment of poison, is of the less weight, as such an agency would be the one naturally surmised under circumstances where it would be desirable to leave no trace of violence on the body of the victim.

[1524] If we may take Brantôme's word, there was some ground for such apprehension at all times. "En fin il estoit un terrible masle; et s'il eust vescu, assurez-vous qu'il s'en fust faict aeroire, et qu'il eust mis le pere en curatelle." Œuvres, tom. I. p. 323.

[1525] "Li più favoriti del Rè erono odiati da lui a morte, et adesso tanto più, et quando questo venisse a regnare si teneriano rovinati loro." Lettera del Nunzio, Febraio 14, 1568, MS.

[1526] Ante. p. 177.

It is in this view that Dr. Salazar de Mendoza does not shrink from asserting, that, if Philip did make a sacrifice of his son, it rivalled in sublimity that of Isaac by Abraham, and even that of Jesus Christ by the Almighty! "Han dicho de él lo que del Padre Eterno, que no perdonó á su propio Hijo. Lo que del Patriarca Abraham en el sacrificio de Isaac su unigénito. A todo caso humano excede la gloria que de esto le resulta, y no hay con quien comparalla." (Dignidades de Castilla y Leon, p. 417.) He closes this rare piece of courtly blasphemy by assuring us that in point of fact Carlos died a natural death. The doctor wrote in the early part of Philip the Third's reign, when the manner of the prince's death was delicate ground for the historian.

[1527] Philip the Second is not the only Spanish monarch who has been charged with the murder of his son. Leovogild, a Visigothic king of the sixth century, having taken prisoner his rebel son, threw him into a dungeon, where he was secretly put to death. The king was an Arian, while the young prince was a Catholic, and might have saved his life if he had been content to abjure his religion. By the Church of Rome, therefore, he was regarded as a martyr; and it is a curious circumstance that it was Philip the Second who procured the canonization of the slaughtered Hermenegild from Pope Sixtus the Fifth.

For the story, taken from that voluminous compilation of Florez, "La España Sagrada," I am indebted to Milman's History of Latin Christianity (London, 1854, vol. I. p. 446), one of the remarkable works of the present age, in which the author reviews, with curious erudition, and in a profoundly philosophical spirit, the various changes that have taken place in the Roman hierarchy: and while he fully exposes the manifold errors and corruptions of the system, he shows throughout that enlightened charity which is the most precious of Christian graces, as unhappily it is the rarest.

[1528] Lettera di Nobili, Luglio 30, 1568, MS.

[1529] I have before me another will made by Don Carlos in 1564, in Alcalá de Henares, the original of which is still extant in the Archives of Simancas. In one item of this document, he bequeathes five thousand ducats to Don Martin de Cordova, for his gallant defence of Mazarquivir.

[1530] Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 28, 1568, MS.—Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 369.

[1531] "Partieron con el cuerpo, aviendo el Rey con la entereza de animo que mantuvo sienpre, conpuesto desde una ventana las diferencias de los Consejos disposiendo la precedencia, cesando assi la competencia." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5.

[1532] The particulars of the ceremony are given by the Nunzio, Lettera di 28 di Luglio, MS.—See also Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 369.

[1533] Pinelo, Anales de Madrid, MS.—Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 369.—Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 28, 1568, MS.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5.

[1534] Carta del Rey á Zuñiga, Agosto 27, 1568, MS.

[1535] "Digo la missa el Cardenal Tarragona, asistiendo á las honras 21 cardenales idemas de los obispos y arzobispos." Aviso de un Italiano plático y familiar de Ruy Gomez de Silva, MS.

[1536] "Oracion funebre," writes the follower of Ruy Gomez, "no la hubo, pero ye hizo estos epitaphios y versos por mi consolacion." Ibid.

Whatever "consolation" the Latin doggerel which follows in the original may have given to its author, it would have too little interest for the reader to be quoted here.

[1537] "Il Rè como padre ha sentito molto, ma come christiano la comporta con quells patienza con che dovemo ricevere le tribulationi, che ci manda Nostro Signore Dio." Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 24, 1568, MS.

[1538] Raumer has given an extract from this letter, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 149.

[1539] Besides Brantôme, and De Thou, elsewhere noticed in this connection, another writer of that age, Pierre Matthieu, the royal historiographer of France, may be thought to insinuate something of the kind, when he tells us that "the circumstance of Isabella so soon following Carlos to the tomb had suggested very different grounds from those he had already given as the cause of his death." (Breve Compendio de la Vida Privada del Rey Felipe Segundo, MS.) But the French writer's account of Philip is nearly as apocryphal as the historical romance of San Real, who, in all that relates to Carlos in particular, will be found largely indebted to the lively imagination of his predecessor.

[1540] "Aussi dit on que cela fut cause de sa mort en partie, avec d'autres subjects que je ne dirai point à ceste heure; car il ne se pouvoit garder de l'aimer dans son ame, l'honorer et reverer, tant il la trouvoit aymable et agréable à ses yeux, comme certes elle l'estoit en tout." Brantôme, Œuvres, tom. V. p. 128.

[1541] "Luy eschappa de dire que c'avoit esté fait fort meschamment de l'avoir fait mourir et si innocentement, dont il fut banny jusques au plus profond des Indes d'Espagne. Cela est tres que vray, à ce que l'on dit." Ibid., p. 132.

[1542] Apologie, ap. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. V. par. i. p. 389.

Strada, while he notices the common rumors respecting Carlos and Isabella, dismisses them as wholly unworthy of credit. "Mihi, super id quod incomperta sunt, etiam veris dissimilia videntur." De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 379.

[1543] At the head of these writers must undoubtedly be placed the Abbé San Real, with whose romantic history of Don Carlos I am only acquainted in the Castilian translation, entitled "Verdadera Historia de la Vida y Muerte del Principe Don Carlos." Yet, romance as it is, more than one grave historian has not disdained to transplant its flowers of fiction into his own barren pages. It is edifying to see the manner in which Leti, who stands not a little indebted to San Real, after stating the scandalous rumors in regard to Carlos and Isabella, concludes by declaring: "Ma come io sorivo historia, e non romanzo, non posso afirmar nulli di certo, perche nulla di certo hò possuto raccore." Leti, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I. p. 560.

[1544] "Monsieur le prince d'Hespaigne fort extenué, la vint saluer, qu'elle recent avec telle caresse et comportement, que si le père et toute la compaignie en ont receu ung singulier contentement ledit prince l'a encores plus grand, comme il a demonstré depuis et démonstre lorsqu'il la visite, qui ne peut estre souvent; car outre que les conversations de ce pays ne sont pas si fréquentes et faciles qu'en France, sa fièvre quarte le travaille tellement, que de jour en jour il va s'exténuant." L'Evêque de Limoges au Roi, 23 février, 1559. Négociations relatives au Règne de François II., p. 272.

[1545] "Ayant ladite dame mis toute la peine qu'il a esté possible à luy donner, aux soirs, quelque plaisir du bail et autres honnestes passetemps, desquels il a bon besoin, car le pauvre prince est si has et exténué, il va d'heure à heure tant affoiblissant, que les plus sages de œste court en out bien petite espérance." L'Evêque de Limoges au Roi, 1^er mars, 1569, Ibid., p. 291.

[1546] "La royne et la princesse la visitent bien souvent, et sopent en un jardin qui est auprès de la meson, et le prince avec elles, qui aime la royne singulièrement, de façôn qu'il ne ce peut soler de an dire bien. Je croys qu'il voudrait estre davantage son parent." Claude de ... à la Reine Mère, août, 1560, Ibid., p. 460.

[1547] "On entendit aussi très-souvent ce jeune Prince, lorsqu'il sortoit de la chambre de la Reine Elizabeth, avec qui il avoit de longs et fréquens entretiens, se plaindre et marquer sa colère et son indignation, de ce que son pere la lui avoit enlevée." De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. V. p. 434.

[1548] "Vous dirès-ge, madame, que sy se n'estoit la bonne compaignie où je suis en se lieu, et l'heur que j'ai de voir tous les jours le roy mon seigneur, je trouverois se lieu l'un des plus fâcheux du monde. Mais je vous assure, madame, que j'ay un si bon mari et suis si heureuse que, quant il le seroit cent fois davantage, je ne m'y fâcherois point." La Reine Catholique à la Reine Mère, Négociations relatives au Règne de François II. p. 813.

[1549] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 129.

[1550] Ibid., p. 130.

[1551] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1552] "Ceste taille, elle l'accompagnoit d'un port, d'une majesté, d'un geste, d'un marcher et d'une grace entremeslée de l'espagnole et de la françoise en gravité et en douceur." See Brantôme, (Œuvres, tom. V. p. 129,) whose loyal pencil has traced the lineaments of Isabella as given in the text.

[1553] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 131.

[1554] Letter of Fourquevaulx, February 5, 1568, ap. Ibid., p. 139.

[1555] "Gli amici, in primo loco la Regína, la quale diceva che gli era amorevolissima, Don Giovanni d'Austria suo carissimo et diletissimozio," etc. Lettera del Nunzio, Marzo 2, 1568, MS.

[1556] Letter of Fourquevaulx, October 3, 1568, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 158.

[1557] "Pero la Reyna hacia muy poco caudal de lo que los medicos decian dando á entender con su Real condicion y gracioso semblante tener poca necesidad de sus medicinas." Relacion de la Enfermedad y Essequias funebres de la Serenissima Reyna de España Doña Ysabel de Valois, por Juan Lopez, Catedratico del Estudio de Madrid, (Madrid, 1569,) fol. 4.

[1558] Ibid., ubi supra.

The learned professor has given the various symptoms of the queen's malady with as curious a minuteness as if he had been concocting a medical report. As an order was issued, shortly after the publication of the work, prohibiting its sale, copies of it are exceedingly rare.

[1559] Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 390.—Letter of Fourquevaulx, October 3, 1568, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 139.—Juan Lopez, Relacion de la Enfermedad de la Reyna Ysabel, ubi supra.—Pinelo, Anales de Madrid, MS.

[1560] "Porque en efecto, el modo y manera conque ella las trataba, no hera de senora á quien pareciesen servir, sino de madre y compañera." Juan Lopez, Relacion de la Enfermedad de la Reyna Ysabel, loc. cit.

[1561] Ibid.—Pinelo, Anales de Madrid, MS.

[1562] Letter of Fourquevaulx, October 3, 1568, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 159.

[1563] "Habia ordenado se tragese el lignum crucis del Rey nuestro Señor, que es una muy buena parte que con grandismo hornato de oro y perlas de supremo valor S. M. tiene." Juan Lopez, Relacion de la Enfermedad de la Reyna Ysabel.

[1564] Letter of Fourquevaulx, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. vol. I p. 159.

[1565] Ibid., loc. cit.

The correspondence of the French ambassador, Fourquevaulx, is preserved in MS., in the Royal Library at Paris. Raumer, with his usual judgment, has freely extracted from it; and the freedom with which I have drawn upon him shows the importance of his extracts to the illustration of the present story. I regret that my knowledge of the existence of this correspondence came too late to allow me to draw from the original sources.

[1566] "Bistieron a la Reyna de habito de S. Francisco, y la pusieron en un ataud poniendo con ella la infanta que en poco espacio habiendo racebido agua de Espiritu Santo murió." Juan Lopez, Relacion de la Enfermedad de la Reyna Ysabel.

[1567] "Fue cosa increible el doblar, y chamorear, por todas las parroquias, y monasterios, y hospitales. Lo cual causó un nuebo dolor y grandisimo aumento de aristeza, siendo ya algo tarde los grandes que en la corte se hallaban, y mayordomos de S. M. sacaron el cuerpo de la Reyna, y binieron con el a la Capilla Real." Ibid.

[1568] "Jamais on ne vit peuple si desolé ny si affligé, ni tant jeter de hauts cris, ny tant espandre de larmes qu'il fit.... Que, pour maniere de parler, vous eussiez dit, qu'il l'idolatroit plustost qu'il ne l'honoroit et reveroit." Brantôme, Œuvres, tom. V. p. 131.

[1569] "Puesto el cuerpo por este orden cubierto con un muy rico paño de brocado rodeado el cadalso de muchas achas en sus muy sumtuosos blandones de plata." Juan Lopez, Relacion de la Enfermedad de la Reyna Ysabel, ubi supra.

[1570] "Las damas en las tribunas de donde oye misa con hartos suspiros y sollozos llebaban el contrapunto á la suave, tristé y contemplatiba musica, conque empezaron el oficio la capilla de S. M." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1571] "Las cuales viendo sparta el cuerpo, dieron muchos gritos y suspiros y abriendole la duquesa de Alba, trajo muchos polbos de olores aromaticos de grande olor y fragrancia, y embalsamon a la Reyna: la cual aunque habia pasado tanto tiempo estaba como si entonces acabara de morir, y con tan gran hermosura en el rostro que no parecia esta muerta." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1572] Letter of St. Goar, June 18, 1573, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 163.—Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 370.

[1573] Letter of Catherine de Medicis, ap. Raumer, vol. I. p. 162.

[1574] Letter of Cardinal Guise. Feb. 6, 1569, ap. Ibid., 163.

[1575] The openness with which Carlos avowed his sentiments for Isabella may be thought some proof of their innocence. Catherine de Medicis, in a letter to Fourquevaulx, dated February 28, 1568, says, alluding to the prince's arrest: "I am concerned that the event very much distresses my daughter, as well with regard to her husband as in respect of the prince, who has always let her know the good-will he bears to her." Ibid., p. 141.

[1576] The French historian, De Thou, by no means disposed to pass too favorable a judgment on the actions of Philip, and who in the present case would certainly not be likely to show him any particular grace, rejects without hesitation the suspicion of foul play on the part of the king. "Quelques-uns soupçonnerent Philippe de l'avoir fait empoissoner, parce qu'il lui avoit fait un crime de la trop grande famil projectID434018d6a5fd4iarité qu'elle avoit avec Dom Carlos. Il est néanmoins facile de se convaincre du contraire, par la grande et sincère douleur que sa mort causa, tant à la Cour que dans toute l'Espagne; le Roi la pleura, comme une femme qu'il aimoit tres-tendrement." Histoire Universelle, tom. V. p. 437.

[1577] Brantôme, Œuvres, tom. V. p. 137.

Yet Isabella's mother, Catherine de Medicis, found fault with her daughter, in the interview at Bayonne, for having become altogether a Spaniard, saying to her tauntingly, "Muy Española venis." To which the queen meekly replied, "It is possible that it may be so; but you will still find me the same daughter to you as when you sent me to Spain." The anecdote is told by Alva in a letter to the king. Carta del Duque de Alva al Rey, MS.

[1578] "Aussi l'appelloit-on la Reyna de le paz y de la bondad, c'est-à-dire la Reyn de la paix et de la bonté; et nos François l'appellarent l'olive de paix." Ibid p. 129.

[1579] "Elle est morte au plus beau et plaisant avril de son aage.... Car elle estoit de naturel et de tainct pour durer longtemps belle, et aussi que la vieillesss ne l'eust osé attaquer car sa beauté fut esté plus forte." Ibid., p. 137.