History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 49

This ambiguous language--implying that the imprisonment of Carlos was not occasioned by his own misconduct, and yet that both the interests of religion and the safety of the state demanded his perpetual imprisonment--may be thought to intimate that the cause referred to could be no other than insanity. This was plainly stated by the prince of Eboli, in a communication which, by the king's order, he made to the French minister, Fourquevaulx. The king, Gomez said, had for three years past perceived that the prince's head was the weakest part of him, and that he was, at no time, in complete possession of his understanding. He had been silent on the matter, trusting that time would bring some amendment. But it had only made things worse; and he saw, with sorrow, that to commit the sceptre to his son's hands would be to bring inevitable misery on his subjects and ruin on the state. With unspeakable anguish, he had therefore resolved, after long deliberation, to place his son under constraint.[1466]

[Sidenote: CAUSES OF HIS IMPRISONMENT.]

This at least is intelligible, and very different from Philip's own despatches,--where it strikes us as strange, if insanity were the true ground of the arrest, that it should be covered up under such vague and equivocal language, with the declaration, moreover, usually made in his letters, that, "at some future time, he would explain the matter more fully to the parties." One might have thought that the simple plea of insanity would have been directly given, as furnis.h.i.+ng the best apology for the son, and at the same time vindicating the father for imposing a wholesome restraint upon his person. But, in point of fact, the excessive rigor of the confinement, as we shall have occasion to see, savored much more of the punishment dealt out to some high offender, than of the treatment of an unfortunate lunatic. Neither is it probable that a criminal process would have been inst.i.tuted against one who, by his very infirmity, was absolved from all moral responsibility.

There are two doc.u.ments, either of which, should it ever be brought to light, would probably unfold the true reasons of the arrest of Carlos.

The Spanish amba.s.sador, Zuniga, informed Philip that the pope, dissatisfied with the account which he had given of the transaction, desired a further explanation of it from his majesty.[1467] This, from such a source, was nearly equivalent to a command. For Philip had a peculiar reverence for Pius the Fifth, the pope of the Inquisition, who was a pontiff after his own heart. The king is said never to have pa.s.sed by the portrait of his holiness, which hung on the walls of the palace, without taking off his hat.[1468] He at once wrote a letter to the pope containing a full account of the transaction. It was written in cipher, with the recommendation that it should be submitted to Granvelle, then in Rome, if his holiness could not interpret it. This letter is doubtless in the Vatican.[1469]

The other doc.u.ment is the process. The king, immediately after the arrest of his son, appointed a special commission to try him. It consisted of Cardinal Espinosa, the prince of Eboli, and a royal councillor, Bribiesca de Munatones, who was appointed to prepare the indictment. The writings containing the memorable process inst.i.tuted by Philip's ancestor, John the Second of Aragon, against his amiable and unfortunate son, who also bore the name of Carlos, had been obtained from the Archives of Barcelona. They were translated from the Catalan into Castilian, and served for the ominous model for the present proceedings, which took the form of a trial for high treason. In conducting this singular prosecution, it does not appear that any counsel or evidence appeared on behalf of the prisoner, although a formidable amount of testimony, it would seem, was collected on the other side. But, in truth, we know little of the proceedings. There is no proof that any but the monarch, and the secret tribunal that presided over the trial,--if so it can be called,--ever saw the papers. In 1592, according to the historian Cabrera, they were deposited, by Philip's orders, in a green box, strongly secured, in the Archives of Simancas,[1470]--where, as we have no later information, they may still remain, to reward the labors of some future antiquary.[1471]

In default of these doc.u.ments, we must resort to conjecture for the solution of this difficult problem; and there are several circ.u.mstances which may a.s.sist us in arriving at a conclusion. Among the foreign ministers at that time at the court of Madrid, none took more pains to come at the truth of this affair,--as his letters abundantly prove,--than the papal nuncio, Castaneo, archbishop of Rossano. He was a shrewd, sagacious prelate, whose position and credit at the court gave him the best opportunities for information. By Philip's command, Cardinal Espinosa gave the nuncio the usual explanation of the grounds on which Carlos had been arrested. "It is a strange story," said the nuncio, "that which we everywhere hear, of the prince's plot against his father's life." "It would be of little moment," replied the cardinal, "if the danger to the king were all; as it would be easy to protect his person. But the present case is worse,--if worse can be; and the king, who has seen the bad course which his son has taken for these two years past, has vainly tried to remedy it; till, finding himself unable to exercise any control over the hair-brained young man, he has been forced to this expedient."[1472]

Now, in the judgment of a grand-inquisitor, it would probably be thought that heresy, or any leaning to heresy, was a crime of even a deeper dye than parricide. The cardinal's discourse made this impression on the nuncio, who straightway began to cast about for proofs of apostasy in Don Carlos. The Tuscan minister also notices, in his letters, the suspicions that Carlos was not a good Catholic.[1473] A confirmation of this view of the matter may be gathered from the remarks of Pius the Fifth on Philip's letter in cipher, above noticed. "His holiness,"

writes the Spanish amba.s.sador, "greatly lauds the course taken by your majesty; for he feels that the preservation of Christianity depends on your living many years, and on your having a successor who will tread in your footsteps."[1474]

[Sidenote: CAUSES OF HIS IMPRISONMENT.]

But though all this seems to intimate pretty clearly that the religious defection of Carlos was a predominant motive for his imprisonment, it is not easy to believe that a person of his wayward and volatile mind could have formed any settled opinions in matters of faith, or that his position would have allowed the Reformers such access to his person as to have greatly exposed him to the influence of their doctrines. Yet it is quite possible that he may have taken an interest in those political movements abroad, which, in the end, were directed against the Church. I allude to the troubles in the Low Countries, which he is said to have looked upon with no unfriendly eye. It is true, there is no proof of this, so far as I am aware, in the correspondence of the Flemish leaders. Nor is there any reason to suppose that Carlos entered directly into a correspondence with them himself, or indeed committed himself by any overt act in support of the cause.[1475] But this was not necessary for his condemnation; it would have been quite enough, that he had felt a sympathy for the distresses of the people. From the residence of Egmont, Bergen, and Montigny at the court, he had obvious means of communication with those n.o.bles, who may naturally have sought to interest him in behalf of their countrymen. The sympathy readily kindled in the ardent bosom of the young prince would be as readily expressed.

That he did feel such a sympathy may perhaps be inferred by his strange conduct to Alva, on the eve of his departure for the Netherlands. But the people of that country were regarded at Madrid as in actual rebellion against the crown. The reformed doctrines which they avowed gave to the movement the character of a religious revolution. For a Spaniard to countenance it in any way was at once to prove himself false both to his sovereign and his faith. In such a light, we may be quite sure, it would be viewed both by Philip and his minister, the grand-inquisitor. Nor would it be thought any palliation of the crime, that the offender was heir to the monarchy.[1476]

As to a design on his father's life, Philip, both in his foreign despatches and in the communications made by his order to the resident ministers at Madrid, wholly acquitted Carlos of so horrible a charge.[1477] If it had any foundation in truth, one might suppose that Philip, instead of denying, would have paraded it, as furnis.h.i.+ng an obvious apology for subjecting him to so rigorous a confinement. It is certain, if Carlos had really entertained so monstrous a design, he might easily have found an opportunity to execute it. That Philip would have been silent in respect to his son's sympathy with the Netherlands may well be believed. The great champion of Catholicism would naturally shrink from publis.h.i.+ng to the world that the taint of heresy infected his own blood.

But, whatever may have been the motives which determined the conduct of Philip, one cannot but suspect that a deep-rooted aversion to his son lay at the bottom of them. The dissimilarity of their natures placed the two parties, from the first, in false relations to each other. The heedless excesses of youth were regarded with a pitiless eye by the parent, who, in his own indulgences, at least did not throw aside the veil of decorum. The fiery temper of Carlos, irritated by a long-continued system of distrust, exclusion, and _espionnage_, at length broke out into such senseless extravagances as belong to the debatable ground of insanity. And this ground afforded, as already intimated, a plausible footing to the father for proceeding to extremities against the son.

Whatever were the offences of Carlos, those who had the best opportunities for observation soon became satisfied that it was intended never to allow him to regain his liberty, or to ascend the throne of his ancestors.[1478] On the second of March, a code of regulations was prepared by Philip relative to the treatment of the prince, which may give some idea of the rigor of his confinement. He was given in especial charge to Ruy Gomez, who was placed at the head of the establishment; and it was from him that every person employed about Carlos was to receive his commission. Six other n.o.bles were appointed both to guard the prince and render him service. Two of the number were to remain in his apartment every night,--the one watching, while the other slept; reminding us of an ingenious punishment among the Chinese, where a criminal is obliged to be everywhere followed by an attendant, whose business it is to keep an unceasing watch upon the offender, that, wherever he turns, he may still find the same eye riveted upon him!

During the day, it was the duty of these n.o.bles to remain with Carlos and lighten by their conversation the gloom of his captivity. But they were not to talk on matters relating to the government, above all to the prince's imprisonment, on which topic, if he addressed them, they were to remain obdurately silent. They were to bring no messages to him, and bear none from him to the world without; and they were to maintain inviolable secrecy in regard to all that pa.s.sed within the walls of the palace, unless when otherwise permitted by the king. Carlos was provided with a breviary and some other books of devotion; and no works except those of a devotional character were to be allowed him.[1479]--This last regulation seems to intimate the existence of certain heretical tendencies in Carlos, which it was necessary to counteract by books of an opposite character,--unless it might be considered as an ominous preparation for his approaching end. Besides the six n.o.bles, no one was allowed to enter the apartment but the prince's physician, his _barbero_, or gentleman of the chamber, and his valet. The last was taken from the _monteros_, or body-guard of the king.[1480] There were seven others of this faithful corps who were attached to the establishment, and whose duty it was to bring the dishes for his table to an outer hall, whence they were taken by the _montero_ in waiting to the prince's chamber. A guard of twelve halberdiers was also stationed in the pa.s.sages leading to the apartment, to intercept all communication from without. Every person employed in the service, from the highest n.o.ble to the meanest official, made solemn oath, before the prince of Eboli, to conform to the regulations. On this n.o.bleman rested the whole responsibility of enforcing obedience to the rules, and of providing for the security of Carlos. The better to effect this, he was commanded to remove to the palace, where apartments were a.s.signed to him and the princess his wife, adjoining those of his prisoner. The arrangement may have been commended by other considerations to Philip, whose intimacy with the princess I shall have occasion to notice hereafter.[1481]

[Sidenote: HIS RIGOROUS CONFINEMENT.]

The regulations, severe as they were, were executed to the letter.

Philip's aunt, the queen of Portugal, wrote in earnest terms to the king, kindly offering herself to remain with her grandson in his confinement, and take charge of him like a mother in his affliction.[1482] "But they were very willing," writes the French minister, "to spare her the trouble."[1483] The emperor and empress wrote to express the hope that the confinement of Carlos would work an amendment in his conduct, and that he would soon be liberated. Several letters pa.s.sed between the courts, until Philip closed the correspondence by declaring that his son's marriage with the princess Anne could never take place, and that he would never be liberated.[1484]

Philip's queen, Isabella, and his sister Joanna, who seem to have been deeply afflicted by the course taken with the prince, made ineffectual attempts to be allowed to visit him in his confinement; and when Don John of Austria came to the palace dressed in a mourning suit, to testify his grief on the occasion, Philip coldly rebuked his brother, and ordered him to change his mourning for his ordinary dress.[1485]

Several of the great towns were prepared to send their delegates to condole with the monarch under his affliction. But Philip gave them to understand, that he had only acted for the good of the nation, and that their condolence on the occasion would be superfluous.[1486] When the deputies of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia were on their way to court, with instructions to inquire into the cause of the prince's imprisonment, and to urge his speedy liberation, they received, on the way, so decided an intimation of the royal displeasure, that they thought it prudent to turn back, without venturing to enter the capital.[1487]

In short, it soon came to be understood, that the affair of Don Carlos was a subject not to be talked about. By degrees, it seemed to pa.s.s out of men's minds, like a thing of ordinary occurrence. "There is as little said now on the subject of the prince," writes the French amba.s.sador, Fourquevaulx, "as if he had been dead these ten years."[1488] His name, indeed, still kept its place, among those of the royal family, in the prayers said in the churches. But the king prohibited the clergy from alluding to Carlos in their discourses. Nor did any one venture, says the same authority, to criticize the conduct of the king. "So complete is the ascendancy which Philip's wisdom has given him over his subjects, that, willing or unwilling, all promptly obey him: and if they do not love him, they at least appear to do so."[1489]

Among the articles removed from the prince's chamber was a coffer, as the reader may remember, containing his private papers. Among these were a number of letters intended for distribution after his departure from the country. One was addressed to his father, in which Carlos avowed that the cause of his flight was the harsh treatment he had received from the king.[1490] Other letters, addressed to different n.o.bles, and to some of the great towns, made a similar statement; and, after reminding them of the oath they had taken to him as successor to the crown, he promised to grant them various immunities when the sceptre should come into his hands.[1491] With these papers was also found one of most singular import. It contained a list of all those persons whom he deemed friendly, or inimical to himself. At the head of the former cla.s.s stood the names of his step-mother, Isabella, and of his uncle Don John of Austria,--both of them noticed in terms of the warmest affection. On the catalogue of his enemies, "to be pursued to the death," were the names of the king, his father, the prince and princess of Eboli, Cardinal Espinosa, the duke of Alva, and others.[1492]--Such is the strange account of the contents of the coffer given to his court by the papal nuncio. These papers, we are told, were submitted to the judges who conducted the process, and formed, doubtless, an important part of the testimony against the prince. It may have been from one of the parties concerned that the nuncio gathered his information. Yet no member of that tribunal would have ventured to disclose its secrets without authority from Philip; who may possibly have consented to the publication of facts that would serve to vindicate his course. If these facts are faithfully reported, they must be allowed to furnish some evidence of a disordered mind in Carlos.

[Sidenote: HIS EXCESSES.]

The king, meanwhile, was scarcely less a prisoner than his son; for, from the time of the prince's arrest, he had never left the palace, even to visit his favorite residences of Aranjuez and the Prado; nor had he pa.s.sed a single day in the occupation, in which he took such delight, of watching the rising glories of the Escorial. He seemed to be constantly haunted by the apprehension of some outbreak among the people, or at least among the partisans of Carlos, to effect his escape; and when he heard any unusual noise in the palace, says his historian, he would go to the window, to see if the tumult were not occasioned by an attempt to release the prisoner.[1493] There was little cause for apprehension in regard to a people so well disciplined to obedience as the Castilians under Philip the Second. But it is an ominous circ.u.mstance for a prisoner, that he should become the occasion of such apprehension.

Philip, however, was not induced by his fears to mitigate in any degree the rigor of his son's confinement, which produced the effect to have been expected on one of his fiery, ungovernable temper. At first he was thrown into a state bordering on frenzy, and, it is said, more than once tried to make away with himself. As he found that thus to beat against the bars of his prison-house was only to add to his distresses, he resigned himself in sullen silence to his fate,--the sullenness of despair. In his indifference to all around him, he ceased to take an interest in his own spiritual concerns. Far from using the religious books in his possession, he would attend to no act of devotion, refusing even to confess, or to admit his confessor into his presence.[1494]

These signs of fatal indifference, if not of positive defection from the Faith, gave great alarm to Philip, who would not willingly see the soul thus perish with the body.[1495] In this emergency he employed Suarez, the prince's almoner, who once had some influence over his master, to address him a letter of expostulation. The letter has been preserved, and is too remarkable to be pa.s.sed by in silence.

Suarez begins with reminding Carlos that his rash conduct had left him without partisans or friends. The effect of his present course, instead of mending his condition, could only serve to make it worse. "What will the world say," continues the ecclesiastic, "when it shall learn that you now refuse to confess; when, too, it shall discover other dreadful things of which you have been guilty, some of which are of such a nature, that, did they concern any other than your highness, _the Holy Office would be led to inquire whether the author of them were in truth a Christian_?[1496] It is in the bitterness and anguish of my heart that I must declare to your highness, that you are not only in danger of forfeiting your worldly estate, but, what is worse, your own soul." And he concludes by imploring Carlos, as the only remedy, to return to his obedience to G.o.d, and to the king, who is his representative on earth.

But the admonitions of the honest almoner had as little effect on the unhappy youth as the prayers of his attendants. The mental excitement under which he labored, combined with the want of air and exercise, produced its natural effect on his health. Every day he became more and more emaciated; while the fever which had so long preyed on his const.i.tution now burned in his veins with greater fury than ever. To allay the intolerable heat, he resorted to such desperate expedients as seemed to intimate, says the papal nuncio, that, if debarred from laying violent hands on himself, he would accomplish the same end in a slower way, but not less sure. He deluged the floor with water, not a little to the inconvenience of the companions of his prison, and walked about for hours, half naked, with bare feet, on the cold pavement.[1497] He caused a warming-pan filled with ice and snow to be introduced several times in a night into his bed, and let it remain there for hours together.[1498]

As if this were not enough, he would gulp down such draughts of snow-water as distance any achievement on record in the annals of hydropathy. He pursued the same mad course in respect to what he ate. He would abstain from food an incredible number of days,[1499] and then, indulging in proportion to his former abstinence, would devour a pastry of four partridges, with all the paste, at a sitting, was.h.i.+ng it down with three gallons or more of iced water![1500]

No const.i.tution could long withstand such violent a.s.saults as these. The const.i.tution of Carlos gradually sank under them. His stomach, debilitated by long inaction, refused to perform the extraordinary tasks that were imposed on it. He was attacked by incessant vomiting; dysentery set in; and his strength rapidly failed. The physician, Olivares, who alone saw the patient, consulted with his brethren in the apartments of Ruy Gomez.[1501] Their remedies failed to restore the exhausted energies of nature; and it was soon evident that the days of Charles were numbered.

[Sidenote: HIS LAST MOMENTS.]

To no one could such an announcement have given less concern than to Carlos; for he had impatiently looked to death as to his release. From this hour he seemed to discard all earthly troubles from his mind, as he fixed his thoughts steadfastly on the future. At his own request his confessor, Chavres and Suarez, his almoner, were summoned, and a.s.sisted him with their spiritual consolations. The closing scenes are recorded by the pen of the nuncio.

"Suddenly a wonderful change seemed to be wrought by divine grace in the heart of the prince. Instead of vain and empty talk, his language became that of a sensible man. He sent for his confessor, devoutly confessed, and, as his illness was such that he could not receive the host, he humbly adored it; showing throughout great contrition, and, though not refusing the proffered remedies, manifesting such contempt for the things of this world, and such a longing for heaven, that one would have said, G.o.d had reserved for this hour the sum of all his grace."[1502]

He seemed to feel an a.s.surance that he was to survive till the vigil of St. James, the patron saint of his country. When told that this would be four days later, he said, "So long will my misery endure."[1503] He would willingly have seen his father once more before his death. But his confessor, it is said, dissuaded the monarch, on the ground that Carlos was now in so happy a frame of mind, that it were better not to disturb it by drawing off his attention to worldly objects. Philip, however, took the occasion, when Carlos lay asleep or insensible, to enter the chamber; and, stealing softly behind the prince of Eboli and the grand-prior, Antonio de Toledo, he stretched out his hand towards the bed, and, making the sign of the cross, gave the parting benediction to his dying son.[1504]

Nor was Carlos allowed the society of his amiable step-mother, the queen, nor of his aunt Joanna, to sweeten by their kind attentions the bitterness of death.[1505] It was his sad fate to die, as he had lived throughout his confinement, under the cold gaze of his enemies. Yet he died at peace with all; and some of the last words that he uttered were to forgive his father for his imprisonment, and the ministers--naming Ruy Gomez and Espinosa in particular--who advised him to it.[1506]

Carlos now grew rapidly more feeble, having scarce strength enough left to listen to the exhortations of his confessor, and with low, indistinct murmurings to adore the crucifix which he held constantly in his hand.

On the twenty-fourth of July, soon after midnight, he was told it was the Vigil of St. James. Then suddenly rousing, with a gleam of joy on his countenance, he intimated his desire for his confessor to place the holy taper in his hand: and feebly beating his breast, as if to invoke the mercy of Heaven on his transgressions, he fell back, and expired without a groan.[1507]--"No Catholic," says n.o.bili, "ever made a more Catholic end."[1508]

Such is the account given us of the last hours of this most unfortunate prince, by the papal nuncio and the Tuscan minister, and repeated with slight discrepancies by most of the Castilian writers of that and the following age.[1509] It is a singular circ.u.mstance, that, although we have such full reports, both of what preceded and what followed the death of Carlos, from the French amba.s.sador, the portion of his correspondence, which embraces his death has been withdrawn, whether by accident or design, from the archives.[1510] But probably no one without the walls of the palace had access to better sources of information than the two ministers first mentioned, especially the papal nuncio. Their intelligence may well have been derived from some who had been about the person of Carlos. If so, it could not have been communicated without the approbation of Philip, who may have been willing that the world should understand that his son had died true to the Faith.

A very different account of the end of Carlos is given by Llorente. And as this writer, the secretary of the Inquisition, had access to very important materials; and as his account, though somewhat prolix, is altogether remarkable, I cannot pa.s.s it by in silence.

[Sidenote: LLORENTE'S ACCOUNT.]

According to Llorente, the process already noticed as having been inst.i.tuted against Carlos was brought to a close only a short time before his death. No notice of it, during all this time, had been given to the prisoner, and no counsel was employed in his behalf. By the ninth of July the affair was sufficiently advanced for a "summary judgment."

It resulted from the evidence, that the accused was guilty of treason in both the first and second degree,--as having endeavored to compa.s.s the death of the king, his father, and as having conspired to usurp the sovereignty of Flanders. The counsellor Munatones, in his report, which he laid before the king, while he stated that the penalty imposed by the law on every other subject for these crimes was death, added, that his majesty, by his sovereign authority, might decide that the heir apparent was placed by his rank above the reach of ordinary laws. And it was further in his power to mitigate or dispense with any penalty whatever, when he considered it for the good of his subjects.--In this judgment both the ministers, Ruy Gomez and Espinosa, declared their concurrence.

To this the king replied, that, though his feelings moved him to follow the suggestions of his ministers, his conscience would not permit it. He could not think that he should consult the good of his people by placing over them a monarch so vicious in his disposition, and so fierce and sanguinary in his temper, as Carlos. However agonizing it might be to his feelings as a father, he must allow the law to take its course. Yet, after all, he said, it might not be necessary to proceed to this extremity. The prince's health was in so critical a state, that it was only necessary to relax the precautions in regard to his diet, and his excesses would soon conduct him to the tomb! One point only was essential, that he should be so well advised of his situation that he should be willing to confess, and make his peace with Heaven before he died. This was the greatest proof of love which he could give to his son and to the Spanish nation.

Ruy Gomez and Espinosa both of them inferred from this singular ebullition of parental tenderness, that they could not further the real intentions of the king better than by expediting as much as possible the death of Carlos. Ruy Gomez accordingly communicated his views to Olivares, the prince's physician. This he did in such ambiguous and mysterious phrase as, while it intimated his meaning, might serve to veil the enormity of the crime from the eyes of the party who was to perpetrate it. No man was more competent to this delicate task than the prince of Eboli, bred from his youth in courts, and trained to a life of dissimulation. Olivares readily comprehended the drift of his discourse,--that the thing required of him was to dispose of the prisoner, in such a way that his death should appear natural, and that the honor of the king should not be compromised. He raised no scruples, but readily signified his willingness faithfully to execute the will of his sovereign. Under these circ.u.mstances, on the twentieth of July, a purgative dose was administered to the unsuspecting patient, who, as may be imagined, rapidly grew worse. It was a consolation to his father, that, when advised of his danger, Carlos consented to receive his confessor. Thus, though the body perished, the soul was saved.[1511]

Such is the extraordinary account given us by Llorente, which, if true, would at once settle the question in regard to the death of Carlos. But Llorente, with a disingenuousness altogether unworthy of an historian in a matter of so grave import, has given us no knowledge of the sources whence his information was derived. He simply says, that they are "certain secret memoirs of the time, full of curious anecdote, which, though not possessing precisely the character of authenticity, are nevertheless ent.i.tled to credit, as coming from persons employed in the palace of the king!"[1512] Had the writer condescended to acquaint us with the names, or some particulars of the characters, of his authors, we might have been able to form some estimate of the value of their testimony. His omission to do this may lead us to infer, that he had not perfect confidence in it himself. At all events it compels us to trust the matter entirely to his own discretion, a virtue which those familiar with his inaccuracies in other matters will not be disposed to concede to him in a very eminent degree.[1513]

His narrative, moreover, is in direct contradiction to the authorities I have already noticed, especially to the two foreign ministers so often quoted, who, with the advantages--not a few--that they possessed for obtaining correct information, were indefatigable in collecting it. "I say nothing," writes the Tuscan envoy, alluding, to the idle rumors of the town, "of gossip unworthy to be listened to. It is a hard thing to satisfy the populace. It is best to stick to the truth, without caring for the opinion of those who talk wildly of improbable matters, which have their origin in ignorance and malice."[1514]

Still, it cannot be denied, that suspicions of foul play to Carlos were not only current abroad, but were entertained by persons of higher rank than the populace at home,--where it could not be safe to utter them.

Among others, the celebrated Antonio Perez, one of the household of the prince of Eboli, informs us, that, "as the king had found Carlos guilty, he was condemned to death by casuists and inquisitors. But in order that the execution of this sentence might not be brought too palpably before the public, they mixed for four months together a slow poison in his food."[1515]

This statement agrees, to a certain extent, with that of a n.o.ble Venetian, Pietro Giustiniani, then in Castile, who a.s.sured the historian De Thou, that "Philip having determined on the death of his son, obtained a sentence to that effect from a lawful judge. But in order to save the honor of the sovereign, the sentence was executed in secret, and Carlos was made to swallow some poisoned broth, of which he died some hours afterwards."[1516]

Some of the particulars mentioned by Antonio Perez may be thought to receive confirmation from an account given by the French minister, Fourquevaulx, in a letter dated about a month after the prince's arrest.

"The prince," he says, "becomes visibly thinner and more dried up; and his eyes are sunk in his head. They give him sometimes strong soups and capon broths, in which amber and other nouris.h.i.+ng things are dissolved, that he may not wholly lose his strength and fall into decrepitude.

These soups are prepared privately in the chamber of Ruy Gomez, through which one pa.s.ses into that of the prince."

[Sidenote: VARIOUS ACCOUNTS.]

It was not to be expected that a Castilian writer should have the temerity to a.s.sert that the death of Carlos was brought about by violence. Yet Cabrera, the best informed historian of the period, who, in his boyhood, had frequent access to the house of Ruy Gomez, and even to the royal palace, while he describes the excesses of Carlos as the cause of his untimely end, makes some mysterious intimations, which, without any forced construction, seem to point to the agency of others in bringing about that event.[1517]

Strada, the best informed, on the whole, of the foreign writers of the period, and who, as a foreigner, had not the same motives for silence as a Spaniard, qualifies his account of the prince's death as having taken place in the natural-way, by saying, "if indeed he did not perish by violence."[1518]--The prince of Orange, in his bold denunciation of Philip, does not hesitate to proclaim him the murderer of his son.[1519]