papal rebels, he permitted the pontiff to except from it Marc Antonio Colonna and the chief Roman magnates who had been the most active of Alba's allies, and whose fortunes were best worth the acceptance of the plundering Caraffas.1

The emperor had ever regarded Paul's policy with indignation, which had lately become mingled with scorn. He was for meeting his fury with calm firmness; and it was by his advice that the bulls of excommunication, which were frantically fulminated against his son, were forbidden to be published in the churches, and were declared contraband in the sea-ports of Spain. Had the king been a heretic, said Charles, he could not have been treated with greater rigour; the quarrel was none of his seeking; and in his endeavours to avoid it he had done all that was required of him before God and the world. Had the matter been left in the hands of the emperor, Paul would have been dealt with in the stern fashion which brought Clement to his senses: Alba would have been directed to advance, Rome would have been stormed, the pontiff made prisoner; and the primate of Spain and the prior of Yuste would have been directed to put their altars into mourning, and say many masses for the speedy deliverance of the holy father of the faithful.

It is not very clear why Philip the Second dealt thus gently with the foolish and wicked old man who was now at his mercy. Certain it is that no sentiment of generosity towards a fallen foe ever found place in that cold and selfish heart. His moderation may have been dictated by pure superstition, or it may have arisen from his secret desire to obtain, at some future time, the pope's sanction for his scheme of dividing the great sees and abbeys of the Low Countries-a scheme

1 J. V. Rustant: Hist. del D. de Alba, ii. 61.

which he afterwards executed at the cost of so much blood, treasure, and territory.

The Roman treaty was almost the sole affair of importance transacted during the emperor's sojourn at Yuste, without his opinion having been first asked and his approval obtained. About the middle of October, he heard with some anxiety that Alba had concluded a treaty with the pope, but the precise conditions being probably still unknown at Valladolid, did not then reach Yuste. Writing by his master's desire for fuller information, Quixada confided to the secretary of state that the emperor was very much afraid that the terms obtained were bad, having generally observed that a treaty was sure to prove unfavourable when it was reported to be completed and yet the specification of the particular clauses withheld. The next instalment of news, that the French army had effected their retreat, only increased the misgivings of the emperor. At length there came a detailed account of the negotiations, and a copy of the treaty, which the secretary of state said had given satisfaction both at Rome and Valladolid. At each paragraph that was read, the emperor's anger grew fiercer; and before the paper had been gone through he would hear no more. He was laid up next day with an attack of gout, which the people about him ascribed to the vexation which he had suffered; and so deep an impression did the affair make upon his mind, that for weeks after he was frequently overheard muttering to himself, through his shattered teeth, broken sentences of displeasure.

One of the subjects which lay nearest the emperor's heart was the education of his grandson, Don Carlos. The impression made upon him by the boy during his brief stay at Valladolid had been, as we have seen, unfavourable. The prince's governor, Don Garcia de

Toledo, was ordered to transmit to Yuste regular accounts of his pupil's progress. His letters, though few of them are in existence, were probably frequent, and they are so minute in their details of the prince's health and habits, that there is no doubt but the emperor took a lively interest in his grandson. Carlos is painted by his tutor as a sickly, sulky, and backward boy, certainly very unlikely to grow up the patriot hero into which the poet's licence and the historian's paradox have turned him at a later period of his unhappy life. On the thirtieth of July, Don Garcia complained to the emperor that his pupil was lazy at his books, and constipated in his bowels. The king, he said, had ordered him down to Tordesillas, as a place better suited for study than the court; but he, for his part, thought that if they were to leave Valladolid at all, the prince would be nowhere so well as at Yuste, under the eye of his grandfather.

A month later, on the twenty-seventh of August, he wrote that Don Carlos was better in health, but so cholerick in temper, that they were thinking of putting him under a course of physic for that disorder; but that they would wait until the emperor's pleasure were known. He then described the prince's mode of passing the day. Rising somewhat before seven, he prayed, breakfasted, and went to hear mass at half-past eight; after which came lessons until eleven, when he dined. A few hours were then given to amusement with his companions, with whom he played at trucos (a game somewhat like bowls) or quoits; at half-past three he partook of a light meal (merienda), which was followed by reading, and an hour of out-door exercise, before or after supper, according to the weather. By half-past nine he had gone through the prayers of his rosary, and was in bed, where he soon fell fast asleep. The poor tutor was compelled

still to acknowledge that he had failed to imbue him with the slightest love of learning, in which he consequently made but little progress; that he not only hated his books, but showed no inclination for cane-playing, or the still more necessary accomplishment of fencing; and that he was so careless and awkward on horseback, that they were afraid of letting him ride much, for fear of accidents. To the emperor, who had loved and practised all manly sports with the ardour and the skill of a true Burgundian, it must have been a disappointment to learn that the prowess of duke Charles and kaiser Max, which had dwindled woefully in his son Philip, seemed altogether extinct in the next generation.

These notices of the character of the heir-apparent are confirmed by the account of him which the Venetian ambassador at the court of Bruxelles transmitted to his republic. He reported that Don Carlos was a youth of a haughty and turbulent temper, which his tutors vainly endeavoured to tame by making him read Cicero's treatise De Officiis; and that, upon being told that the Low Countries were settled upon the issue of his stepmother, Mary of England, he declared that he would maintain his right to those states in single combat with any son who might be born to his father in that marriage.1

1 Relatione of Badovaro.

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CHAPTER VII.

THE VISIT OF THE QUEENS.

URING the whole of the year 1557 the emperor's health gave him but little annoyance, and cost Dr. Mathys but little trouble or anxiety. It seemed as if there were some truth in the saying, attributed by the monks to Torriano, and supposed to have been the result of his astrological researches, that the Vera was the most salubrious place in the world, and Yuste the most salubrious spot in the Vera.' In spite of generally eating too much, Charles slept well, and his gout made itself felt only in occasional twinges; so effectually did the senna wine counteract the syrup of quinces which he drank at breakfast, the Rhine wine which washed down his midday meal, and the beer which, though denounced by the doctor, was the habitual beverage of the patient whenever he was thirsty. He had suffered, in September, a slight attack of dysentery from eating too much fruit. Towards the end of October, he was troubled by an inflammation in his left eye, and while waiting one day for a draught of senna wine, fell down in a fainting-fit, from which, however, he was soon recovered by a little vinegar sprinkled on his face, and suffered no subsequent ill effect. About the middle of December, he complained of feebleness, and of phlegm in his throat; and,

1 Siguença, iii. 200.