wrote concerning it to the King her Brother with all earnestness imaginable Her eldest Daughter had been promised a long while before to the Prince of Spain The King who feared all that might give more liberty and credit to his Son had always deferred the accomplishment of this Marriage Amongst other pretences of this delay he made a report be spread that since Don Carlos his fall at Alcala the Physicians did not think he could ever have any children This report passed for an Artifice and the Empress her self did in no wise believe it In the mean time it was so much the easier to the King to draw this Alliance out into length because Don Carlos did not press it so much as he might have done How advantagious soever it were for his designs he made a scruple of marrying a Princess that he could not love The Empress who knew not the secret of his heart could find but this one Match worthy of her eldest Daughter and not thinking the Queen of Spain's death so near as it was she did not foresee that this Daughter was to take the place of that unfortunate Queen and that the King her Brother as it were by a kind of fatality was to marry all the Princesses that had been promised to Don Carlos The King who saw further then she took a particular care to manage her upon this occasion and to justifie himself in her opinion In the mean time this news cast the Rebels of Flanders and Granada into a despair that produced very bloudy effects and they would yet have been more cruel if the Turks had kept their word but Miquez judged not that without the support of the Prince of Spain he ought to hazard the Ottoman Fleets in places so far from all possibility of help in case of disadvantage He yielded himself to the opposition that other Ministers of that Court made against the continuation of his enterprise and it was changed into that of Cyprus where he made known by the marvellous services he rendred that all his Genius was not shut up within the Walls of the Seraglio and that the love of pleasure doth not always render those that are possess'd with it incapable of great actions In the mean time the Inquisitors formed the Process of the unfortunate Don Carlos with an incredible affection and diligence Their ancient animosities against him appear'd so openly that nothing but the interest of Religion which was mingled with them could have made them be supported They sent to look among the Archives of Barcelona for the criminal process that Don John the second of that name King of Arragon had caused heretofore to be made against Don Carlos Prince of Viana his eldest Son They made this Process be translated out of Catalonian into Castilian to serve them all at once both for a Model and a President The business was proposed to the Inquisition under the species of Lewis the Eleventh Dauphin of France and King Charles the Seventh his Father And all their opinions being the same one may judge of them by that of the famous Doctor Navarra which is inserted in the History of Philip the Second He decides that a King who discovers that the presumptive Heir of his Crown will go out of his States ought to make him be stopped by force if his evasion can be a subject of division in the Kingdom and that the enemies of the State are in a capacity of drawing any considerable usefulness from it but especially if those enemies are Hereticks and that there be the least reason to fear or suspect that this Prince favours them The Sacrifice that the King made of his natural affection to the repose of the State was preferred by the Inquisitors before the obedience of Abraham They compared all with one voice this Prince to the Eternal Father who had not spared his own Son for the salvation of Mankind His Trial could not be long before Judges that were so well disposed The sole Letters of the Admiral de Chatillon the Prince of Orange the Count of Egmont the Consistory of Antwerp and of John Miquez were sufficient to forme his Sentence and Don Carlos was Condemn'd to perpetual Imprisonment The resentment he testified for this made all those tremble that had given the King such Counsel or that approv'd it They thought that they should never escape his vengeance if he recovered one day his Liberty and they had no rest till they had utterly compleated his ruine The Cardinal Spinosa remonstrated to the King That there was Cage strong enough for this Bird and that he would quickly be necessitated either quite to rid himself of him or else let him fly The People in whose opinion to be justified it is enough to be unfortunate testified every day more and more their Passion for the Princes being set at Liberty The King who was afraid of some Sedition durst no more absent himself from Madrid He judged after a mature deliberation that there could not be any safety neither for him nor his Ministers in setting the Prince at Liberty and that he could no way avoid all that he had reason to fear from him but by putting him to death During some time they mingled in all he took a slow Poyson that was speedily to cause in him a mortal languishing they spread some of it upon his wearing Cloathes upon his Linnen and generally upon all things that he could touch but whether it were that his youth and good constitution were stronger then the Poyson or that those persons that interested themselves in his life obliged him to make use of preservatives this way did not succeed They must then explain themselves more clearly and the unfortunate Prince was told That he might choose what kind of death he pleased He received this strange newes with the indifferency of a man who loved something else more then his life and who feared the same destiny for the person he loved Though the Spanish Historians have spoken of the weaknesses and passionate expressions of this Prince thereby to blot his memory and to justifie his Father yet it is certain that there never came but one thing out of his Mouth that could pass for a Complaint which was that the Queen having by force of Money found the meanes of making him be commanded on her behalf to ask leave that he might see the King as one of his Guards came to him to tell him That his Father was coming Say my King answered he and not my Father The submission he had for the Queens Orders made him resolve to fall upon his knees before the King and tell him That he beseeched him to consider that it was his own blood he was going to shed The King answer'd him coldly That when he had bad blood he gave his Arme to the Chirurgion to draw it from him Don Carlos even desperate to have done a baseness without effect
him an account on the King's part of the news they had received from Granada This Minister entertain'd him so late that the Prince seeing he had not night enough left to go so far as he desired before his flight could be discover'd thought it his best way to put it off till the morrow Rui Gomez retir'd himself after he had seen him in bed but being ignorant of the change of his resolution he set some of his most faithful and resolute men at all the avenues of the Prince's apartment It had been to be wish'd for the King's justification that Don Carlos had been taken in attempting to escape But when they had waited two or three hours without seeing any appearance of his coming out the King resolved to pass on not thinking that he ought to hazard all things for a formality Don John had observed the manner in which his chamber door was shut and whilst Don Carlos was yet at the Queen's chamber the King had commanded the maker of that extraordinary Lock to spoil the spring of it some how or other that so it might no more shut so close but that it might be open'd on the outside Whatsoever this Workman could do the spring made a great noise in opening but the Count of Lerma whom the King made enter first into the room found the unfortunate Prince sleeping so soundly that he had the leisure to take away the Swords and Pistols that were under his bolster without waking of him After this the Count sate down upon a Coffer that stood by his bed-side and in which Don John thought the Fire-arms were kept Then the King judging by the Count of Lerma's silence that he had done what he ought to do entred himself into the Chamber preceded by Rui Gomez the Duke of Feria the Great Commander and Don Diego de Corduba all armed with Swords and Pistols The Prince being awakened with much ado by Rui Gomez as soon as he had opened his eyes cried out that he was dead The King told him That all they did was for his good But Don Carlos seeing that he seized on a Box full of Papers that was under his bed entred into so furious a despair that he was going to throw himself all naked as he was into a great Fire pan full of Coals which the extremity of the cold had obliged his servants to leave lighted in his chimney They were fain to draw him from it by force and he appeared inconsolable that he had not had the time to smother himself in it They presently unfurnish'd his Chamber and in stead of so many magnificent things which they took out of it they put into it for its onely furniture a scurvy Groundpallet None of his Officers after that time ever appeared in his presence His Guards never let him go out of their sight They caused a mourning Suit to be made for him and he was no more waited upon but by men clothed in the same dress and who were unknown to him This unfortunate Heir of so many Crowns saw no more any thing about him which did not represent to his eyes the frightful image of death In the mean time the King saw the designs and intelligence of his Son by the Papers which he had seized He was astonished at the greatness of the danger he had run but he was yet more touched when amongst several Letters of the Queens Hand-writing he found one which appeared to him the most Passionate and most Amorous in the world It was that which the Marquess of Posa had carried to Alcala and which Don Carlos would never be perswaded to restore As the Queen had written it in the first transport of her grief for the Mortal Accident that had befallen that Prince she did not think any consequence could be drawn from what she could say to a Man whose life was despaired of or that it could produce any other consequence then to make him die more contentedly So that she had abandon'd her self to all her tenderness in writing it and had in it expressed the dearest and most secret Sentiments of her heart with all the violence that so lamentable an occasion could inspire Yet it was without any Passionate expressions that could interest her honour or so much as offend her Duty But the King drew very different consequences from it The fury he conceived for it was at first accompanyed with so lively a grief that it would perhaps have bereaved him of his Life if the desire of revenge so natural in those occasions had not preserved it But reflecting presently in himself That he was Master of those that had so cruelly offended him this agreeable thought made a barbarous joy succeed to the rage he had in his Soul which changed his tormenting despair into a tranquility full of horrour The same day Monteigni was clapt in prison to leave some time after his head upon a scaffold and the Marquis of Bergh in favour of Rui Gomez his ancient friend had leave to poison himself The intimacy of these Two Noble-men with Don Carlos was known to all the world They were both as well as he declared enemies of the Cardinal Spinosa Inquisitor General and this Enmity was enough in Spain to make a man suspected for his Religion They accused this Prelate to be the Authour of all those violent Counsels that the King had taken against their country but the Cardinal accused them themselves of having made several Packets of Calvin's Catechismes he brought out of France by the help of a Passport from Don Carlos All the passionate proceedings of this Prince against the Inquâ—sitors about the will of Charles the fifth were not as yet forgotten All these things joyned together did strangely dispose the people to believe the Innocent Prince engaged in the new opinions of which he had never so much as heard any body speak The King saw well that there was nothing but Religion that could make so strange an action as that he had done be endured He doubted not but that with these favorable dispositions and the proofs he had of his Son's intelligences he could if he would Sacrifice him with impunity to his revenge In this belief he put into the hands of the Cardinal Spinosa all the Originals he had found in Don Carlos his Cabinet excepting onely the Queen's Letters He established the Inquisitors Sovereign Judges between his Son and him and he protested he would wholly refer himself to their Judgment He knew that the choler of that sort of people never dies and that he should find their resentment against the Prince as violent after several years of interval since their quarrel as if it had been but a week before Although the King had made rigorous prohibitions to write of the imprisonment of Don Carlos into Forreign Countries the news of it was soon spread abroad The most part of the Princes of Christendom begg'd his pardon the Empress especially
the Duke That he could never hope to find a fairer occasion of recovering the possession of his Estates from which his Father had been driven by Francis the First and the Duke on his side prevailed so far with Philip the Second that the Treaty was concluded a little while after at Chateau-Cambresis It is easie to judge of the grief of Don Carlos at the breaking of the Truce and how great his joy was when the Negotiation of a Peace was reassumed and yet this Peace which seemingly gave such seasonable grounds for his hopes was that which at last proved their utter destruction During the time of the Negotiation Philip the Second was made a Widower by the death of Mary Queen of England his Second Wife and being obliged by several weighty considerations to a Third Marriage he demanded for himself the Princess that had before been promised to his Son The French would doubtless much rather have given her to the Heir of the Crown who was much of the same age with her then to a Prince old enough to have been her Father and by whom she could have none but younger Children and by consequence incapable of inheriting the Crown but all things considered he could not handsomely be refused Though this news was like the stroak of a Thunder-bolt to poor Don Carlos who was told it at first before a great deal of company yet he was enough Master of himself to hinder any body from taking notice of the grief it caused in him but the violence he did himself cost him dear when he was alone All his thoughts were nothing but the continual inspirations of Love and Rage But the trouble he was in not permitting him to resolve upon nor the present state of his fortune to undertake any thing that might ease his mind his Despair was insensibly turned into Melancholly and from thence proceeded that reserved way of living which rendred him so odious to the King his Father who never once dreaming of the true cause of his discontent and judging of his Son by himself did attribute it to the impatience he thought this young Prince might have of Reigning As for Madam though what she felt in her self for Don Carlos was rather a disposition to love him then a true and well established passion yet the fear she had that there was something more in it then as yet she apprehended made her have an unspeakable distrust of her self Till then she had an extreme curiosity to know the effect her Picture had produced upon the Prince nay and she had desired sometimes that his heart if it were possible might in that respect enjoy less quiet then her own But as soon as she knew the change that was happened in their fortune she feared nothing in the world so much as to be lov'd by him What pleasure soever there be to be thought handsome she wish'd that what all people said of her charms had been false In this difference of thoughts her mind not having all the tranquillity necessary to bring her handsomely off in an Action so hard for a person in her circumstances as her first arrival at the Court of Spain was she stopp'd her journey as long as she could have the least appearance of an excuse and though the Duke D' Alva had marri'd her in his Masters name in the moneth of June she did not leave Paris till the end of November She staid to see all the fine Houses that were in her way and did not come into the Province of Aquitane till the year was ready to expire as if those delays could have done that in her heart that her own reason was not capable of doing When she was at the Pyrenaean Mountains Fortune that sometimes pleases her self in bestowing her favours upon those that least expect them helped her to one stop more then ever she had hoped for Anthony of Bourbon King of Navar was charged with the conduct of the Princess into Spain and he was to remit her upon the Frontier into the hands of the Cardinal of Burgos and the Duke De l' Infantado This King possessed onely the lower Navar because the Upper had been usurped from his Wives Great Grandfather by the Spaniards but yet not to prejudice the right he pretended to upon them both he would not acknowledge the place that at that time separated his Dominions from those of the King of Spain for the true Spanish Frontier but he required a declaration from the Deputies that the Delivery he should make of the Princess in that place should in no way hurt his pretensions The Declaration was of too great consequence to be accorded without express order and therefore they were forced to write to Madrid and expect His Majesty's answer in the place where they were Philip would have been glad to have been spared this trouble by the Court of France and that this Commission had been given to some body else rather than to the King of Navar But the Princes of the House of Guise at that time the new and absolute Masters of all Affairs had their particular reasons for keeping the Princes of the Bloud as much as they could from approaching the Court or the King's Person and their design being onely to seek out fair pretensions so to do they were ravish'd to find so plausible an one of delivering themselves from him that troubled them the most In short the King of Spain saw himself oblig'd either quickly to satisfie the King of Navar '◠demand or else to bring the business to a Negotiation to obtain of the Court of France that he might be called back and another sent in his place This last way seem'd to be of an insupportable length for a Prince that was in expectation of the most lovely person in the world for his Wife Wherefore this great Polititian satisfied for that time his amorous impatience to the prejudice of his Interests and wrote to his Deputies to grant the King of Navar his demand Presently after the Queen began her Journey to Madrid and was met upon the way by Don Carlos who was accompanyed besides many other considerable persons by his Cousin Alexander Farnese the young Prince of Parma and by Rui Gomez de Silva Prince of Eboli his Governour and the King 's great Favourite At the first news the Queen had of the Prince's coming such opposite sentiments did raise themselves in her mind and did agitate her with so much violence that she fell into a 〈◊〉 in her Womens arms and could not be brought to her self till Don Carlos was ready to ask leave to salute her After the first civilities these two illustrious Persons taken up with the mutual consideration of each other left off speaking and the rest of the company holding their peace out of respect there was for some time a silence extraordinary enough in such an occasion Don Carlos was not shap'd according to the exactest rules of Symmetry but
surprise the Queen and her Children at Pau in Bearn where they made their residence and where they had almost no other Guard then the hearts of their Subjects But though their design were wonderfully well laid the great Destiny of the young Prince rendred it vain It preserved him to be one day the Restorer of France to its antient splendor and the terrour of the Spaniards A little while before the voyage of Bayonne Captain Dominick assisted by some Governours of the French Frontier that depended upon those who made him act had disposed all things necessary upon the places appointed for his attempt After that he was gone into Spain where he went to receive the Orders of the Duke D' Alva for the advancement of the Troops destin'd for its execution The Duke who was then at Alva after some conference with him sent him back to the King who held the States of the Kingdom at Mouzon The Captain fell dangerously sick in going thither and was forc't to stay at Madrid where he was necessarily to pass During his illness he was assisted in all things by a French man a servant to the Queen and who was his Countryman Not knowing how to testifie his gratitude he chanced one day to say to him That his life was of greater importance then perhaps he thought and that the care which was taken of him should be one day magnificently rewarded These words were pronounced after a manner that might make one judge they had some extraordinary foundation and they caused in his Friend the curiosity of penetrating the Mystery they seemed to contain The Captain could refuse nothing to a Man to whom he thought he owed his life And whether it were that the fear of death had inspired him with some repentance of his crime or that the Disease had disturb'd his brain he pay'd with this secret the services he had received This Friend told it the same day to the Queen his Mistress who was then at Madrid and who lived in a strait friendship with the Queen of Navarr At the recital of this horrible Plot she could not withold her tears and whilst the Captain was curing and ordering all things with the King that concern'd his Enterprize she made notice of it be given in Bearn and at Bourdeaux where the Queen her Mother was at that time The Attempt having failed in this manner the Queen conducted by the Duke d' Alva went to meet the Court of France at Bayonne This Court was divided into two Factions almost as great enemies one of the other as they were both one and the other of the Hugonots their common enemies Although they were both Catholicks one of them did more especially attribute to themselves this quality It was that which was headed by the Friends of the Duke d' Alva the first Authors of the Bearnish Conspiracy And as they were already laying the foundations of the League that appeared ten years afterwards they lived in a perfect intelligence with the Spaniards but it was not so with the other Faction which was that of the King and of which Catherine de Medicis was the chief Arbitraryness and Independency were the only end of all this Woman's Actions she knew that all inward commerce with the Spaniard was but so much slavery and she put no other trust in the King her Son-in-law and his Ministers then that to which she was obliged by necessity and her Relation to them In the mean time how reserved soever she were the Complices of the Duke d' Alva having a familiar intercourse with her upon account of some other intrigues turned so many Stones and set so many Spyes about her at this Interview at Bayonne that at last they knew of a certainty that it was the Queen of Spain that had ruin'd their enterprise but they could never comprehend how this enterprize should come to her knowledge The Duke d' Alva could not believe that so young a Woman was capable of venturing upon so bold and delicate an action The familiarity of this Princess with Don Carlos had alwayes been suspected by him because he knew that Don Carlos naturally hated him He thought she had done nothing without advising with the Prince and as there are but few g iefs so sensible as that one feeles for having done a wicked Action to no purpose He took so strong a Resolution to Revenge himself on them that at last he brought it about Yet Don Carlos knew nothing of this Conspiracy before the voyage of Bayonne but the thing being afterwards divulged the Queen confessed the truth to him The Prince amazed at the horribleness of this villanous attempt could not hinder himself from saying in the presence of Don John and the Princess of Eboli That he would one day cruelly punish those that gave such base Counsel to the King his Father The Duke d' Alva was known by all the World to be the Author of the Plot and the King did nothing without the advice of Rui Gomez so that this threat could regard none but those two Ministers and the Princess of Eboli having told it to Rui Gomez her Husband this favorite judged it was high time to begin to fortifie himself against the Authority which the Prince's age began now to give him These two Ministers did equally share the favour of the Court onely with this difference that one might say That the Duke d' Alva was the Kings Favourite and Rui Gomez the Favourite of Philip. This concurrence had sometimes bred some difference between them but their common interest reunited them upon this occasion The Duke d' Alva who did Soveraignly govern all Military Affaires knowing the warlike inclinations of his Prince feared he would lessen his Authority upon the first beginnings of any War by taking the management of it into his own hands And he was perswaded that Don Carlos would never pardon him a business that was past between them some years before The King had Assembled the States of Arragon there to make his Son be acknowledged lawful Successor to him in the Government of the Spaines In this Ceremony it being come to the Duke d' Alvas turne to swear Fidelity the Herauld called him by his Name three times in vain A moment afterward he came out of his ranke to acquit himself of his duty and Don Carlos turn'd him back very disdainfully but the Duke excusing himself upon the multitude of busiuess he was engaged in that day by reason of his Office of Great Master the King obliged the Prince to accept his Submission As for Rui Gomez who disposed absolutely of the Justice and of the Kings Exchequer he was afraid least the Prince who naturally loved to give should himself meddle with bestowing Favours of which nothing should remain to others but the merit of executing them He had been Governor to Don Carlos and he could never satisfie the King to whose will he was wholly devoted in this employment
to him to be an assured mark of it but his joy was not of long continuance The Ministers who were afraid of the secret favonr of the Marquis of Posa ordered the matter so that the Queen's commerce with this Marquis came quickly to the knowledge of the King This suspicious Prince at the very first notice thereof had his mind troubled with jealousie and not finding his reckoning in some account of time he was pleased to make upon the state of his Wife's greatness did not stick to think the Marquis guilty of a crime that would have drawn upon him more envy then all his vertues This thought made a strange disorder in his heart All the graces both of body and mind that nature had so liberally bestowed on this unfortunate Favourite and that were capable of touching the most barbarous Soul rendred him by so much the more odious to the King as that Prince considered no more all those precious Talents but as so many criminal charms that had seduced his Wife's heart Nevertheless how dangerous soever this disposition of the King's mind were perhaps his reason would have returned to him had it not been for a thing that hapned at that very time and which made him fully believe what he did but suspect before Among other publick testimonies of joy that were made for his recovery there was a magnificent Tournament in which every Cavalier was obliged to declare himself for some Lady of the Court and to wear her colours The evening before this great day the Marquis of Posa hapning to be in the Queen's chamber which was full of company she made him name to her all the Ladies that had Knights to defend their beauties The Prince and Don John were the onely men that could declare themselves to be hers and they not having done it perhaps through fear of discovering something of what they had in their Soul it so fell out when they had done speaking that the Queen was the onely person that had no body to run for her She observed it her self and complaining of it in a Jesting way the Marquess who knew he might use any sort of pleasantry with her told her with a wonderful serious look That she must blame Nature for it and that if she had been Beautiful like the others she would doubtless have found some Knight as they had done All the Company applauded this Raillery and the Queen answered him as seriously as he had spoken That to punish him for his insolency she commanded him to be her Knight that so he might have the shame of serving the least beautiful of all the Ladies This Gallantry was publick and all the People of the first quality at Court were witnesses of it Yet the King could not keep himself from thinking that there was some Mystery in it and that this conversation was an Artifice of the Queen to give her Lover an assured meanes of declaring himself for her with impunity Yet he was not at first fully confirmed in this opinion but on the morrow morning when he saw the Marquess enter into the Lists carrying for his Device upon his Shield a Sun in its highest elevation with these words Nothing can see me without being burnt This Prince was fully perswaded of the sad thought that stuck in his mind The unfortunate Knight won the Prize of the first Courses and though that were ordinary enough with him the King at this time took his address for an effect of his Love and this imagination toucht him so to the quick that he could not endure to let the Justing be finished And he feâ—gned that he found himself ill to have a pretence of breaking them off and to hinder People from perceiving the fury into which this innocent Spectacle had put him At first he resolved to give the Marquess of Posa his death in such a manner that neither he nor the Queen could be ignorant of its cause but Rui Gomez whom he consulted about it made him see the consequences of a business of that nature and that was like to make so much noise He let him know the strait Friendship that was between Don Carlos and this Marquess and made him comprehend that there was nothing that was not to be feared from the resentment of the Prince for the loss of a Person so dear to him if once he came to know the Authors of it He contented himself to have the Marquess Stab'd some time afterwards one night in the Streets as he was retiring himself from Court the better to keep the truth of the business from being inspected when the Assassines saw him dead they feigned in the presence of his Attendants that they had taken him for another Man The Queen resented as she ought the loss of so perfect a friend and she saw at the very first all she was consequently to suffer by it As for Don Carlos he could not at first discover the true cause of it but afterwards he considered the little appearance there was that a Man so well known as the dead Man was should be taken for another On the other side he saw that there was no body but his Father that durst undertake such an attempt so that he did not hesitate no more then the Queen to divine who was the Author of it In the mean time they neither of them mistrusted that it was of the Marquess that the King had been Jealous and imagining rather that which was like to have been then that which really was they thought that this Favourite had been killed as a Confident and not as a Lover and that they were discovered In this opinion considering the Kings unmeasurable passion for his Wife his aversion for the Prince and his natural inclination to shed blood they judged themselves lost And they thought that the King being well assured that they could not escape his vengeance had begun by this Assassinate that so he might make them feel it the longer There is nothing so secret in Princes Courts that is not discovered by some people which one doth not distrust Don Carlos much about this time sitting down one day at the Table found under his Plate a Paper which contain'd these words There are some very just Counsels which yet are not given but one comes not out of desperate affaires without extraordinary resolutions Those in whom Heaven hath put such qualities as are to render a great many others happy besides those that possess them are obliged to accomplish their destiny which prevailes over all other Obligations Generous Soules perish not but for want of having an opinion bad enough of the wicked That Patience which abandoneth the dayes of a Gallant Man to the violence of his Enemies is weakness baseness of heart crime and not virtue Humanity for those that have none is the most dangerous sort of folly In the mean time the Prince resolved to try one innocent way before he would have recourse to the
rose up briskly at these words and askt his Guards Whether the Bath in which he was to die were ready The King whether it were the longer to feed his eyes with this barbarous Spectacle or that perhaps he was a little shaken and sought how he might handsomly render himself asked him If he had nothing else to say to him The Prince who would willingly have redeemed what he had done at the price of a thousand other lives well perceiving that it was now too late to husband any thing either for him or the Queen could not forbear answering once for all with all his natural fierceness If some persons said he for whom my Complaisance ought not to end but with my life had not obliged me to see you I should not have been guilty of the Cowardise of asking you pardon and I should have dyed more gloriously then you live The King retir'd himself after this Answer without shewing any disturbance Don Carlos put himself in the Bath and having caused the Veines of his Armes and Legs to be opened he commanded all that were present to withdraw Afterwards taking into his hand a Picture of the Queen in Miniature which he alwayes wore about his neck and which had been the first occasion of his Love he remained with his eyes fixed upon that fatal Image till the cold convulsions of death surprized him in that contemplation and his Soul being already half gone out of his body with his Blood and Spirits he lost insensibly his sight and then his life The time of his death is not precisely known It is only known that it arrived a great while before it was published There was a long Relation of his Sickness printed which they said was a Malignant Dysentery caused by his disorders The Grief of the People and the despair of the Princes Domesticks brake out so loudly that the most passionate Historians have not dared to dissemble it The Count of Lerma whom the King had intrusted with the oversight of Don Carlos whilst he was in prison had conceived so extraordinary a Friendship for him that he appeared inconsolable to the eyes of all the Court The King to whom these regrets were but so many reproaches took that way he thought most certain to make them cease He recompenced magnificently all Don Carlos his Servants He gave the Government of Calatrava to the Count of Lerma and made him Gentleman of his Bed-chamber It was well seen that these Liberalities were not grounded upon any gratitude for the affection they testified for Don Carlos nevertheless the People diminished nothing of their eagerness to honour this Princes Memory And it being known that the King designed to make his Obsequies with an extraordinary Magnificence the Town of Madrid demanded that they might be permitted to be at the Expence of them and that all the care of performing them might be left to them Though the King foresaw that this Funeral would be accompanyed with Elegies which would not be very honourable for the Enemies of the dead Man he durst not refuse their Petition The Historians of his time do particularly extol the tranquility of mind that he made appear upon the day of that Pompe when looking from a Window of his Pallace upon the disposition and march of the Ceremony he decided upon the place a difficulty that was raised concerning the Precedency of the different Councils of State that were there present The two Sons of the Emperor that were then at the Court of Spain were the close Mourners When they were come near the Church the Cardinal Spinosa who went before them immediately after the Body took leave of them and retired himself under pretence of a pain that took him in his head But as he was known for the most dangerous and most irreconcileable Enemy Don Carlos had ever had there were several Voices heard crying round about him That he could not suffer the presence of the Prince neither dead nor living The first thing exposed to sight was that famous Encomium of the Scripture for a dead Man which was written in great Letters of Gold over the Church-porch He hath been ravisht from us for fear least the Malice of the Age should have chang'd his heart and least his mind should have been seduced by flattery All that an ingenious grief can invent to ease it self was employed in the proud Mausoleum where this Prince was Interred But as all those Ornaments had a reference to the Latin Inscription that served him for an Epitaph it sufficeth to give the sence of that Inscription to make the Invention and design of the whole Pomp be comprehended To the eternal Memory of Charles Prince of the Spaines of both the Sicilies of the Gaules Belgick and Cisalpine heir of the New World incomparable in greatness of Soul in Liberality and in love for the Truth Thus it was that the elevated Genius and heroical inclinations of the unfortunate Don Carlos were at last represented under their proper names of Virtues after having been so long disguised by his enemies under those of Vices During the time that the King kept Don Carlos his death secret he resolved to make the news of it be told to the Queen at the time she should be in Travel He hoped that so sensible a trouble of mind joyned to that of her body in the condition she was in would finish his revenge but he quickly knew that she was better informed then he desired And as she could not be ignorant that Don Carlos had been sacrificed to his Father's jealousie she did not at all constrain her self to hide the resentment she had of it Her just anger cast her Husband into new inquietudes He thought he had much to fear from her wit and courage but yet more from the extraordinary consideration the Court of France had for her and the streight correspondence she held with the Queen her Mother A few months after the Prince's death the Dutchess d' Alva who had one of the chiefest Offices in the Queen's House came one morning into her chamber with a Potion in her hand The Queen told her That she was well and would not take it But the Dutchess going about to force her to it the King who was not far off came in at the noise of their contest At first he blamed the Dutchess for her peremptoriness but this woman having represented so him that the Physicians judged this remedy necessary for the Queen 's happy lying in he rendred himself to their authority He told the Queen with great sweetness that because this Medicine was of so great importance she must needs take it Because you will have it so answered she to him I am contented He went immediately out of the Chamber and some time after came back clothed in deep Mourning to know how she did But whether it were that there was some mistake in the Composition of the Drink
or that the extraordinary disturbance the Queen was in and the violence she did her self to take it gave it a malignity which it had not in its self she expired the same day in the midst of violent pains and after several great fits of vomiting Her Child was found dead with its skul almost quite burned away She was then at the beginning of the four and twentieth year of her age as well as Don Carlos and in the greatest perfection of her beauty Fortune did so exemplarily revenge the death of these two persons that it would be unjust to keep the knowledge of it from posterity The beauty of the Princess of Eboli soon changed the confidence the King had in her into a violent love Rui Gomez her Husband as jealous of the confidences the King made to his Wife as of the favours she did the King resolved to rid himself of her but the Princess having discovered his design prevented it by ridding her self of him S nce that she kept Don John at a distance from the Court under pretence of divers employments but in effect because he would have treated her with that authority that their long and familiar commerce had given him over her She made the Government of Flanders be given him in hopes that he would perish there as he had done if the courage and conduct of the Prince of Parma had not saved him In this conjuncture she was told that he had discovered the ill offices she had done him The fear she had that he would ruine her in letting the King know all that had passed between them made her resolve to shew him some Letters of the Prince of Orange that were of an extraordinary consequence They imported That the marriage of Don John with the Queen of England was concluded and that the Rebels of Flanders had engaged their word to acknowledge him for their Sovereign as soon as this marriage should be consummated and that without any other condition then Liberty of Conscience These Letters were given by Perez to the King who presently knew the Prince of Orange his writing and as he abandon'd himself to his fear in the Princess of Eboli's presence she took that time to tell him the answer that Don John had heretofore made to Don Carlos when he call'd him Bastard She also put the King in mind of the Pride with which this same Don John had received the acclamations of the Army of Granada where the Souldiers charmed with some great action that he had done cried out in his presence This is the true Son of the Emperour She added his obstinacy to make himself King of Tunis and the loss of the Goulette which he had suffer'd to be taken to revenge himself upon the King for not favouring his designs These divers reflections joyned to the pressing danger of the pretended Match with England did penetrate so far into the King's mind that thinking he had not the least time to lose he found a way of making a pair of perfum'd walking Boots be sent to Don John which cost him his life Some time after it was discovered that the Princess of Eboli had on purpose made the Prince of Orange write those Letters which she said were intercepted and which had been so fatal to Don John The King conceived so great a horrour for this wickedness that it extinguish'd his Love The Princess and Perez were confin'd to a Prison there to end their days Perez afterwards making his escape spent the rest of his life very miserably in wandring through all the Princes Courts in Europe And last of all Philip the Second himself after he was grown old among the griefs caused him by so many disasters was stricken with an Ulcer which bred an incredible quantity of Lice by which he was even eaten up alive and stifled when they found no more wherewithall to nourish themselves upon his body After this manner were expiated the ever to be deplored deaths of a magnanimous Prince and of the most beautiful and most vertuous Princess that ever was And thus it was that their unfortunate Ghosts were at last fully appeased by the Tragical Destinies of all the Complices of their Death FINIâ— * The Father Hilaâ—rois of Coss Min. in his Elogy of this Queen * Brantome in his Philip the 2 d. * Brantome in his Discourse of this Queen * Brantome in her Elogy * Mr. de Thou Aubigné Etr. * Brantome in his Discourses upon this Queen * Mr. de Thou * Mayerne Thurquets history of Spain * Cabreras History of Philip the 2d * Hugo Blasius Dutchman in his Acroma * Dicos y echos di Philippe 2. * Father Hilarion of Cossa in his Elogy of this Queen * Brantome in his Philip the 2d * Mayerne Turquett in his History of Spain * Mr. Mezeray in his Great History * Mayern Turquet * Mr. de Thou * Mayerne Turquet La Planches History La Places Memoire Monsieur de Mezerai Le Laboureur Diogenes c. * Mr. de Thou Strada c. * Brantome in his Discourse of Philip 2d * Historia de D. Juan d' Austria * Cabrera's History of Philip 2d Historia de Dom. Juan d' Austria * Mr. de Thou Mayerne c. * Matthien his History of France Mr. de Thou c. * Mayern's History of Spain Duplex's History of France c. * Cabrera's History of Philp 2d Hist D. Juan * Crabrera's History of Philip 2d * Cabrera's History of Philip 2d Mr. de Thou Strada c. * Cabrera Hist de D. Juan * Cabrera in the History of Philp 2d * Mr. le Laboureur upon Castalnau in his Ch. of Don Carlos * Campana and Cabrera's Hist Phil. 2d * Mr. de Thou le Laboureur Mayerne Duplex c. * Matt. Hist of France * Mr. de Mezerai in his great Hist * Duplex Hist of France * A Relation Printed at Madrid in Spanish and since at Venis in Italian Campana Cabrera's Hist of Phil. 2d c. * Cabrera's History of Philip the 2d * Cabrera's Hist of Don John * Cabrera's Hist of Don John * Wisdome * Relazion de la Muerte y essequias del prencipe Dom Carlos * Mr. le Laboureur upon Castelnau in his Ch. of Don Carlos Mayerne c. * Mr. le Laboureur Mayerne MS. of Mr. Peirese c. * Mr. de Mezerai in his gr Hist * Mayerne Furqueit's History of Spain M. S. of Mr. Peirese c. * Mr. le Laboreur