to them and of which so few of those about them are capable Don Carlos who naturally loved all extraordinary men engaged the Count to entertain him as they rode along with a description of the last Battel in which he had commanded The Count who was charmed with his curiosity satisfi'd it fully and Don Carlos made appear an extreme impatiency of seeing himself in a condition to do something like that he heard related he assured the Count of Egmont that if ever the troubles in Flanders came to break out in an open War as the Governess seem'd to apprehend they would nothing should hinder h m from coming into those Provinces there to learn under him his Apprentiship of War The voyage of the Princes was not long the Town of Alcala presented Don Carlos with a Horse of great price but as furious as he was handsome The Prince having desired to see him mounted was ill satisfi'd with all those that rode him and would needs try how he could ride him himself The Horse whose mouth was already very much heated as soon as the Prince began to prick him took a fright and ran away with him with so much violence that Don Carlos thought it his best way to throw himself off but he did it so unfortunately that he was left for dead upon the place and though he came to himself some hours after yet when the Chirurgeons had examin'd the wound he had received in his head they all despaired of his life In this extremity he sent the Marquis of Posa his Favourite to carry his last Adieu to the Queen The Princess of Eboli went to him at the first report she heard of this accident to see after what manner he would receive her The dissimulation of the Queen who was not prepared for so rude a trial abandon'd her at this news and though her mouth accustom'd to be silent did not permit her grief to declare it self by complaints her silence and the disorder she was in discover'd more of her thoughts then all the words in the world could have done Yet how great soever her affliction seem'd to be there had been always so much friendship seen between her and Don Carlos that no body was surprised therewith But the Princess of Eboli that was a great proficient in the mysterious Sciences of Love could not comprehend how so violent a despair in the Queen should be nothing but an effect of friendship In the mean time the people inspir'd by the Inquisitors did not seem to discover any great sorrow for this misfortune but look'd upon it as a manifest punishment of God upon Don Carlos for his impiety The Queen who thought she had now nothing more to housewife could not refuse her self the sad consolation of letting the Prince know the pitiful condition in which he left her She wrote to him all that love and dispair can suggest most tender and most affecting and she made the Marquis of Posa go back to him with order presently to bring back her Letter in case he should not arrive at Alcala till after the death of Don Carlos The joy with which the Prince's soul was filled at the receit of this Letter was so great that it restored him his life As soon as he was out of danger the King made him be brought back to Madrid thinking that the animosity of the people would in part be appeased by this cruel adventure The first time the Queen saw Don Carlos she ask'd him for her Letter but how earnest soever she were to have it back the Prince to whom this testimony of her affection was dearer then the life it had rendred him persisted always in his resolution to keep it not thinking that this Letter was once more to decide his destiny At his return he found the Princess great with child and her greatness did provoke his jealousie to a degree that made him make so odd and unreasonable complaints to her that any body but she would have thought that he had lost his wits Whilst his Cure was finishing she lay in of the Illustrious Arch-Dutchess of Flanders who was afterwards Heiress of her Beauty and Wit as well as of her Name A little while after she fell dangerously fick of the Small Pox but the prayers of the people for her were so effectual that she recovered not onely with a greater degree of health but also much more beautiful then before Don Carlos had hardly had the time to testifie his joy to her for her recovery when she was forced to go to Bayonne whither the Court of France was come to meet her and where the charms of her conversation and her prudent and modest carriage did not cause less admiration of her in peoples minds then her beauty caused disturbance in their hearts Don Carlos saw with all the discontent imaginable these divers hinderances which Fortune raised up one after another to interrupt his commerce with the Queen when this last Voyage after which he thought he should have nothing more to fear drew upon them an affair which imbitter'd the sweetness of their life by some obstacles that never had an end Jeanne de Albret Queen of Navarre and Widow of the late King Anthony had a pretty while before this time declared her self of the New Religion and she was a Princess that govern'd her Subjects with a Piety that might well be an example to all her Sect and with a Justice whose equal perhaps had never been seen in the Court of any King Her Son whom she brought up in the same belief was look'd upon from that very time by the Religionaries of France as their Protector The Spaniards seeing that the pretensions of that House upon the upper Navarre fell into the hands of this Child brought up in an hereditary hatred against them that was sharpned by the difference of their Religion and upheld by a party so redoutable as was that of the Hugonots at that time to deliver themselves from all these fears resolved forcibly to take away this young Prince with the Queen his Mother the Princess his Sister out of the heart of their Dominions and to carry them into Spain put them into the hands of the Inquisition The chief of the Catholick party in France being of intelligence with the Duke D' Alva to deprive the Hugonots of so considerable a support as was that of the House of Navarre engaged themselves with joy to contribute whatsoever depended on them for the happy success of this enterprise An infamous Villain called Captain Dominick born in the Countrey of Bearn was charged with the execution of the business by reason of the perfect knowledge he had of the Countrey Part of the Troops that waited then at Barcellona for a favourable wind to pass into Barbary were appointed to advance themselves as far as Tarragona From this Town it was easie secretly to lead a considerable Body of Horse through the Mountains and so to
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
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