History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 39 (2/2)
[Sidenote: HIS PROCESS.]
Several months elapsed, after the execution of the Counts Egmont and Hoorne, before the duke commenced proceedings against Montigny; and it was not till February, 1569, that the licentiate Salazar, one of the royal council, was sent to Segovia in order to interrogate the prisoner.
The charges were of the same nature with those brought against Egmont and Hoorne. Montigny at first, like them, refused to make any reply,--standing on his rights as a member of the Golden Fleece. He was, however, after a formal protest, prevailed on to waive this privilege.
The examination continued several days. The various doc.u.ments connected with it are still preserved in the Archives of Simancas. M. Gachard has given no abstract of their contents. But that sagacious inquirer, after a careful perusal of the papers, p.r.o.nounces Montigny's answers to be ”a victorious refutation of the charges of the attorney-general.”[1237]
It was not a refutation that Philip or his viceroy wanted. Montigny was instantly required to appoint some one to act as counsel in his behalf.
But no one was willing to undertake the business, till a person of little note at length consented, or was rather compelled to undertake it by the menaces of Alva.[1238] Any man might well have felt a disinclination for an office which must expose him to the ill-will of the government, with little chance of benefit to his client.
Even after this, Montigny was allowed to languish another year in prison before sentence was pa.s.sed on him by his judges. The proceedings of the Council of Blood on this occasion were marked by a more flagitious contempt of justice, if possible, than its proceedings usually were. The duke, in a letter of the eighteenth of March, 1570, informed the king of the particulars of the trial. He had submitted the case, not to the whole court, but to a certain number of the councillors, _selected by him for the purpose_.[1239] He does not tell on what principle the selection was made. Philip could readily divine it. In the judgment of the majority, Montigny was found guilty of high treason. The duke accordingly pa.s.sed sentence of death on him. The sentence was dated March 4, 1570. It was precisely of the same import with the sentences of Egmont and Hoorne. It commanded that Montigny be taken from prison, and publicly beheaded with a sword. His head was to be stuck on a pole, there to remain during the pleasure of his majesty. His goods and estates were to be confiscated to the crown.[1240]
The sentence was not communicated even to the Council of Blood. The only persons aware of its existence were the duke's secretary and his two trusty councillors, Vargas and Del Rio. Alva had kept it thus secret until he should learn the will of his master.[1241] At the same time he intimated to Philip that he might think it better to have the execution take place in Castile, as under existing circ.u.mstances more eligible than the Netherlands.
Philip was in Andalusia, making a tour in the southern provinces, when the despatches of his viceroy reached him. He was not altogether pleased with their tenor. Not that he had any misgivings in regard to the sentence; for he was entirely satisfied, as he wrote to Alva, of Montigny's guilt.[1242] But he did not approve of a public execution.
Enough blood, it might be thought in the Netherlands, had been already spilt; and men there might complain that, shut up in a foreign prison during his trial, Montigny had not met with justice.[1243] There were certainly some grounds for such a complaint.
Philip resolved to defer taking any decisive step in the matter till his return to the north. Meanwhile he commended Alva's discretion in keeping the sentence secret, and charged him on no account to divulge it, even to members of the council.
Some months elapsed after the king's return to Madrid before he came to a decision,--exhibiting the procrastination, so conspicuous a trait in him, even among a people with whom procrastination was no miracle. It may have been that he was too much occupied with an interesting affair which pressed on him at that moment. About two years before, Philip had had the misfortune to lose his young and beautiful queen, Isabella of the Peace. Her place was now to be supplied by a German princess, Anne of Austria, his fourth wife, still younger than the one he had lost. She was already on her way to Castile; and the king may have been too much engrossed by his preparations for the nuptial festivities, to have much thought to bestow on the concerns of his wretched prisoner.
The problem to be solved was how to carry the sentence into effect, and yet leave the impression on the public that Montigny died a natural death. Most of the few ministers whom the king took into his confidence on the occasion were of opinion that it would be best to bring the prisoner's death about by means of a slow poison administered in his drink, or some article of his daily food. This would give him time, moreover, to provide for the concerns of his soul.[1244] But Philip objected to this, as not fulfilling what he was pleased to call the ends of justice.[1245] He at last decided on the _garrote_,--the form of execution used for the meaner sort of criminals in Spain, but which, producing death by suffocation, would be less likely to leave its traces on the body.[1246]
[Sidenote: CLOSER CONFINEMENT.]
To accomplish this, it would be necessary to remove Montigny from the town of Segovia, the gay residence of the court, and soon to be the scene of the wedding ceremonies, to some more remote and less frequented spot. Simancas was accordingly selected, whose stern, secluded fortress seemed to be a fitting place for the perpetration of such a deed. The fortress was of great strength, and was encompa.s.sed by ma.s.sive walls, and a wide moat, across which two bridges gave access to the interior.
It was anciently used as a prison for state criminals. Cardinal Ximenes first conceived the idea of turning it to the n.o.bler purpose of preserving the public archives.[1247] Charles the Fifth carried this enlightened project into execution; but it was not fully consummated till the time of Philip, who prescribed the regulations, and made all the necessary arrangements for placing the inst.i.tution on a permanent basis,--thus securing to future historians the best means for guiding their steps through the dark and tortuous pa.s.sages of his reign. But even after this change in its destination, the fortress of Simancas continued to be used occasionally as a place of confinement for prisoners of state. The famous bishop of Zamora, who took so active a part in the war of the _comunidades_, was there strangled by command of Charles the Fifth. The quarter of the building in which he suffered is still known by the name of ”_el cubo del obispo_,”--”The Bishop's Tower.”[1248]
To this strong place Montigny was removed from Segovia, on the nineteenth of August, 1570, under a numerous guard of alguazils and arquebusiers. For greater security he was put in irons,--a superfluous piece of cruelty, from which Philip, in a letter to Alva, thought it necessary to vindicate himself, as having been done without his orders.[1249] We might well imagine that the last ray of hope must have faded away in Montigny's bosom, as he entered the gloomy portals of his new abode. Yet hope, as we are a.s.sured, did not altogether desert him.
He had learned that Anne of Austria had expressed much sympathy for his sufferings. It was but natural that the daughter of the emperor Maximilian should take an interest in the persecuted people of the Netherlands. It was even said that she promised the wife and step-mother of Montigny to make his liberation the first boon she would ask of her husband on coming to Castile.[1250] And Montigny cherished the fond hope that the influence of the young bride would turn the king from his purpose, and that her coming to Castile would be the signal for his liberation. That Anne should have yielded to such an illusion is not so strange, for she had never seen Philip; but that Montigny should have been beguiled by it is more difficult to understand.
In his new quarters he was treated with a show of respect, if not indulgence. He was even allowed some privileges. Though the guards were doubled over him, he was permitted to have his own servants, and, when it suited him, to take the fresh air and suns.h.i.+ne in the corridor.
Early in October the young Austrian princess landed on the northern sh.o.r.es of the kingdom, at Santander. The tidings of this may have induced the king to quicken his movements in regard to his prisoner, willing perhaps to relieve himself of all chance of importunity from his bride, as well as from the awkwardness of refusing the first favor she should request. As a preliminary step, it would be necessary to abridge the liberty which Montigny at present enjoyed, to confine him to his apartment, and cutting off his communications even with those in the castle, to spread the rumor of his illness, which should prepare the minds of the public for a fatal issue.
To furnish an apology for his close confinement, a story was got up of an attempt to escape, similar to what had actually occurred at Segovia.
Peralta, alcayde of the fortress, a trustworthy va.s.sal, to whom was committed the direction of the affair, addressed a letter to the king, inclosing a note in Latin, which he pretended had been found under Montigny's window, containing sundry directions for his flight. The fact of such a design, the writer said, was corroborated by the appearance of certain persons in the disguise of friars about the castle. The governor, in consequence, had been obliged to remove his prisoner to other quarters, of greater security. He was accordingly lodged in the Bishop's Tower,--ominous quarters!--where he was no longer allowed the attendance of his own domestics, but placed in strict confinement.
Montigny had taken this proceeding so ill, and with such vehement complaints of its injustice, that it had brought on a fever, under which he was now laboring. Peralta concluded by expressing his regret at being forced by Montigny's conduct into a course so painful to himself, as he would gladly have allowed him all the indulgence compatible with his own honor.[1251]--This letter, which had all been concocted in the cabinet at Madrid, was shown openly at court. It gained easier credit from the fact of Montigny's former attempt to escape; and the rumor went abroad that he was now lying dangerously ill.
Early in October, the licentiate Alonzo de Arellano had been summoned from Seville, and installed in the office of alcalde of the chancery of Valladolid, distant only two leagues from Simancas. Arellano was a person in whose discretion and devotion to himself Philip knew he could confide; and to him he now intrusted the execution of Montigny.
Directions for the course he was to take, as well as the precautions he was to use to prevent suspicion, were set down in the royal instructions with great minuteness. They must be allowed to form a remarkable doc.u.ment, such as has rarely proceeded from a royal pen. The alcalde was to pa.s.s to Simancas, and take with him a notary, an executioner, and a priest. The last should be a man of undoubted piety and learning, capable of dispelling any doubts or errors that might unhappily have arisen in Montigny's mind in respect to the faith. Such a man appeared to be Fray Hernando del Castillo, of the order of St. Dominic, in Valladolid; and no better person could have been chosen, nor one more open to those feelings of humanity which are not always found under the robe of the friar.[1252]
[Sidenote: HIS LAST MOMENTS.]
Attended by these three persons, the alcalde left Valladolid soon after nightfall on the evening of the fourteenth of October. Peralta had been advised of his coming; and the little company were admitted into the castle so cautiously as to attract no observation. The governor and the judge at once proceeded to Montigny's apartment, where they found the unhappy man lying on his pallet, ill not so much of the fever that was talked of, as of that sickness of the heart which springs from hope deferred. When informed of his sentence by Arellano, in words as kind as so cruel a communication would permit, he was wholly overcome by it, and for some time continued in a state of pitiable agitation. Yet one might have thought that the warnings he had already received were such as might have prepared his mind in some degree for the blow. For he seems to have been in the condition of the tenant of one of those inquisitorial cells in Venice, the walls of which, we are told, were so constructed as to approach each other gradually every day, until the wretched inmate was crushed between them. After Montigny had sufficiently recovered from his agitation to give heed to it, the sentence was read to him by the notary. He was still to be allowed a day before the execution, in order to gain time, as Philip had said, to settle his affairs with Heaven. And although, as the alcalde added, the sentence pa.s.sed on him was held by the king as a just sentence, yet, in consideration of his quality, his majesty, purely out of his benignity and clemency, was willing so far to mitigate it, in regard to the form, as to allow him to be executed, not in public, but in secret, thus saving his honor, and suggesting the idea of his having come to his end by a natural death.[1253] For this act of grace Montigny seems to have been duly grateful. How true were the motives a.s.signed for it, the reader can determine.
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