History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 59 (1/2)

Ford, in his admirable Handbook, which may serve as a manual for the student of Spanish in his closet, quite as well as for the traveller in Spain, has devoted a few columns to a visit which he paid to this sequestered spot, where, as he says, the spirit of the mighty dead seemed to rule again in his last home. A few lines from the pages of the English tourist will bring the scene more vividly before the reader than the colder description in the text. ”As the windows were thrown wide open to admit the cool thyme-scented breeze, the eye in the clear evening swept over the boundless valley; and the nightingales sang sweetly, in the neglected orange-garden, to the bright stars reflected like diamonds in the black tank below us. How often had Charles looked out, on a stilly eve, on this selfsame and unchanged scene, where he alone was now wanting!” Handbook of Spain, p. 553.

[288] Carta de Martin de Gaztelu al Secretario Vazquez, 5 de Febrero, 1557, MS.

[289] Their names and vocations are specified in the codicil executed by Charles a few days before his death. See the doc.u.ment entire, ap.

Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 662.

A more satisfactory list has been made out by the indefatigable Gachard from various doc.u.ments which he collected, and which have furnished him with the means of correcting the orthography of Sandoval, miserably deficient in respect to Flemish names. See Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint, tom. I. p. 1.

[290] ”Las vistas de las piecas de su magestad no son muy largas, sino cortas, y las que se veen, o es una montana de piedras grandes, o unos montes de robles no muy altos. Campo llano no le ay, ni como podesse pasear, que sea por un camino estrecho y lleno de piedra. Rio yo no vi ninguno, sino un golpe de agua que baza de la montana: huerta en casa ay una pequena y de pocos naranjos....... El aposento baxo no es nada alegre, sino muy triste, y como es tan baxo, creo sera humido.......

Esto es lo que me parece del aposento y sitio de la casa y grandissima soledad.” Carta de Luis Quixada a Juan Vazquez, 30 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

The major-domo concludes by requesting Vazquez not to show it to his mistress, Joanna, the regent, as he would not be thought to run counter to the wishes of the emperor in anything.

[291] ”Plegue a Dios que los pueda sufrir, que no sera poco, segun suelen ser todos muy importunos, y mas los que saben menos.” Carta de Martin de Gaztelu, MS.

[292] ”Llamando al Emperador _paternidad_, de que luego fue advertido de otro frayle que estava a su lado, y acudio con _magestad_.” Ibid.

[293] ”Emperador semper augusto de Alemania.”

[294] His teeth seem to have been in hardly better condition than his fingers.--”Era amigo de corta.r.s.e el mismo lo que comia, aunque ni tenia buenas ni desembueltas las manos, ni los dientes.” Siguenca, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 192.

[295] De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. III. p. 293.

[296] ”Quando comia, leya el confesor una leccion de San Augustin.” El Perfecto Desengano, MS.

[297] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 15.--Vera y Figueroa, Vida y Hechos de Carlos V., p. 123.--Siguenca, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 195.

The last writer is minute in his notice of the imperial habits and occupations at Yuste. Siguenca was prior of the Escorial; and in that palace-monastery of the Jeronymites he must have had the means of continually conversing with several of his brethren who had been with Charles in his retirement. His work, which appeared at the beginning of the following century, has become rare,--so rare that M. Gachard was obliged to content himself with a few ma.n.u.script extracts, from the difficulty of procuring the printed original. I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy, and a very fine one, through my booksellers, Messrs.

Rich, Brothers, London,--worthy sons of a sire who for thirty years or more stood preeminent for sagacity and diligence among the collectors of rare and valuable books.

[298] ”Mand pregonar en los lugares comarcanos que so pena de cien acotes muger alguna no pa.s.sa.s.se de un humilladero que estasa como dos tiros de ballesta del Monasterio.” Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom.

II. p. 612; and Sandoval's _double_, Valparayso, El Perfecto Desengano, MS.

[299] ”Si alguno se errava dezia consigo mismo: O _hideputa bermejo_, que aquel erro, otro nombre semejante.” Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 613.

I will not offend ears polite by rendering it in English into corresponding Billingsgate. It is but fair to state that the author of the Perfecto Desengano puts no such irreverent expression into Charles's mouth. Both, however, profess to follow the MS. of the Prior Angulo.

[300] ”Non aspernatur exercitationes campestres, in quem usum paratam habet tormentariam rhedam, ad essedi speciem, praecellenti arte, et miro studio proximis hisce mensibus a se constructam.” Lettres sur la Vie Interieure de l'Empereur Charles-Quint, ecrites par Guillaume van Male, gentilhomme de sa chambre, et publiees, pour la premiere fois, par le Baron de Reiffenberg, (Bruxelles, 1843, 4to,) ep. 8.

[301] ”Interdum ligneos pa.s.serculos emisit cubiculo volantes revolantesque.” Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 15.

[302] Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 552.

[303] ”A nemine, ne a proceribus quidem quac.u.mque ex causa se adiri, aut conveniri, nisi aegre admodum patiebatur.” Sepulveda, Opera, tom. II. p.

541.

[304] ”Le hizo mas preguntas que se pudieran hazer a la donzella Theodor, de que todo dio buena razon y de lo que vio yoy o en Francia, provisiones de obispados, cargos de Italia, y de la infanteria y caballeria, artilleria, gastadores, armas de mano y de otras cosas.”

Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a Juan Vazquez, 18 de Mayo, 1558, MS.