Volume VI Part 19 (2/2)
”Who allowed you to commit this o, though he is a devout man, would have put you under the Leads for such a deed The love of Paradise should not be allowed to interfere with the fine arts, and I am sure that St Luke himself (as a painter, as you knoould condeain”
”Sir, I needed no one's leave or license I have to say mass at that altar every day, and I am not ashamed to tell you that I was unable to consecrate You are a man and a Christian, you can excuse hts froed you to look at it?”
”I did not look at it; the devil, the enemy of God, made me see it in spite of myself”
”Then you should have ans, believe me, are not so valuable as the picture you have ruined”
”Sir, you insultso”
That young priest shewed me the door with such brusqueness that I felt sure he would inforainst me to the Inquisition I kneould have no difficulty in finding out my name, so I resolved to be beforehand with him
Both my fear and my resolve were inspired by an incident which I shall mention as an episode
A few days before, I had ur, who had just come out of the prisons of the Inquisition He had been shut up for three years for co crime:
In the hall of his house there was a fountain, composed of a ed the water in the same way as the well-known statue of Brussels, that is to say, by his virile ht be a Cupid or an Infant Jesus, as you pleased, but the sculptor had adorned the head with a kind of aureole; and so the fanatics declared that it was a ur was accused of ily
I felt thatto run the risk of a like punishment I called on the bishop, who held the office of Grand Inquisitor, and told him word for word the conversation I had had with the iconoclast chaplain I ended by craving pardon, if I had offended the chaplain, as I was a good Christian, and orthodox on all points
I had never expected to find the Grand Inquisitor of Madrid a kindly and intelligent, though ill-favoured, prelate; but so it was, and he did nothing but laugh fro to the end of my story, for he would not let me call it a confession
”The chaplain,” he said, ”is himself blaed others to be as weak as hiion Nevertheless, o and irritate hily, an accusation against ood bishop gently chidcalled the friar-confessor of the Duke of Medina an ignoraht sayhis fast, on the con prince, who, by the hypothesis, had not heard ht in your contention,” said the Inquisitor, ”but yet every truth is not good to utter, and it rong to call the noramus in his presence For the future you would do well to avoid all idle discussion on religious ma and discipline And I must also tell you, in order that you may not leave Spain with any harsh ideas on the Inquisition, that the priest who affixed your nast the excoiven you a fatherly admonition, and, above all, enquired as to your health, as we know that you were seriously ill at the time”
Thereupon I knelt down and kissed his hand, and went o back to Aranjuez As soon as I heard that the ambassador could not put o, that I wanted a well-furnished rooood bed, and an honest servant I infor to spend a month, and said I would leave Aranjuez as soon as I heard that everything was ready
I was a good deal occupied with the question of colonising the Sierra Morena; I wrote principally on the subject of the civil government, a most important item in a scheme for a new colony My articles pleased the Marquis Grio; for the latter hoped that I should becoovernor of the colony, and that his eht
My labours did not preventmyself, and I frequented the society of those about the Court who could telland royal faence, was my principal source of infor was fond of Gregorio Squillace only because he had been once his wife's lover
”That's an idle calumny,” he replied ”If the epithet of 'chaste' can be applied to any monarch, Charles III certainly deserves it better than any other He has never touched any woman in his life except his wife, not only out of respect or the sanctity of ood Christian He has avoided this sin that his soulit to his chaplain He enjoys an iron constitution, sickness is unknown to hih Spaniard in tee he has paid his duty to his wife every day, except when the state of her health compelled her to call for a truce In such seasons this chaste husband brought down his fleshly desires by the fatigue of hunting and by abstinence You can i left a er, for he would rather die than take aout his day that he should have no time left wherein to think of women It was a difficult , music wearies hiust
”He has adopted the following plan, in which he will preserve till his dying day: He dresses at seven, then goes into his closet and has his hair dressed At eight o'clock he says his prayers, then hears mass, and when this is over he takes chocolate and an enor nose ruminates for some minutes; this is his only pinch in the whole day At nine o'clock he sees his ministers, and works with them till eleven Then comes dinner, which he always takes alone, then a short visit to the Princess of the Austurias, and at twelve sharp he gets into his carriage and drives to the hunting-grounds At seven o'clock he takes a ht o'clock he coet his clothes off Thus he keeps down the desires of the flesh”
”Poor voluntarya second time, but when Adelaide of France saw his portrait she was quite frightened and refused hihts of et aof his character Don Do hi at hi it, as it was at such ti
”Then he is not a hard s seldom have the reputation they deserve The enerous; they are overwhelmed with importunate requests, and their first instinct is always to refuse”