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
utmost extremity This way was to renew with great earnestness the request he had made to be sent into Flanders where the state of Affairs demanded a more present and speedy remedy then ever He did it in termes that made the King comprehend that he would have what he desired and that there was no safety to refuse him He judged it his best way to express his mind in this absolute manner for he thought that if he were discovered he had nothing more to Husband and if he were not it might happen that the King sollicited by his jealousie and affrighted by this imperious way of proceeding wou'd grant him any thing in the World to be rid of him This unfortunate Father whose mind was more free to see the consequences of his Cruelty after he had satisfied it was again fallen into his natural timidity He saw plainly that he must necessarily send an Army into Flanders and he was afraid of irritating Don Carlos his resentment yet fresh for the death of his Friend if he refused him the Command of this Army which he demanded in such high termes Rui Gomez who had found the King so resolute in the business of the Marquess was not a little astonished to see him so unresolved in an occasion of much greater importance The Interest which this Minister had in his Masters welfare made him look with dread upon the weakness of that Prince who was going to put the Arms into his Sons hands wherewith he was like to have his own Throat cut the first As there is no Reason so strong as fear to oblige the most unstable spirits to determine themselves the King was ready to resolve himself in favour of Don Carlos Rui Gomez who saw it well knew not how to hinder it but having a very present wit he be thought himself all of a sudden of that Book of the Kings Voyages which his Wife had found in the Queens Closet written with Don Carlos his hand and which he had lookt upon ever since as a Toy which might yet prodnce some great effect if it were employed with discretion And now he thought he had found the occasion of using it He told the King That he thought himself obliged to let him know a little thing that till then he had not thought worthy of acquainting him with but which in the present conjuncture would help him much the better to guess at the Genius and Sentiments of his Son The King to whom this affair appeared of greater consequence then Rui Gomez made shew of thinking it would needs examine the Book himself and knowing it to be of his Sons own Writing he entred into a profound thoughtfulness in which this Minister thought it best to leave him After that he was a little come to himself from the first trouble of Mind into which so bloody a Raillery made by two persons so dear unto him had at first cast him his antient suspicions of Don Carlos his love for the Queen awakened themselves in his Soul with more violence then ever He could not comprehend that a Wife and a Son should divert themselves in that manner at the cost of a Father and a Husband that was their King without living in the most Criminal Familiarity But the Marquess of Posa coming presently into his Mind he could not believe that the Queen was in Love with them both especially Don Carlos and the Marquess being so united as they were and he concluded that it must necessarily be that one was the Lover and the other the Confident yet what effort of wit soever he could make he could never determine in himself which was the Lover But which soever of the two it were he still found that the death of the Marquess was but too just and that Don Carlos was equally culpable However the matter went he would not authorize the Railleries his Son made upon his manner of life by giving him the means of leading so different a one in Flanders If this Prince who had yet done nothing had the boldness to treate his Father with so much contempt what would he not have dared to have done if Fortune had been favourable to his ambition The King made him be told That in the fearful disorder in which Flanders was he thought he could not send him thither without exposing his life to inevitable danger but that the Duke d' Alva should go thither with a powerful Army within a short time and that as soon as this Army should have rendred his side the strongest he should be free to do whatever he would desire This refusal fully confirmed the Prince in the opinion he had that his ruine was resolved upon so that he rendred himself to the instances that the Rebels of Flanders had been a long time making to him by the Count of Egmont and their Deputies to go and put himself at their head They promised him That if he would grant them a few things that were very reasouable they would obey him with more fidelity then the Catholicks obey'd the King Don Carlos doubted not but that if he were once Master of this Revolted People the King would abandon to him the rest of Flanders though it were but to hinder him from possessing himself of it by force as it would be easie for him to do The Marquess of Bergh and Monteigni had several Conferences with him upon this Project and they took together so just and so solid Measures for the executing of it that they could not fail of success provided that the Prince conserved to himself the liberty of Acting It was that to which they exhorted him principally and if he had taken their Counsel he had began his journey at that very time But Don Carlos judged that there would be too much rashness in declaring himself after that manner before he had established the correspondency that were necessary for him but he promised them that in the mean time he would make use of such powerful precautions for the safety of his person that he should be able to give them a good account of it Besides a Coffer filled with Fire Armes which he made be set at his Beds-head he caused some little Pistols to be made of a new Invention to carry alwayes about him without being seen And that he might hinder himself from being surprised in his sleep he commanded a famous French Artist who workt at the Escurial to make a kind of Lock for his Chamber that could not be open'd but on the inside and he put every night under his Bolster two Swords and a Case of Pistols Whilst this unfortunate Prince hastened perhaps his undoing by the sole opinion he had that he was undone his Enemies forgot nothing to take from him all wayes of reconciling himself with his Father The King had not yet seen the Queen in private since the death of the Marquess of Posa and they feared that all their labour would prove to be in vain
innocent a commerce ingaged Don Carlos in an adventure that was the foundation of all his misfortunes Of all the Ladies in whom the Queens beauty caused envy and jealousie there was none that had greater reason to hate her upon that account then the Princess of Eboli in wit and beauty she surpassed all the Court and for this reason as well as because of the great favour her Husband was in with the King she held the first ranke among the Ladies She had an equal Love for magnificence and pleasure and as she thought nothing capable of resisting the charmes of her person and wit she had at first form'd a design upon the Kings heart but the Queens beauty having rendred her project fruitless she attempted to make Don Carlos in Love with her not thinking to find in the heart of the Son the same obstacle that had hindred her success with the Father Rui Gomez in quality of the Prince's Governour was lodged in the same Apartment with him the Princess of Eboli his Wife besides the conveniency of seeing Don Carlos had often occasion of obliging him in reconciling him with her husband with whom he had some little Quarrels every day Don Carlos who was very generous and who saw with what zeal she employed her self for him was not wanting in gratitude to her for it and lived very civilly with her These favourable dispositions giving the Princess good hopes concerning her enterprize she quickly found out the meanes to bring him to the point she desired The admiration he had for the Queen caused in him a certain contempt of all other Women Besides it is well known that most young people of that quality love naturally to divert themselves to the cost of others and the flattery of those that praise them accustomes them to those sorts of disobliging Jests in stead of reproving them for it Don Carlos who was not exempt from all the faults of his Age and quality and the Prince of Parma yet younger and more hot-headed then he having one day played one of their ordinary tricks to some women of the first Quality who complained of them the Princess of Eboli had much ado to obtain of Rui Gomez not to speak of it to the King That very night this Woman being alone in her Closet with Don Carlos she began to reproach him with the little consideration he had for the Ladies and after having made him a thousand Railleries upon that Subject she concluded that the friendship she had for him must needs be very strong to make her pardon those kind of things The Prince who perceiv'd not her design and who was oblig'd in gratitude to profess much affection to her answered her laughing That she had more reason to employ her self for him then perhaps she thought because the little consideration he had for all other Women came from the Monopoly she had made of all the esteem he was capable of for that Sex The Princess charmed with those words which she took for a declaration of Love answer'd him in a manner that opened his eyes and made him perceive his good fortune At first he was of the mind to make use of it and it seemed to him that never Infidelity was more excusable then that he was going to commit This Princess was of those Women who without having all their Features exactly proportion'd have something that touches more then the most regular Beauties But how dangerous soever she were Don Carlos was yet full of the passion he had for the Queen his imagination represented her to him at that instant with those graces and that sweetness that made all other Beauties appear rude and insipid in comparison of hers and the force of this Idea made him all on a sudden look upon the Princess with a disdain which she had no reason to expect from him Yet he answer'd her Compliment in the most obliging manner he could without satisfying her desire but she saw well enough that he pretended an affection which really he had not A Woman that hath seen her self in this condition never forgets it and remembers it with rage if she hath not cause to remember it with pleasure We shall see the effects this rage produced in the heart of the Princess of Eboli in the mean time Love that had pitty of her Adventure brought a new Personage upon the Stage of this Court to repair the fault of Don Carlos It was Don John of Austria Natural Son of Charles the Fifth that the King took about that time out of the hands of a Spanish Nobleman who had brought him up as his own Son and though this young Prince had alwayes thought himself to be so he was as fierce and as ambitious as if he had known his true birth When this Spaniard who passed for his Father came to cast himself at his feet before he presented him to the King Don John lookt upon him in that posture with as much tranquility as if he had a long while expected this change Seeing nothing in the New Rank he was entred into above his courage he was not at all dazled with it and all the Court saw with admiration the Son of Don Lewis Quisciada accustome himself in less than half an hours time to act the Son of an Emperor This new Prince not being of an humor to make use of all precautions necessary to defend his heart against the charmes of the Queen fell in Love with her as soon as he saw her And whether it were that his passion flatter'd his vanity or that he hoped to make it serve to the establishment of his fortune when he perceived it he made no attempt to cure himself of it and as he was naturally a dissembler it was easie for him to hide the assiduity he manifested about the Queens Person under the pretext of the necessi y of his appearance at Court His overcarefulness soon displeased Don Carlos and though this Princess would have perswaded him that she was glad of that obstacle to hinder the freedom of their conversation that so she might be less exposed to suffer the expressions of his Love yet she conceived an aversion for Don John of which she would not examine the reason There is no rencounter in the life of Man where dissimulation is of so great use as in love nor any in which it is harder to dissemble The Prince could not alwayes be so absolutely Master of his passion when the presence of Don John was troublesome to him as that this latter did not at length perceive something thereof And as there is nothing so penetrating as the eyes of a Rival he had quickly deceived the reason of it This knowledge gave him an extreame curiosity to know whether the Prince's Passion were known to the person that caused it and whether she answered it or no. To be the better inform'd of this he resolved to counterfeit being in Love with a French-woman that waited upon the