letters and those of his agents. Far different was the story
put in circulation at the time. On the seventeenth of October, the day
after Montigny's death, despatches were received at court from Peralta,
the alcayde of the fortress. They stated that, after writing his former
letter, his prisoner's fever had so much increased, that he had called
in the aid of a physician; and as the symptoms became more alarming, the
latter had entered into a consultation with the medical adviser of the
late regent, Joanna, so that nothing that human skill could afford
should be wanting to the patient. He grew rapidly worse, however, and
as, happily, Father Hernando del Castillo, of Valladolid, chanced to be
then in Simancas, he came and administered the last consolations of
religion to the dying man. Having done all that a good Christian at such
a time should do, Montigny expired early on the morning of the
sixteenth, manifesting at the last so Catholic a spirit, that good hopes
might be entertained of his salvation.[1264]

This hypocritical epistle, it is hardly necessary to say, like the one
that preceded it, had been manufactured at Madrid. Nor was it altogether
devoid of truth. The physician of the place, named Viana, had been
called in; and it was found necessary to intrust him with the secret.
Every day he paid his visit to the castle, and every day returned with
more alarming accounts of the condition of the patient; and thus the
minds of the community were prepared for the fatal termination of his
disorder. Not that, after all, this was unattended with suspicions of
foul play in the matter, as people reflected how opportune was the
occurrence of such an event. But suspicions were not proof. The secret
was too well guarded for any one to penetrate the veil of mystery; and
the few who were behind that veil loved their lives too well to raise
it.

Despatches written in cipher, and containing a full and true account of
the affair, were sent to the duke of Alva. The two letters of Peralta,
which indeed were intended for the meridian of Brussels rather than of
Madrid, were forwarded with them. The duke was told to show them
incidentally, as it were, without obtruding them on any one's
notice,[1265] that Montigny's friends in the Netherlands might be
satisfied of their truth.

In his own private communication to Alva, Philip, in mentioning the
orthodox spirit manifested by his victim in his last moments, shows that
with the satisfa