rta il giusto et l'honesto senza curarsi del giudicio
d'huomini insani, et che parlono senza ragione di cose impertinenti et
impossibili di autori incerti, dappochi, et maligni." Lettera di Nobili,
Luglio 30 1568, MS.

[1515] Letter of Antonio Perez to the counsellor Du Vair, ap. Rauner,
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 153.

[1516] "Mais afin de sauver l'honneur du sang royal, l'arret fut execute
en secret et on lui fit avaler un bouillon empoisone, dont il mourut
quelques heures apres, au commencement de sa vingt-troisieme annee." De
Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. V. p. 436.

[1517] "Mas es peligroso manejar vidrios, i dar ocasion da tragedias
famosas, acaecimientos notables, violentas muertes por los secretos
executores Reales no sabidas, i por inesperadas terribles, i por la
estraneza i rigor de justicia, despues de largas advertencias a los que
no cuidando dellas incurrieron en crimen de lesa Magestad." Cabrera,
Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 22.

The admirable obscurity of the passage, in which the historian has
perfectly succeeded in mystifying his critics, has naturally led them to
suppose that more was meant by him than meets the eye.

[1518] "Ex morbo ob alimenta partim obstinate recusata, partira
intemperanter adgesta, nimiamque nivium refrigerationem, super animi
aigritudinem (_si modo vis abfuit_), in Divi Jacobi pervigilio extinctus
est." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 378.

[1519] Apologie, ap. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. V. par. i. p. 389.

[1520] "Parquoy le roi conclud sur ses raisons que le meilleur estoit de
le faire mourir; dont un matin on le trouva en prison estouffe d'un
linge." Brantome, OEuvres, tom. I. p. 320.

A taste for jesting on this subject seems to have been still in fashion
at the French court as late as Louis the Fourteenth's time. At least, we
find that monarch telling some one that "he had sent Bussy Rabutin to
the Bastile for his own benefit, as Philip the Second said when he
ordered his son to be strangled." Lettres de Madame de Sevigne, (Paris,
1822.) tom. VIII. p. 368.

[1521] A French contemporary chronicler dismisses his account of the
death of Carlos with the remark, that, of all the passages in the
history of this reign, the fate of the young prince is the one involved
in the most impenetrable mystery. Matthieu, Breve Compendio de la Vida
Privada de Felipe Segundo, (Span, trans.,) MS.

[1522] The Abbe San Real finds himself unable to de