curately
the lapse of time as it glided away in the monotonous routine of the
monastery.[302]

Though averse to visits of curiosity or idle ceremony,[303] Charles
consented to admit some of the nobles whose estates lay in the
surrounding country, and who, with feelings of loyal attachment to their
ancient master, were anxious to pay their respects to him in his
retirement. But none who found their way into his retreat appear to have
given him so much satisfaction as Francisco Borja, duke of Gandia, in
later times placed on the roll of her saints by the Roman Catholic
Church. Like Charles, he had occupied a brilliant eminence in the world,
and like him had found the glory of this world but vanity. In the prime
of life, he withdrew from the busy scenes in which he had acted, and
entered a college of Jesuits. By the emperor's invitation, Borja made
more than one visit to Yuste; and Charles found much consolation in his
society, and in conversing with his early friend on topics of engrossing
interest to both. The result of their conferences was to confirm them
both in the conviction, that they had done wisely in abjuring the world,
and in dedicating themselves to the service of Heaven.

The emperor was also visited by his two sisters, the dowager queens of
France and Hungary, who had accompanied their brother, as we have seen,
on his return to Spain. But the travelling was too rough, and the
accommodations at Yuste too indifferent, to encourage the royal matrons
to prolong their stay, or, with one exception on the part of the queen
of Hungary, to repeat their visit.

But an object of livelier interest to the emperor than either of his
sisters was a boy, scarcely twelve years of age, who resided in the
family of his major-domo, Quixada, in the neighboring village of Cuacos.
This was Don John of Austria, as he was afterwards called, the future
hero of Lepanto. He was the natural son of Charles, a fact known to no
one during the father's lifetime, except Quixada, who introduced the boy
into the convent as his own page. The lad, at this early age, showed
many gleams of that generous spirit by which he was afterwards
distinguished,--thus solacing the declining years of his parent, and
affording a hold for those affections which might have withered in the
cold atmosphere of the cloister.

Strangers were sure to be well received who, coming from the theatre of
war, could furnish the information he so much desired respecting th