in her fifteenth year,[465] and Philip in his
thirty-fourth.

From all accounts, the lady's youth was her least recommendation.
"Elizabeth de Valois," says Brantome, who know her well, "was a true
daughter of France,--discreet, witty, beautiful, and good, if ever woman
was so."[466] She was well made, and tall of stature, and on this
account the more admired in Spain, where the women are rarely above the
middle height. Her eyes were dark, and her luxuriant tresses, of the
same dark color, shaded features that were delicately fair.[467] There
was sweetness mingled with dignity in her deportment, in which Castilian
stateliness seemed to be happily tempered by the vivacity of her own
nation. "So attractive was she," continues the gallant old courtier,
"that no cavalier durst look on her long, for fear of losing his heart,
which in that jealous court might have proved the loss of his
life."[468]

Some of the chroniclers notice a shade of melancholy as visible on
Isabella's features, which they refer to the comparison the young bride
was naturally led to make between her own lord and his son, the prince
of Asturias, for whom her hand had been originally intended.[469] But
the daughter of Catherine de Medicis, they are careful to add, had been
too well trained, from her cradle, not to know how to disguise her
feelings. Don Carlos had one advantage over his father, in his youth;
though, in this respect, since he was but a boy of fourteen, he might be
thought to fall as much too short of the suitable age as the king
exceeded it. It is also intimated by the same gossiping writers, that
from this hour of their meeting, touched by the charms of his
step-mother, the prince nourished a secret feeling of resentment against
his father, who had thus come between him and his beautiful
betrothed.[470] It is this light gossip of the chroniclers that has
furnished the romancers of later ages with the flimsy materials for that
web of fiction, which displays in such glowing colors the loves of
Carlos and Isabella. I shall have occasion to return to this subject
when treating of the fate of this unhappy prince.

When the nuptials were concluded, the good people of Guadalajara
testified their loyalty by all kinds of festivities in honor of the
event,--by fireworks, music, and dancing. The fountains flowed with
generous liquor. Tables were spread in the public squares, laden with
good cheer, and freely open to all. In the evening, the _regi