at once
proclaimed that he had some mad design in mind. He went further than this,
saying to his confidants that "he wished to kill a man with whom he had a
quarrel." This purpose he confessed to a priest, and demanded absolution.
The priest refused this startling request, and as the prince persisted in
his sanguinary purpose, a conclave of sixteen theologians was called
together to decide what action it was advisable to take in so
extraordinary a case.

After a debate on the subject, one of them asked Carlos the name of his
enemy. The prince calmly replied,--

"My father is the person. I wish to take his life."

This extraordinary declaration, in which the mad prince persisted, threw
the conclave into a state of the utmost consternation. On breaking up,
they sent a messenger to the king, then at the Escorial Palace, and made
him acquainted with the whole affair. This story, if it is true, seems to
indicate that the prince was insane.

His application to the cities for funds was in a measure successful. By
the middle of January, 1568, his agents brought him in a hundred and fifty
thousand ducats,--a fourth of the sum he had demanded. On the 17th he sent
an order to Don Ramon de Tassis, director-general of the posts, demanding
that eight horses should be provided for him that evening. Tassis,
suspecting something wrong, sent word that the horses were all out. Carlos
repeated his order in a peremptory manner, and the postmaster now sent all
the horses out, and proceeded with the news to the king at the Escorial.
Philip immediately returned to Madrid, where, the next morning, Carlos
attacked his uncle, Don John of Austria, with a drawn sword, because the
latter refused to repeat a conversation he had had with the king.

For some time Carlos had slept with the utmost precautions, as if he
feared an attack upon his life. His sword and dagger lay ready by his
bedside, and he kept a loaded musket within reach. He had also a bolt
constructed in such a manner that, by aid of pulleys, he could fasten or
unfasten the door of his chamber while in bed. All this was known to
Philip, and he ordered the mechanic who had made it to derange the
mechanism so that it would not work. To force a way into the chamber of a
man like Carlos might not have been safe.

[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE. MADRID.]

THE ROYAL PALACE. MADRID.

At the hour of eleven that night the king came down-stairs,