The Project Gutenberg EBook of Calderon The Courtier, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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Title: Calderon The Courtier
A Tale

Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #9762]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CALDERON THE COURTIER ***

Produced by David Widger

CALDERON, THE COURTIER

BY

EDWARD BULWER LYTTON

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER I. The Antechamber

CHAPTER II. The Lover and the Confidant

CHAPTER III. A Rival

CHAPTER IV. Civil Ambition, and Ecclesiastical

CHAPTER V. The true Fate of Morgana

CHAPTER VI. Web upon Web

CHAPTER VII. The open Countenance, the concealed Thoughts

CHAPTER VIII. The Escape

CHAPTER IX. The Counterplot

CHAPTER X. We reap what we sow

CHAPTER XI. Howsoever the Rivers wind, the Ocean receives them All

CALDERON, THE COURTIER.

A TALE.

CHAPTER I. THE ANTE-CHAMBER.

The Tragi-Comedy of Court Intrigue, which had ever found its principal
theatre in Spain since the accession of the House of Austria to the
throne, was represented with singular complication of incident and
brilliancy of performance during the reign of Philip the Third. That
monarch, weak, indolent, and superstitious, left the reins of government
in the hands of the Duke of Lerma. The Duke of Lerma, in his turn, mild,
easy, ostentatious, and shamefully corrupt, resigned the authority he
had thus received to Roderigo Calderon, an able and resolute upstart,
whom nature and fortune seemed equally to favour and endow. But, not
more to his talents, which were great, than to the policy of religious
persecution which he had supported and enforced, Roderigo Calderon owed
his promotion. The King and the Inquisition had, some years before our
story opens, resolved upon the general expulsion of the Moriscos
the wealthiest, the most active, the most industrious portion of the
population.

"I would sooner," said the bigoted king--and his words were hallowed by
the enthusiasm of the Church--"depopulate my kingdom than suffer it to
harbour a single infidel." The Duke de Lerma entered into the scheme
that lost to Spain many of her most valuable su