ty in the Low Countries, absolving
his subjects there from their oath of allegiance to him, which he
required them to transfer to Philip, his lawful heir, and to serve him
with the same loyalty and zeal which they had manifested, during so long
a course of years, in support of his government.

Charles then rose from his seat, and leaning on the shoulder of the
Prince of Orange, because he was unable to stand without support, he
addressed himself to the audience, and from a paper which he held in his
hand, in order to assist his memory, he recounted with dignity, but
without ostentation, all the great things which he had undertaken and
performed since the commencement of his administration. He observed
that, from the seventeenth year of his age, he had dedicated all his
thoughts and attention to public objects, reserving no portion of his
time for the indulgence of his ease, and very little for the enjoyment
of private pleasure; that, either in a pacific or hostile manner, he had
visited Germany nine times, Spain six times, France four times, Italy
seven times, the Low Countries ten times, England twice, Africa as
often, and had made eleven voyages by sea; that while his health
permitted him to discharge his duty, and the vigor of his constitution
was equal, in any degree, to the arduous office of governing such
extensive dominions, he had never shunned labor, nor repined under
fatigue; that now, when his health was broken, and his vigor exhausted
by the rage of an incurable distemper, his growing infirmities
admonished him to retire; nor was he so fond of reigning as to retain
the sceptre in an impotent hand, which was no longer able to protect his
subjects, or to secure to them the happiness which he wished they should
enjoy; that instead of a sovereign worn out with diseases, and scarcely
half alive, he gave them one in the prime of life, accustomed already to
govern, and who added to the vigor of youth all the attention and
sagacity of maturer years; and if, during the course of a long
administration, he had committed any material error of government, or
if, under the pressure of so many and great affairs, and amid the
attention which he had been obliged to give to them, he had either
neglected or injured any of his subjects, he now implored their
forgiveness; that, for his part, he should ever retain a grateful sense
of their fidelity and attachment, and would carry the remembrance of it
along with him to the place