convoy him had orders to assemble. In his way thither he passed through
Ghent, and after stopping there a few days, to indulge that tender and
pleasing melancholy which arises in the mind of every man in the decline
of life on visiting the place of his nativity, and viewing the scenes
and objects familiar to him in his early youth, he pursued his journey,
accompanied by his son Philip, his daughter the archduchess, his sisters
the dowager Queens of France and Hungary, Maximilian his son-in-law, and
a numerous retinue of the French nobility. Before he went on board he
dismissed them with marks of his attention or regard, and, taking leave
of Philip with all the tenderness of a father who embraced his son for
the last time, he set sail on September 17th, under the convoy of a
large fleet of Spanish, Flemish, and English ships. He declined a
pressing invitation from the Queen of England to land in some part of
her dominions, in order to refresh himself, and that she might have the
comfort of seeing him once more. "It cannot, surely," said he, "be
agreeable to a queen to receive a visit from a father-in-law who is now
nothing more than a private gentleman."

His voyage was prosperous, and he arrived at Laredo, in Biscay, on the
eleventh day after he left Zealand. As soon as he landed he fell
prostrate on the ground, and, considering himself now as dead to the
world, he kissed the earth and said, "Naked came I out of my mother's
womb, and naked I now return to thee, thou common mother of mankind."
From Laredo he pursued his journey to Burgos, carried sometimes in a
chair and sometimes in a horse-litter, suffering exquisite pain at every
step, and advancing with the greatest difficulty. Some of the Spanish
nobility repaired to Burgos, in order to pay court to him, but they were
so few in number, and their attendance was so negligent, that Charles
observed it, and felt, for the first time, that he was no longer a
monarch. Accustomed from his early youth to the dutiful and officious
respect with which those who possess sovereign power are attended, he
had received it with the credulity common to princes, and was sensibly
mortified when he now discovered that he had been indebted to his rank
and power for much of that obsequious regard which he had fondly thought
was paid to his personal qualities. But though he might have soon
learned to view with unconcern the levity of his subjects, or to have
despised their neglect, he was m