of God, telling me that he knew his days to be numbered, and that his
only regret was the little he had done for the service of God and of
your Majesty; but that he trusted in God and in the Virgin Mary, that
they would take this death as for their glory, for that of the Catholic
Church, and of your Majesty, and for God's service; and that he wished
to make the world understand that, as during life he had not been
devoted to the church, as had originally been his father's wish, in
death he wished to be so, in as much as depended upon him. He besought
his brother and master to remember him of his servants, to whom he
owed much for being good and faithful to God, to himself, and to your
Majesty: and very many of them were poor, having served him by land and
by sea; many of them, moreover, had been taken away from their homes,
and he had not a maravedi wherewith to pay them their salaries, which
had been owing to them for some time. Your Majesty was also to remember
his highness's mother, whom he regarded and loved as a mother, and a
young brother, whom he knew to be such. He likewise mentioned other
persons, whose names in due time I will make known unto your Majesty.
His highness concluded by saying, 'since on earth I do not possess
an acre I might call my own, is it not just, Reverend father, that I
should desire some space in heaven?' His highness then desired that
Otavio de Gonzagua should have the command, on account of the good
will which he saw in him to your Majesty's affairs, as well as to his
highness. His highness ended by saying that, if he were not deserving
of having his bones placed beside those of his lord and father, he
desired to be buried at the church of our Lady of Monserrat, whom all
his life through he held in particular affection.
"On the morning of Friday, the 26th September, on my going to see him,
Don John complained to me that the physicians had used force to compel
him to drink a potion: this annoyed him much, as he thought it would
interfere with his receiving the holy sacrament. On my telling Don John
it was of no importance, he requested me to inquire of the physicians
if he ran any risk should he put off communicating for another day,
or if he left it even until the following Sunday, when he thought to
gain the jubilee. The physicians told him that his illness was not so
dangerous but what he might put off receiving the holy sacrament till
then, or even later; and therefore, on Sunday, the 28th, he reconciled,
himself with God, with such fervour, that it much pained me to see the
pain in which he was, knowing that it would add to his malady. And
while I was performing mass in his room, he requested to be allowed to
touch the face of his God with an air of incredible devotion, saying
'Bring unto me, most Reverend father, the visage of my God;' and while
he thus uttered words of such Christian import, he received the most
holy sacrament. And on being asked if it were his pleasure to receive
extreme unction, he requested it with much earnestness as a very
precious gift and much to be desired.
"The mass over, Don John named the Prince of Parma as his successor,
until your Majesty should be pleased to appoint some one else. Two
hours afterwards delirium came on, and nothing that he said was clear
save when he talked of God. The names of Jesus and of our Lady were
mentioned; and when he was told to take or to do this in their name, he
did it with much obedience and willingness.
"Don John passed Monday and Tuesday in great trouble and pain, and
he wandered in his mind, which ran upon ordering intrenchments to be
thrown up, or cavalry and ammunition to be sent here and there, saying
alway, in answer to every question, that thus it concerned the service
of your Majesty.
"This same Tuesday night, I inquired of him whether he wished to have
the sacrament of extreme unction administered, and he answered as if he
were suffering no pain whatever,--'Yea, father! Jesus! quick, Reverend
father!' and he received it with an appearance of praying, although we
could not distinguish what he said, as he did not speak clearly.
"Early in the morning of Wednesday, the 1st October, which was the day
of his death, and about one hour and a half before his decease, I asked
him if he wished to hear mass, and he made a sign with his head in the
affirmative. When the _corpus_ was raised, they who were standing at
his bed-side advised him of it; and although his eyes were shut, and
we thought that his senses were wandering, his highness immediately
clasped his hands together, and hastily tore off from his head some
plasters and a cap, the better to adore with his heart that God and
Saviour whom he could not see with his eyes. The rest of the time,
until his decease, which took place at about one o'clock in the day, we
passed in helping him to call upon the name of Jesus and of the Virgin
Mary; and all who were present were filled with grief,--although, on
the other hand, they were rejoiced to see such manifest tokens of the
glory to which he was fast attaining: and thus he departed from our
hands without a sigh, like a bird on its way to heaven.
"This, most powerful sir, was the end of the life of this son and
servant of your Majesty, as he was wont to call himself. And, as far as
I can see, for thirty and three years he hath performed the wishes of
the two fathers whom he had in this life--that is to say, of his lord
and father the Emperor, and of your Majesty, seeing that his highness
hath informed me that his Majesty the Emperor wished him to be in holy
orders, and your Majesty desired him to be a soldier. But his highness,
like an obedient son, died as poor as a friar, and in an humble barrack
like a soldier; for I promise your Majesty that the room wherein he
died was a sort of garret over a stable, that in this he might imitate
the poverty of Christ; and without doubt, most Christian Sir, for
four or five months before his death, he was constantly occupied in
works of charity, piety, and humility. His whole pleasure consisted
in visiting the sick--of which there were many in the camp,--and in
accompanying the holy sacrament, giving these wretched men charity
with his own hand, receiving with the utmost compassion the poorest
and most wretched soldiers, until he could procure carts in which to
convey them to the hospital; constantly urging me to see that in the
hospitals nothing was wanting, and particularly ordering me to see that
the sacraments were duly administered to the sick, that none should
die without this great comfort. He appointed a separate hospital for
those who had contagious disorders, and charged me to see that none of
those should die unaneled. And since his Holiness gave him authority
to name some one as vicar-general, to have full power in all matters
ecclesiastical--whereof I understand his highness hath informed your
Majesty by means of the Archbishop of Toledo--he determined to root out
of the army all blasphemies, oaths, and evil doings, and in particular
the sin of heresy, promising me that he would not favour any one, even
if he were especially attached to his person; and he punished those who
sinned in this manner in the army with such vigour, that, at the end of
three months, the men, especially the Spaniards, were more like monks
in a convent than like soldiers in a camp. And this most excellent
prince acted in such a manner that, now when the soldiers see him dead,
they cannot but believe that he had a spirit of prophecy touching his
death. Nay, they do say that it does not appear to them as if his death
were after the manner of men, but that he flew like an angel of heaven
up to his God.
"Otavio Gonzagua performs, and has performed on his part whatsoever
was ordered by the Señor Don John, taking advice in all matters of the
Prince of Parma, and waiting like all of us to receive the commands of
your Majesty, whose royal person may our Lord guard and prosper for
many years to come, as is most necessary for the Church.
"From Namur, this 3d October 1578."[43]
Don John died in the fortress commanding the town of Namur; and on the
3d October, his body, placed on a bier, covered with cloth of gold, was
conveyed by several gentlemen to the cathedral. Don John was dressed in
full armour, the order of the Golden Fleece was placed round his neck,
and on his head was a plain cramoisy cap, over which was a crown of
cloth of gold, covered with jewels; his fingers likewise were loaded
with rings. In this guise the body was carried forth, escorted by all
the clergy of the place, by several monks and their bishops. All the
assembled crowd shed tears, and made loud lamentation as the cavalcade
passed. The bier was placed on a raised platform in the church, and,
after the service had been performed, the corpse, was lowered into a
vault near the high altar, where it remained until it was carried into
Spain in the following year.
Don John's corpse was then cut into three pieces, and placed in three
small chests lined with blue velvet, the better to enable it to pass
secretly through France. On the 18th March 1579, the cavalcade left
Namur, and, passing by Meziers and Paris, arrived at Nantes, where the
whole party embarked, and reached Santander on the 6th May. On the
22d the funeral procession arrived at the monastery of Parreces, five
leagues from Segovia, where it was met by Busto de Villegas, Bishop
of Avila, by Juan Gomez, the Alcalde of the Court, accompanied by
some alguazils, by twelve of the royal chaplains, and other people
belonging to the court. The three portions of Don John's body were now
joined together and placed in a coffin, covered with black velvet;
on the outside was sewn a cross of cramoisy velvet, upon which were
emblazoned golden nails. The coffin was made to open at the side, in
case any desire might be expressed to see the dead body within. The
cavalcade swelled as it approached the monastery of the Escurial, where
it arrived on the evening of Sunday the 24th May 1579, accompanied by
above four hundred men on horseback.
We will now follow an account given by Fray Juan de San Gerònimo, a
monk of the Escurial, of what happened on the occasion. It seems the
monks came out to meet the procession:--
"And because," says Fray Juan de San Gerònimo, "the Reverend Prior
was absent at the general chapter, holden this year of 1579 at San
Bartolemé el Real, the Vicar Fray Hernando de Torrecillas performed
the offices in his stead, and went forth with the ministers in their
full canonicals: all of the which halted at a table, over which was a
dais of rich brocade, raised in the midst of the principal cloister,
where the gentlemen bearing the pall placed the body. The choristers
immediately began to chant the '_Subveniti Sancti Dei_;' whereupon they
all returned in procession to the church; and these same gentlemen
who bore the corpse on their shoulders placed it on the platform
which had been raised for it, when the Reverend father vicar read the
funeral oration in the presence of the whole convent; the bishop and
the pall-bearers being ranged round the raised platform. When this
was finished, the Reverend fathers went to the choir to sing a vigil,
and the bishop, with his company, adjourned for a while to take rest.
The following day, which was the 25th, high mass was sung, the bishop
assisting the choristers in the choir. When mass was over, the monks
went into the chapel where the corpse was, and sang the responses,
accompanied by the organ, while the monks of San Lorenzo answered them
in recitative without music."[44]
After this a formal ceremony was gone through. Philip's secretary,
Gastelia, read a royal order from his Majesty, directing the friars of
the convent of San Lorenzo to receive the body of his dear brother, the
most illustrious Don John of Austria. Fray Juan de San Gerònimo thus
concludes his account:--
"And after the reading of the said letter, the followers of Don John
let down the corpse into the vault which had been prepared for it
underneath the high altar, and placed it among the other corpses of
the royal family. This was about eleven o'clock in the day. After this
ceremony we all went to dinner."
At which excellent occupation we cannot do better than leave them.
A NIGHT'S PERIL.
TWO days before I sailed from Mauritius, I was sitting at breakfast
on one of the packages containing my traps. The walls were stripped
of their pictures, the cherished whips and pipes were gone from the
chimney-piece--the crockery which ministered to my occasions was
borrowed. The Sarah transport floated in the harbour, and almost sent
the tail of her pendant into my window.
There was no mistake about it,--I was on the move; and, of course, as I
was bound to Old England, I ought to have been in ecstatics. But there
is no such thing as "of course," in human affairs. Of them, the tide
is subject to so many perturbations, that, like Mrs M'Stinger, there
is no saying which way they may head at any moment. For myself, I have
ever been somewhat of a cosmopolite, and felt it to be bad policy for
a creature of condition so erratic as man, to circumvent too closely
with particulars of locality his idea of home. It is a narrowing of
our capabilities to anchor our hopes in some village or county, and
to persuade ourselves that thence they cannot be started without
shipwreck. If ever any of the sons of men were senseless of ambition,
and the _auri sacra fames_--those circulating forces that draw men
from the native hearth, and prevent the stagnation of societies--they
would need a triple defence against Necessity to fortify such a
position. When this "Daughter of Jove" descends in her might, and hurls
them from their strongholds--when go from home they must, even then
will men sometimes go resistingly, which is the same thing as to go
painfully. A man who should cling to some particular post or pillar
till torn thence by mechanical force, would probably be wounded in the
struggle. And so is it that the mental lacerations which some emigrants
exhibit as the work of cruel necessity, are but the effect of their
own obstinate clinging to some spot or outward object from which the
fiat of necessity has separated them. Such men are cruel to themselves,
and must often move the pity of their fellow-wayfarers. Such men are
to be seen nursing their sorrows, blinding their eyes, and denying
the sympathies of their immortal and infinite spirits. _The World_ is
man's habitation; and a good Providence has so adorned its every part,
that no where can we be called to dwell where a wise man may not be
happy and at home. The sacred asylum of home, is of no geographical nor
material limitation. Its building is of love, and faith, and peace;
and these foundations may be laid any where, for they dwell within the
spirit of man, and are evoked by the voice of wisdom. Be wise, then,
oh wanderer from the land of thy sires! Open thine arms to thy new
brethren and sisters, and live no longer as though possessing no higher
innate powers than an oyster or a cauliflower. Here, where you are, you
have what may serve your present aptitude; for aught more you must wait
till hereafter.
I by no means intend to infer that it required any high strain of
philosophy to accommodate one's self to the circumstances of a few
years' sojourn at Mauritius. One might, perhaps, assume it to be one
of the most beautiful islands in the world. The good merchants and
planters exhibit hospitality in its very pink, and abundantly evoke
for your benefit the resources of the island. Objections, on the score
of climate, I look upon as unworthy of a prudent traveller; for to
one who will be at the pains of a little concession to circumstances,
all climates soon become the same. 'Tis but an extra cloak at St
Petersburg, and an hour or two's siesta at Calcutta. The one really
assailable point in the constitution of Mauritius, is, that it is a
little out of the twopenny-post line,--but as I was not in love, this
mattered little to me.
When I say that I was not in love, I must be understood as speaking
irrespectively of Mauritius. Till I set foot on those bewitching shores
I had deservedly enjoyed the character of a hard-hearted, impregnable
bachelor. It would be tedious to sum up the names of my messmates,
whom one after another I had seen fall victims to eyes that had vainly
expended fascination on me. The girls always gave me up as a bad job
within three weeks of our arriving at new quarters. But now my time was
come--_dedi manus_--I had stretched my tether to the utmost; and soon
after I had set foot on the island of Paul and Virginia I had ceased to
be a freeman.
Now, put all these things together, and you will not be surprised to
hear that I was not out of my wits with joy, at being ordered home.
Mine was one of those complicated cases of love that will occur
sometimes; not _one_ flame, but many consumed me,--not _one_ image of
female loveliness, but many such specimens, beset my reveries. I would
turn out in the morning with the perfect conviction that Maria was the
real girl after all, and so rest satisfied, till some person or thing,
envious of my peace, would call up to my mind's eye, Lucie, or some
other of the score of pretty names that rejoice Echo in that favoured
spot. Thus did I shift my allegiance from one to another, and live
in such uncertainty, that had Hymen's self decked for me the altar,
I should have been so long in settling what name should thereon be
inscribed, that he would infallibly have put his torch out in disgust.
So tempered I sat breakfasting. With the confusion of softer feeling,
which I have tried to describe, was mingled a little indignation at
a letter which I had just received from my old friend Jack Hardy. He
did me to wit, that he had heard of my goings on, and congratulated
me on being ordered off, before I was regularly nabbed. In case of
the worst,--and this was the part for which I could have thrashed
him,--in case of the nabbing aforesaid having actually taken place, he
suggested, that I need be under no alarm, since now I had an obvious
opportunity of going home to "consult my friends." Considering how
often I had myself used this weary old joke, I remember it did seem
to me a little odd, that I should so wince at it then. "Nabbed,"
thought I, "I only wish that Jack, or any body else, would tell me by
whom." And then I began to think, how like my state was to that of
a hypochondriac, who, assailed by fifty symptoms at once, knows not
which to regard, and so misses the cause of all the evil. Authorities
agree in stating, that a man can be in love with but one person at one
time; so in spite of appearances, I was obliged to conclude that some
one particular young lady was the motive power of the distraction I
exhibited.
But little mattered it who, or how many, the girls might be; I was
going to leave them all. Soon Mauritius and its happy company would
have to exist for me dreamily, and as an image of the past, the vivid
lights of its actuality pushed into obscurity by some harsher present.
Soon the popular ----th, would be gone, and be succeeded by some other
no less popular regiment--and then, thought I, how long will the girls
be before their grief finds consolation from among the new arrivals?
Will any inconsolable one remember us? Will any remember me? A buzz of
the island patois broke in upon my meditations, just as I was beginning
to make out the image of one fair friend, who seemed to stand forth in
favourable relief from among the multitude. It was very annoying to be
forced from hope just nascent in distinguishable form; but the ideal
must ever, experimentally, give way to the real.
I approached the window, where a Babel of tongues was raging, "_Gaitli
donc, gaitli! li grand mossieu, su li petit cheval_."[45]
The cause of the commotion was apparent, in the person of my friend
Hamilton, who, at the precise moment of my reaching the window, had
managed to make his way through the crowd, and was dismounting. I
might have guessed, before seeing him, who was the comer, for he
never stirred out, in his then fashion, without causing a disturbance
of the popular quiet. He was a tremendous big fellow, who had a
fancy for riding the smallest poney, that would keep his legs well
bent up from trailing on the ground. This sight, for some reason or
other, particularly tickled the fancy of the local vagabonds; and
they habitually made point of affording him a guard of honour on his
excursions.
On this occasion the noise waxed louder than usual, and soon let me see
that something more than common was in the wind. As soon as I could
make out the personal appearance of the steed, I saw that his garniture
was out of the ordinary equestrian fashion. About his saddle was slung
a collection of parcels, and over his neck depended two uncovered,
and uncommonly good-looking bottles. Besides this, Hamilton had in his
hands a basket, and was evidently made up in all respects for a start
or a cruise some whither.
"Whither away my man?" said I as he entered, mustering up the most
facetious look I could, to hide the possible traces of melancholy on my
physiognomy; for I knew him of old as a desperate roaster.
"Where you are coming with me, Jack," replied Hamilton, "so get your
traps together in a quarter less no time."
"But, my good fellow, I cannot; you know I sail the day after
to-morrow, and have lots to do. Besides, to tell you the truth, I am a
little, just a little out of sorts."
"Melancholy, and so forth," said my friend, "but let me tell you
that's exactly the reason why I've come to fetch you. Here, read this
_billet-doux_, and then give me your answer."
He threw me a pretty, little, three-cornered, rose-coloured, scented
note, whose superscription set my heart palpitating. It was the
calligraphy of Virginie G----, and addressed itself, comprehensively,
"To all whom it might concern."
In pretty mock heroics, it set forth the commands of certain
undersigned fair inhabitants of the colony, to all and sundry the
officers of Her Majesty's ----th regiment, to repair to a spot, some
little distance on the other side of the harbour, there to hold _fête
champêtre_, by way of parting festivity. I looked over the names of
the fair despots, and saw that among them were most of those who had
especially made happy the last few years of my experience. Virginie
G---- herself was certainly the one on whom I thought the most
frequently in connexion with the two days that alone remained to me.
"My dear fellow," said I, when I had spelt over the list of names,
"here is enough to tempt one; but let us be discreet as we grow old.
What can come of my going, but fresh regrets? Can I forget that in two
days I am off, bag and baggage, and that some new fellow will succeed
to all my tender interests here, just as naturally as he will to my
quarters." Hamilton had lit a cigar, and smoked on thus far in silence,
though I felt that he was watching me.
"I have not done my business yet," said he, "nor shall I without a
little bit of treachery. Virginie wrote that letter."
"There's no treachery in telling that, for I knew it at once."
"But there is treachery in telling that she laid her commands on me to
show the document to you: more especially, as I believe she would blush
extravagantly, if she thought you knew it."
Now let me say, that though I had for Virginie that kind of sentiment
that made me feel ill at ease under the inquisitorial eye of my friend,
I had never felt sure that she cared for me _accordingly_. Some girls
are so excessively tender, that they can spare more love to a canary
bird, than others can afford to a declared suitor. Virginie was of
this affectionate sort; so, though she had been tender to me, I lacked
assurance that this tenderness contained in it any thing of distinction.
I will confess, then, that it touched me rather, to hear that she had
actually vouchsafed me a particular remembrance.
"Jack," said my friend, "you must come. I'll be candid, and tell you at
once that I've read you like a book. You're in love with one of those
girls, and don't exactly know which it is. Well and good--that has been
many a good fellow's lot before you. However, here's a chance for you
to try to learn your own mind."
"Alas! and much good that would do me!"
"Good--of course it will. You will have them all together, and there's
nothing like comparison for helping on a judgment. Besides, if you do
nothing else, you will at least have a pleasant day, and leave a good
impression."