Meanwhile D. John of Austria was not losing time, and heartened by the
first help that Philip II sent, set about to gain all the results
possible from the victory of Gembleux. Since this defeat the rebels had
fallen back towards Brussels, fearful lest D. John was going there, and
he, leaving them in this belief, continued his plan of campaign with
clever strategy, and in little more than a month became master of
Louvain, Bouvignes, Tilemont, Sichem, Diest, Nivelles and Philippeville.
There he stopped, tired out by this hard work, in which fell on him not
only the anxieties of a general, but the duties of a soldier, and there,
too, he received the news of Escovedo's death. This was the finishing
stroke for D. John. It is not known when or through whom the information
came to him; but the fatal news must have come quickly, as already on
the 20th of April he wrote a beautiful letter to Philip, true transcript
of his noble, generous and Christian soul[17].
Footnote 17:
"Sir. With greater sorrow than I know how to express I have heard of
the unhappy death of the secretary Escovedo, for which I cannot be
consoled or ever shall be, as Y.M. has lost such a servant as I know;
and I, that Y. M. knows; and though I sorrow over this as I do, above
all I feel it that at the end of many years and services he should
have ended by such an unworthy death, for having served his King with
such faithfulness and love without other consideration or practices,
such as are now in use. And though it is wrong to judge anyone
hastily, I do not think I am falling into this sin now, as I mention
no one; but I hold as a fact what I say, and as a man who has had so
much opportunity, and who knows the frankness with which Escovedo
treated Y.M.'s service, I fear where it may have come from. But, after
all, I am not certain, or, not knowing, I will only say, by the love
of Our Lord, I beg Y.M., with all the earnestness possible, that you
will not permit such an offence to be committed in your city, or allow
so great a one to be done to me, without using all possible diligence
to ascertain whence it comes, and to punish it with the rigour it
deserves. And although I believe that Y.M. will have already done so
very thoroughly, and will have done so, being such a Christian and
justice-observing Prince, all the same, I wish to beg you that, as a
gentleman, I may defend, and allow to be defended, the honour of one
who deserved it as much as Escovedo, and this because I am the more
bound, as with good reason I can imagine myself to have been the cause
of his death, for that which Y.M. knows better than another. Do not
take it amiss if I beg not only to remember, and urge, as I shall do
by each courier, about what concerns the deceased, until justice is
done and his services remunerated; even if I should overlook the rest,
that as a gentleman I must do.
"Again I pray Y.M., as humbly and earnestly as I am able, that it will
be your pleasure to send me an answer to all these things, as I
confess to Y.M. that nothing could happen to worry me more than his
death has done, until everything relating to the deceased is settled.
"I do not know how he has left his affairs, so I can enter into no
details, but I beg Y.M. to remember Escovedo's purpose, which was that
of honour, and the sincerity with which he served you, and of the
small comfort he leaves in his house, and do all the favours to those
who remain in it that they deserve, especially to the eldest son, of
those offices and emoluments which the father held, that Pedro
Escovedo deserves them, and will go on deserving them more and more,
if he is employed and favoured, Y.M. knows better than anyone. And
because I think, according to what he was obliged to spend and the
little he had, he may have left some debts which might pain his soul,
and his children and wife here below, I will also beg Y.M. to order
them to be favoured by the wherewithal to pay them. Although I chiefly
beg that, being left like a father to the said eldest son, you will do
me this signal favour of giving him in all everything his father
enjoyed, because as to the debts I can easily pay the most of the food
and dress, and what are obliged to be paid, which is the least I can
do for the repose of him who worked for me till death, as he did, to
help to enable me to do the best for Y. M.'s service in whatever
passed through his hands, which he did, as I have claimed and shall
claim all my life. Consider, Y. M., if these obligations deserve that
he should have these offices, and if I can be confident that you will
do this favour, that I ask in all that I beg, and shall beg for
continually, until the justice and favour that the blood and services
of the deceased cry out for, are gained."
A little later, while at Namur, he writes on the 3rd of May to his
friend D. Rodrigo de Mendoza: "Of the little I shall say in this, the
first thing shall be how grieved I am at the death of Escovedo, the more
that they do not find out from whence comes such an ill deed; because
certainly, besides how greatly he was needed for H.M.'s service in what
he was looking after, I also wanted him infinitely, and I have lost a
great support, and even more so, I think, in the future. May God rest
him in heaven, and reveal to me who killed him."
And further, he wrote to Gian Andrea Doria on the 7th of June: "Of
Escovedo's unhappy death I do not know what to say, particularly from
such a distance, even if I could say anything were I nearer; but in my
opinion it is a case which asks for prompt action more than words: but
so many suspicions and no certainty stop one's mouth and tie one's
hands, so at present one can only wait and feel what one must about such
a servant and a case like this death of Escovedo."
* * * * *
These are all D. John's papers about Escovedo's death which have come
down to us. Though nothing in these letters shows clearly that he had
sounded all the depths of iniquity hidden behind the treacherous crime,
it is impossible to think to the contrary. From the first moment public
opinion in Madrid pointed at Antonio Pérez and the Princesa de Évoli as
authors of the murder, and even, it is said, came near to the truth; a
fact to be remembered, as those who wrote nearest the event, Van der
Hammen and Cabrera de Córdoba, mention "that to authorise the
assassination, Antonio Pérez gave the assassins a writing signed by the
King, of the sort that are given blank to ambassadors and viceroys to
shorten some business." The declaration of Antonio Enriquez at the
famous trial eleven years later proves that these rumours reached beyond
Spain. "Antonio Enriquez said that in Italy and Flanders it was openly
said that Antonio Pérez killed Escovedo because of the Princesa de
Évoli." It is impossible that these rumours should not have reached the
ears of D. John, or that, with his shrewdness, he should not have put
two and two together, the truth proved to him by the old story of their
intrigue. One fact makes it patent that if D. John knew nothing for
certain, he had at least very strong suspicions that Antonio Pérez was
the murderer of Escovedo. From this time the intimate correspondence
which he kept up with the false secretary abruptly ceases, and he only
replies to the honeyed, flattering letters by stiff and official
dispatches such as could not be avoided between the Governor-General and
the Secretary for Flanders. And further, we think D. John must then have
known, at any rate in part, of the treason and calumnies of Pérez and
the absolute ruin of his credit with D. Philip effected by these means;
which accounts for the depression, despondency, and presentiment of
death that overwhelmed the hero of Lepanto at this time, never to leave
him during his remaining months of life.