and proportions deserving a separate history. | ladies.' After her solitary meal was over, Its incidents form an uninterrupted line, Isabella retired with her attendants to her parallel with almost the entire course of the chamber, where, with the aid of music, and Spanish tyrant's reign, continually demand- such mirth as the buffoons and jesters of the ing the narrator's attention, yet with con- palace could afford, she made shift to pass the temporary movements, of nearly equal magevening." nitude, engaging him in other parts of Europe. Mr. Prescott recognizes this perplexity, and overcomes it by adopting a system of historical grouping, in which the several events revolve round one principle, which was the guiding force of Philip's reign - his determination to uphold the power of the Church in relation with that of the Throne throughout his dominions.

Tracing the origin and cause of these political, religious, and military events, Mr. Prescott fills his canvas with accessory details, with delicately tinted pictures of social life, with grand architectural perspectives, with pageants, described in language which reflects the gorgeous varieties of Burgundian pomp and splendor. He keeps in view, also, the latter days of Charles the Fifth, corroborating, generally, the works of Pichot, Mignet, and Stirling. The fanaticism of that monarch, tinged with insanity, was intensified in Philip. When Seso, the Florentine, was condemned to the stake, at Valladolid, he was led past the royal gallery, or "grand stand" of the Inquisition.

Necessarily, a large space is devoted by Mr. Prescott to the career of the Duke of Alva, with whose achievements English readers are not unfamiliar. The establishment of the Council of Blood—the rule of terror-the massacres and confiscations— the executions of Egmont and Hoorne-and the secret assassination of Montigny — are related at length, with such corrections of preceding writers as the documents at Mr. Prescott's command enabled him to offer. It is curious to meet in Alva's correspondence with an exhibition, whether affected or real, of human tenderness.

"It would not be fair to omit in this con

nection some passages from Alva's correspondence, which suggest the idea that he was not wholly insensible to feelings of compassion,when they did not interfere with the performance of his task. In a letter to the king, dated the 9th of June, four days only after the death of the two nobles, the duke says: Your Majesty will understand the regret I feel at seeing these poor lords brought to such an end, and myself obliged to bring them to it. But I have not shrunk from doing what is for your Majesty's "On his way to the place of execution, De service. Indeed, they and their accomplices Seso pathetically exclaimed to Philip, 'Is it thus have been the cause of very great present evil, that you allow your innocent subjects to be per- and one which will endanger the souls of many secuted? To which the King made the memo- for years to come. The Countess Egmont's rable reply, 'If it were my own son, I would condition fills me with the greatest pity, burdened fetch the wood to burn him, were he such a as she is with a family of eleven children, none wretch as thou art!' It was certainly a charac-old enough to take care of themselves; and teristic answer."

When Philip was united to his third wife, -he had previously been married only by proxy, she had to modify her habits according to the traditions of Spain.

she, too, a lady of so distinguished rank, sister of the count-palatine, and of so virtuous, truly Catholic, and exemplary life. There is no man in the country who does not grieve for her! I cannot but commend her,' he concludes, as I do now, very humbly, to the good grace of your Majesty, beseeching you to call to mind that if the Count, her husband, came to trouble at the close of his days, he formerly rendered great service to the State.' The reflection, it must be owned, came somewhat late."

"A manuscript of the time, by an eye-witness, gives a few particulars respecting her manner of living, in which some readers may take an interest. Among the persons connected with the Queen's establishment, the writer mentions her confessor, her almoner, and four physicans. Yet the Countess, thus pitied by Alva, was The medical art seems to have been always held by him denied all access to her husband, in high repute in Spain, though in no country, even in his last moments. The sentence considering the empirical character of its pro- which consigned him to death reduced her to fessors, with so little reason. At dinner the beggary. But the character of Philip, no Queen was usually attended by some thirty of her less than that of his viceroy, was implicated ladies. Two of them, singularly enough as it in these terrible crimes, especially in the may seem to us, performed the office of carvers. judicial assassination of Montigny, in the Another served as cupbearer, and stood by dungeon of Simancas. Montigny was Her Majesty's chair. The rest of her attendants

stood round the apartment, conversing with their warned, one day before his death, that the gallants, who, in a style to which she had not executioner would visit him privately in his been used in the French courts, kept their heads cell. covered during the repast. They were there,' they said, not to wait on the Queen, but her

"Philip had truly remarked, there was no occasion for him to make a will, since he had

nothing to bequeathe, -all his property having | Malta is brought into Mr. Prescott's narrabeen confiscated to the crown. If, however, any tive, to which it gives the tone of chivalric debt pressed heavily on his conscience, he was to romance. The defence of St. Elmo supplies be allowed to indicate it, as well as any provision one or two examples in the writer's best which he particularly desired to make for a style. special purpose. This was on the condition, however, that he should allude to himself as about to die a natural death. Montigny profited by this to express the wish that masses, to the number of 700, might be said for his soul, that sundry sums might be appropriated to private uses, and that some gratuities might be given to certain of his faithful followers. It may interest the reader to know that the masses were punctually performed. In regard to the pious legacies, the king wrote to Alva, he must first see if Montigny's estate would justify the appropriation; as for the gratuities to servants, they were wholly out of the question. * At about two o'clock on the morning of the 16th of October, when the interval allowed for this solemn preparation had expired, Father Castillo waited on the governor and the alcalde, to inform them that the hour had come, and that their prisoner was ready to receive them. They went, without further delay, to the chamber of death, attended by the notary and the executioner. Then, in their presence, while the notary made a record of the proceedings, the grim minister of the law did his work on his unresisting victim."

"The artillery of the Turks now opened with dreadful effect, as they concentrated their fire on the naked walls of St. Elmo. No masonry could long withstand the tempest of iron and ponderous marble shot which was hurled from the gigantic engines of the besiegers. Fragments of the wall fell off as if it had been made of plaster; and St. Elmo trembled to its foundations under the thunders of the terrible ordnance. The heart of the stoutest warrior might well have faltered as he saw the rents each day growing wider and wider, as if gaping to give entrance to the fierce multitude that was swarming at the gates."

The malice and hypocrisy of the King and his agent did not end here.

Proceedings were instituted against the memory of Montigny, as had before been done against the memory of the Marquis of Bergen. On the 22d of March, 1571, the Duke of Alva pronounced sentence, condemning the memory of Florence de Montmorency, Lord of Montigny, as guilty of high treason, and confiscating his goods and estates to the use of the crown; it having come to his knowledge,' the instrument went on to say, 'that the said Montigny had deceased by natural death in the fortress of Simancas, where he had of late been held a prisoner!''

The grand assault was made. ·

"The besieged now concentrated their aim on the formidable body of janizaries, who, as already noticed, were hurrying forward to the assault. Their leading files were mowed down, and their flank cruelly torn, by the cannon of St. Angelo, at less than half a mile's distance. But though staggered by this double fire on front and fiank, the janizaries were not stayed in their career, nor even thrown into disarray. steadily on, like a thunder-cloud; while the Heedless of those who fell, the dark column came groans of the dying were drowned in the loud battle-cries with which their comrades rushed to the assault. The fosse, choked up with the ruins of the ramparts, afforded a bridge to the assailants, who had no need of the fascines with which their pioneers were prepared to fill up the chasm. The approach to the breach, however, was somewhat steep; and the breach itself was defended by a body of knights and soldiers, who poured volleys of musketry thick as hail on the assailants. Still they pushed forward through the storm, and, after a fierce struggle, the front rank found itself at the summit, face to face with its enemies. But the strength of the Turks A splendid drama was then being enacted were hewn down by the Christians, who came was nearly exhausted by their efforts. They before the world. The Ottoman Empire, fresh into action. Yet others succeeded those the dread of the Christian nations, repre- who fell; till, thus outnumbered, the knights sented to the West the martial spirit of that began to lose ground, and the forces were more race which, distributed into many branches, equally matched. Then came the struggle of had overwhelmed the East, and broken up man against man, where each party was spurred all its empires. The Turkish navy, emulating on by the fury of religious hate, and Christian that of Spain, contested with it the ascen- and Moslem looked to paradise as the reward of dency of the Mediterranean. Fortified him who fell in battle against the infidel. No stations, distributed along the Andalusian mercy was asked; none was shown; and long and Valencian coasts, a roving fleet of gal- and hard was the conflict between the flower of leys, perpetually on guard, and successive the Moslem soldiery and the best knights of Christendom. In the heat of the fight an expeditions against the Barbary strongholds, audacious Turk planted his standard on the did not suffice to check the aggressive im- rampart. But it was speedily wrenched away pulses of the Mohammedan powers. The by the Chevalier de Medran, who cut down the heroic fraternity of the Knights of St. John Mussulman, and at the same moment received opposed them at many points, but also ex- a mortal wound from an arquebuse. As the cited them to new acts of hostility and contest lasted far into the day, the heat became daring. All the epic story of Rhodes and intense, and added sorely to the distress of the

combatants. Still neither party slackened their | ordering the leather to be cut in picces and efforts. Though several times repulsed, the stewed, he forced the unlucky mechanic to swalTurks returned to the assault with the same low this unsavory fricassee-as much as he spirit as before; and when sabre and cimiter could get down of it-on the spot.” were broken, the combatants closed with their daggers, and rolled down the declivity of the breach, struggling in mortal conflict with each other."

Again :

"On one occasion he made a violent assault on his governer, Don Garcia de Toledo, for some have thrown his chamberlain, Don Alonzo de slight cause of offence. On another, he would Cordova, out of the window. These noblemen complained to Philip, and besought him to release them from a service where they were exposed to affronts which they could not resent.

In this contest the knights made use of iron hoops, bound with cloth steeped in nitre and bitumen, which when ignited burned with inextinguishable fury. These hoops rolled down upon the assailants, inclosed them in fiery circles, and produced a con- The King consented, transferring them to his flagration amid the mass of their flowing attire.

own service, and appointed Ruy Gomez de Silva, his favorite minister, the governor of Carlos. Many vivid and artistic passages might be But the Prince was no respecter of persons. Cargleaned from this portion of the narrative. dinal Espinosa, President of the Council of CasPerhaps, however, a more popular interest tile, and afterwards grand-inquisitor, banished a attaches to the sad career and mysterious player named Cisneros from the palace, where fate of the King's son, Don Carlos, Prince he was to have performed that night for the of Asturias, and to that of his step-mother; orders. But however that may be, Carlos, Prince's diversion. It was probably by Philip's Isabella, Philip's young and beautiful wife. meeting the Cardinal, seized him roughly by the The most horrible suspicions arose in Europe collar, and laying his hand on his poniard, exwhen this youthful prince and youthful claimed, You scurvy priest, do you dare to prequeen were cut off untimely. They were vent Cisneros from playing before me? By the constituted the hero and heroine of many a life of my father, I will kill you!' The tremdark and extravagant romance. In no depart- bling prelate, throwing himself on his knees, ment of the work has Mr. Prescott been was too happy to escape with his life from the more successful in his researches, particularly hands of the infuriated prince.” with respect to Isabella. He has, it may be said, restored the incident from romance to of Alva, and tried to stab his uncle. CredHe once wrestled in a fury with the Duke history. Doubts still remain, but the ible witnesses testify, however, to his love of story which Alfieri, Schiller, and Montalvan, in Italy, Germany, and Spain, and Lord truth, his liberality, and to other marks of John Russell in England, have rendered a good disposition. But we must hasten to the end. His father's conduct towards him dramatic, is at least placed in such a light as

to assist materially the judgment of the long appeared unaccountable. reader. Don Carlos, motherless from his "The Prince, it seems, had for some time felt infancy, was spoilt in his childhood. He himself insecure in his father's palace. He slept grew up wayward, overbearing, sceptical, and with all the qualities incident to a sickly constitution. It is said, and believed, that when Philip the Second married Isabella of Valois, at Toledo, his son looked on her jealously.

** But we should be slow to believe that Isabella could have felt anything like the tender sentiment that romantic historians have attributed to her, for a boy of fourteen, who had so few personal attractions to recommend him.”

Mr. Prescott illustrates his audacious and passionate character by a number of anecdotes.

"It was the fashion for the young gallants of the court to wear very large boots. Carlos had his made even larger than usual, to accommodate a pair of small pistols. Philip, in order to prevent the mischievous practice, ordered his son's boots to be made of smaller dimensions. But when the bootmaker brought them to the palace, Carlos, in a rage, gave him a beating; and then,

with as many precautions as a highwayman, with his sword and dagger by his side, and a loaded musket within reach, ready at any moment for action. For further security, he had caused an ingenious artisan to construct a bolt, in such a way that by means of pulleys he could fasten or unfasten the door of his chamber while in bed. With such precautions, it would be a perilous thing to invade the slumbers of a desperate man like Carlos. But Philip was aware of the difficulties; and he ordered the mechanie to derange the machinery so that it should not work and thus the door was left without the

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usual means for securing it."

The rest of the story is contained in a manuscript narration by the Ayuda de Càmera, in attendance on the Prince.

"It was about eleven o'clock on the evening of the 18th when he observed the King coming down stairs, wearing armor over his clothes, and his head protected by a helmet. He was accompanied by the Duke of Feria, captain of the guard, with four or five other lords, and

twelve privates of the guard. The King ordered a prisoner. It will be a great scandal to the the valet to shut the door, and allow no one to kingdom. If you do not kill me I will make enter. The nobles and the guard then passed way with myself.' 'You will do no such thing,' into the Prince's chamber; and the Duke of said the King; for that would be the act of a Feria, stealing softly to the head of the bed, se- madman.' Your majesty,' replied Carlos, cured a sword and dagger which lay there, as treats me so ill that you force me to this extremwell as a musket loaded with two balls. Carlos, ity. I am not mad, but you drive me to desroused by the noise, started up, and demanded pair! Other words passed between the monarch who was there. The Duke, having got posses- and his son, whose voice was so broker by sobs as sion of the weapons, replied, 'It is the Council to be scarcely audible." of State.' Carlos, on hearing this, leaped from his bed, and, uttering loud cries and menaces, endeavored to seize his arms. At this moment, Philip, who had prudently deferred his entrance till the weapons were mastered, came forward, and bade his son return to bed and remain quiet. The Prince exclaimed, What does your majesty want of me?'-'You will soon learn,' said his father, and at the same time ordered the windows and doors to be strongly secured, and the keys of the latter to be delivered to him. All the furniture of the room, with which Carlos could commit any violence, even the andirons, were removed. The King, then turning to Feria, told him that he committed the Prince to his especial charge, and that he must guard him well. Addressing next the other nobles, he directed them to serve the Prince with all proper respect, but to execute none of his orders without first reporting them to himself; finally, to guard him faithfully, under penalty of being held as traitors. At these words Carlos exclaimed, "Your majesty had better kill me than keep me

Don Carlos died in his prison, - the causes of his arrest, the method of his death, unknown. In default of documentary evidence, Mr. Prescott argues the case; but his argument is too elaborate for quotation. It does not altogether tend to clear the king from the imputation of an unnatural murder. With reference to Isabella, however, Mr. Prescott's opinion is more decided. He rejects the idea that she entertained any love for Don Carlos, or that he excited the jealousy of the king. The incident of her death occurring soon after that of the prince, gave rise to the endless hypothetical tragedies attached to her own and her step-son's name.

Further than this the narrative is not continued. When complete, it will rank justly with Mr. Prescott's former works, which have taken permanent place in all historical

libraries.

LIBERTY.-The Japanese, whom we regard severities by underlings, the law deems escape as being at best only semi-barbarians, never from prison a crime, and the culprit feels its ef- punish any one for escaping from prison. They fects accordingly. Notes and Queries. hold that it is the natural right of every one to exert his ingenuity for regaining his liberty, and, when retaken, no harshness is used in the conveyance back or subsequent detention. If there be blame anywhere, it is with those who suffered him to escape through remissness in vigilance. This we have on the authority of a Russian, who was one of the few survivors from a vessel wrecked on their inhospitable coast. After being incarcerated according to their accustomed rule, he escaped to where he expected a boat would take him to some of the European ships in the offing, but he was recaptured, and lodged again in prison. He was greatly surprised at his mild treatment afterwards, which he feared was only preparatory to a cruel death, till he learned their criminal-escape law. But he took care not to test its leniency too far by a second attempt at evasion, and he was liberated by some particular treaty or convention.

DR. JOHNSON AS A CONVERSATIONIST. — In the English tongue, I suppose we must place Samuel Johnson high among the "talkers of society." He was abundantly furnished in all the dispositions and accomplishments that qualify a man to be a great talker. Strong-minded and strong-hearted though he was, he hated to be long alone; and, though pugnacious and selfwilled, he looked for sympathy, and he loved society. Indolent by constitution, and averse to the labor of composition, expression in some way was a necessity to his vehement and teeming intellect. Reading always, and reading everything, thinking with a constancy and versatility equal to his reading, his reflective faculty turned all to use, and his memory lost nothing that was available. With his sound, piercing, vigorous understanding; with his fancy, quick, bright, Query, would not this refined notion of liberty, and ready; with his hosts of words, effective in entertained by those generally deemed barbari- the heavy forces and the light, splendid on paans, be worth imitation by what we call polished rade and invincible in battle, he seemed to be in nations? When we capture an escaped delin-one person the Goliah and the David of converquent we load him with fetters, and punish him sation; strong to wield a spear that was as a by various restrictions on his usual indulgences, weaver's beam, and nimble to whirl a pebble and sometimes even in his food. Besides these from a sling. The Yarwood Papers.

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From Chambers' Journal.
CHESS AND WAR.

less renowned celebrities, bring the series down to almost the present day-all now, save St. Amant, numbered with the dead - the very hall, that has so often resounded with their victories, levelled to the ground.

TRULY, Napoleon III. finds employment for his subjects in France as well as in the Crimea, thought I, when lately threading my As may well be supposed, the Régence, way amongst piles of building materials, and when it had a local habitation and a name, the wreck of dismantled houses, in search of was rich in traditionary lore. The tables a favorite haunt of bygone days in the fair where Voltaire and Rousseau used to sit, were, city of Paris. My search was in vain. The to a late period, known by their names. I Café de la Régence, that for more than a have drunk coffee at Jean-Jacques, and played century had been the head-quarters of Parisian chess on Voltaire. The most cherished legend, literature and chess-playing, had fallen before however, was, that Robespierre, who was the modern march of improvement, and I passionately fond of chess, granted the life of could not discover even the spot upon which a young royalist to a lady, the lover of the this world-renowned resort had so long stood. proscribed, who, dressed in male attire, came The Régence was established about 1718, to the Régence and defeated the sanguinary during the regency of the Duke d'Orleans, dictator at his favorite game. We would from which circumstance it derived its name. gladly believe this redeeming trait in the charIt immediately became, and till nearly the acter of one who has so much to answer for, close of the eighteenth century continued to but the story sounds too like a myth. You be, the principal rendezvous of the leading might mollify the heart of the most tigerly disFrench literati of the period. The profligate posed of the human race with a good dinner Duc de Richelieu, Marshal Saxe, the two and a bottle or two of Clos de Vougeot, but Rousseaus-Jean-Baptiste and Jean-Jacques you cannot disturb the equanimity of the mild-Voltaire, D'Alembert, Holbach, Diderot, est-mannered man, or annoy his amour propre Marmontel, Grimm, are but a few of the cel- in a greater degree, than by giving him checkebrated names that frequented its large, low-mate. Still, as the relater of the legend said, roofed, dingy, sand-bestrewn salon. Grimmlet us hope it is true." tells us that a guard used to mount daily The French novelists have laid many of at the Régence, to prevent the mob from their scenes in the Régence, and the compilers breaking the windows, so eager were they to or manufacturers of facetiæ have found it a see Jean-Jacques Rousseau attired in his fur- fertile soil. Of the latter, there is one that eap and flowing Armenian robe. Benjamin even our own learned Josephus Millerius, of Franklin, too, when in Paris, was a constant witty memory, would not have been sorry to visitor to the Régence, and there, in all proba- record. It relates how a certain man frebility, acquired the first idea of his entertain- quented the Régence, six or seven hours daily, ing Morals of Chess; for towards the end of for more than ten years. He never spoke to the last century, the Régence gradually became any one; and when asked to play, invariably more of a chess than a purely literary resort. refused, but manifested great interest in the To the littérateurs of the petit-maître school games played by others. One day, at length, succeeded the stern men of the revolution. a very intricate and disputed question arose Robespierre, who, in spite of the change of between two players. The bystanders were fashion, still wore hair-powder and ruffles, appealed to; but the opinions on each side played chess in the Régence with the close- were equal. The taciturn man was then cropt, shabby-looking Fouché. Another called in as umpire. He hesitated, stammered, player of that period was the young sous- and, when pressed, acknowledged, to the exlieutenant of artillery, who subsequently as-treme astonishment of all, that he knew nothtonished the world as the Emperor Napoleon. ing whatever of the game, not even the initiaAbout this time, too, arose -the Régence tory moves. "Why, then," exclaimed one, being their fostering alma mater · the great"do you waste so many precious years watchschool of chess-players, which has made France ing a game you can take no possible interest so celebrated for the game. Legalle, Phili- in?""I am a married man," was the dor, Boncourt, Deschapelles, Mouret, La quiet reply, "and I find myself more comfortBourdonnais, St. Amant, with a host of other able here than at home with my wife." DCVI. LIVING AGE. VOL. XII. 3

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