[I suffer this note to remain as originally written, before the publication of Mr. Stirling's "Cloister Life" had revealed him as the author of these spirited essays.]
[286] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 610.—Siguença, Historia de la Orden de San Geronimo, (Madrid, 1595-1605,) parte III. p. 190.—Ford, Handbook of Spain, (London, 1845,) p. 551.
Of the above authorities, Father Siguença has furnished the best account of the emperor's little domain as it was in his day, and Ford as it is in our own.
[287] See the eloquent conclusion of Stirling's Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth.
Ford, in his admirable Handbook, which may serve as a manual for the student of Spanish in his closet, quite as well as for the traveller in Spain, has devoted a few columns to a visit which he paid to this sequestered spot, where, as he says, the spirit of the mighty dead seemed to rule again in his last home. A few lines from the pages of the English tourist will bring the scene more vividly before the reader than the colder description in the text. "As the windows were thrown wide open to admit the cool thyme-scented breeze, the eye in the clear evening swept over the boundless valley; and the nightingales sang sweetly, in the neglected orange-garden, to the bright stars reflected like diamonds in the black tank below us. How often had Charles looked out, on a stilly eve, on this selfsame and unchanged scene, where he alone was now wanting!" Handbook of Spain, p. 553.
[288] Carta de Martin de Gaztelu al Secretario Vazquez, 5 de Febrero, 1557, MS.
[289] Their names and vocations are specified in the codicil executed by Charles a few days before his death. See the document entire, ap. Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 662.
A more satisfactory list has been made out by the indefatigable Gachard from various documents which he collected, and which have furnished him with the means of correcting the orthography of Sandoval, miserably deficient in respect to Flemish names. See Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint, tom. I. p. 1.
[290] "Las vistas de las pieças de su magestad no son muy largas, sino cortas, y las que se véen, o es una montaña de piedras grandes, ó unos montes de robles no muy altos. Campo llano no le ay, ni como podesse pasear, que sea por un camino estrecho y lleno de piedra. Rio yo no vi ninguno, sino un golpe de agua que baza de la montana: huerta en casa ay una pequeña y de pocos naranjos....... El aposento baxo no es nada alegre, sino muy triste, y como es tan baxo, creo será humido....... Esto es lo que me parece del aposento y sitio de la casa y grandissima soledad." Carta de Luis Quixada á Juan Vazquez, 30 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.
The major-domo concludes by requesting Vazquez not to show it to his mistress, Joanna, the regent, as he would not be thought to run counter to the wishes of the emperor in anything.