[1505] "Il Rè non l'ha visitato, ne lassato che la Regina ne la Principessa lo veggiano, forse considerando che poi che già si conosceva disperato il caso suo, queste visite simili poterono più presto conturbare l'una at l'altra delle parti, che aiutarli in cosa nessuna." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.
[1506] "Il Prencipe di Spagna avante la morte diceva, che perdoneva a tutti, et nominatamenta al Padre, che l'haveva carcerato, et a Ruy Gomez, cardinal Presidente Dottor Velasco, et altri, per lo consiglio de'quali credeva essere stato preso." Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 28, 1568, MS.
[1507] "Et battendosi il petto come poteva, essendoli mancata la virtù a poco a poco, ritirandosi la vita quasi da membro in membro espirò con molta tranquilità et constanza." Lettera del Nunzio, MS.
[1508] "Et testificono quelli, che vi si trovorno che Christiano nessuno può morir più cattolicamente, ne in maggior sentimento di lui." Lettera di Nobili, Luglio 30, 1568, MS.
[1509] See, among others, Quintana, Historia de la Antigüedad Nobleza y Grandeza de la Villa y Corte de Madrid, (1629,) fol. 368; Colmenares, Historia de la Insigne Ciudad de Segovia, (Madrid, 1640,) cap. 43; Pinelo, Anales de Madrid, MS.; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5; Herrera, Historia General, lib. XV. cap. 3; Carta de Francisco de Erasso, MS.; Carta de Gomez Manrique, MS.
[1510] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 147.
Von Raumer has devoted some fifty pages of his fragmentary compilation to the story of Don Carlos, and more especially to the closing scenes of his life. The sources are of the most unexceptionable kind, being chiefly the correspondence of the French ministers with their court, existing among the MSS. in the Royal Library at Paris. The selections made are pertinent in their character, and will be found of the greatest importance to illustrate this dark passage in the history of the time. If I have not arrived at the same conclusions in all respects as those of the illustrious German scholar, it may be that my judgment has been modified by the wider range of materials at my command.
[1511] Llorente, Histoire de l'Inquisition, tom. III. p. 171 et seq.
[1512] "Quoique ces documens ne soient pas authentiques, ils méritent qu'on y ajoute foi, en ce qu'ils sont de certaines personnes employées dans le palais du roi." Ibid., p. 171.
[1513] Thus, for example, he makes the contradictory statements, at the distance of four pages from each other, that the prince did, and that he did not, confide to Don John his desire to kill his father (pp. 148, 152). The fact is, that Llorente in a manner pledged himself to solve the mystery of the prince's death, by announcing to his readers, at the outset, that "he believed he had discovered the truth." One fact he must be allowed to have established,—one which, as secretary to the Inquisition, he had the means of verifying,—namely, that no process was ever instituted against Carlos by the Holy Office. This was to overturn a vulgar error, on which more than one writer of fiction has built his story.