was not communicated even to the Council of Blood. The only
persons aware of its existence were the duke's secretary and his two
trusty councillors, Vargas and Del Rio. Alva had kept it thus secret
until he should learn the will of his master.[1241] At the same time he
intimated to Philip that he might think it better to have the execution
take place in Castile, as under existing circumstances more eligible
than the Netherlands.

Philip was in Andalusia, making a tour in the southern provinces, when
the despatches of his viceroy reached him. He was not altogether pleased
with their tenor. Not that he had any misgivings in regard to the
sentence; for he was entirely satisfied, as he wrote to Alva, of
Montigny's guilt.[1242] But he did not approve of a public execution.
Enough blood, it might be thought in the Netherlands, had been already
spilt; and men there might complain that, shut up in a foreign prison
during his trial, Montigny had not met with justice.[1243] There were
certainly some grounds for such a complaint.

Philip resolved to defer taking any decisive step in the matter till his
return to the north. Meanwhile he commended Alva's discretion in keeping
the sentence secret, and charged him on no account to divulge it, even
to members of the council.

Some months elapsed after the king's return to Madrid before he came to
a decision,--exhibiting the procrastination, so conspicuous a trait in
him, even among a people with whom procrastination was no miracle. It
may have been that he was too much occupied with an interesting affair
which pressed on him at that moment. About two years before, Philip had
had the misfortune to lose his young and beautiful queen, Isabella of
the Peace. Her place was now to be supplied by a German princess, Anne
of Austria, his fourth wife, still younger than the one he had lost. She
was already on her way to Castile; and the king may have been too much
engrossed by his preparations for the nuptial festivities, to have much
thought to bestow on the concerns of his wretched prisoner.

The problem to be solved was how to carry the sentence into effect, and
yet leave the impression on the public that Montigny died a natural
death. Most of the few ministers whom the king took into his confidence
on the occasion were of opinion that it would be best to bring the
prisoner's death about by means of a slow poison administered in his
drink, or some article of his daily food. This would give