adolid, on
his way to his cloistered retreat at Yuste. He there saw his grandson,
and took careful note of the boy, the heir to the vast dominions which
he had himself so recently relinquished. He told over his campaigns to
Carlos, and how he had fled at Innsbruck, where he barely escaped
falling into the hands of the enemy. Carlos, who listened eagerly,
interrupted his grandfather, exclaiming, "I never would have fled!"
Charles endeavored to explain the necessity of the case; but the boy
sturdily maintained, that he never would have fled,--amusing and indeed
delighting the emperor, who saw in this the mettle of his own earlier
days.[1403] Yet Charles was not blind to the defects of his
grandson,--to the wayward, overbearing temper, which inferred too much
indulgence on the part of his daughter the regent. He reprehended Carlos
for his want of deference to his aunt; and he plainly told the latter,
that, if she would administer more wholesome correction to the boy, the
nation would have reason to thank her for it.[1404]

After the emperor had withdrawn to his retreat, his mind, which kept its
hold, as we have seen, on all matters of public interest beyond the
walls of the monastery, still reverted to his grandson, the heir of his
name and of his sceptre. At Simancas the correspondence is still
preserved which he carried on with Don Garcia de Toledo, a brother of
the duke of Alva, who held the post of _ayo_, or governor of the prince.
In one of that functionary's letters, written in 1557, when Carlos was
twelve years old, we have a brief chronicle of the distribution of the
prince's time, somewhat curious, as showing the outlines of a royal
education in that day.

Before seven in the morning Carlos rose, and by half-past eight had
breakfasted, and attended mass. He then went to his studies, where he
continued till the hour of dinner. What his studies were we are not
told. One writer of the time says, among other things, he read Cicero's
Offices, in order the better to learn to control his passions.[1405] At
eleven he dined. He then amused himself with his companions, by playing
at quoits, or at _trucos_, a kind of billiards, or in fencing, and
occasionally riding. At half-past three came a light repast, the
_merienda_; after which he listened to reading, or, if the weather was
fine, strolled in the fields. In the evening he supped; and at half-past
nine, having gone through the prayers of his rosary, he went to bed,
whe