was resolved to make a direct appeal to Heaven. In
the monastery of Jesus Maria lay the bones of a holy Franciscan, Fray
Diego, who had died a hundred years before, in the reign of Henry the
Fourth, in the odor of sanctity. King Philip and his court went in
solemn procession to the church; and in their presence, the mouldering
remains of the good father, still sweet to the nostrils, as we are told,
were taken from their iron coffin, and transported to the prince's
apartment. They were there laid on his bed; and the cloth that wrapped
the skull of the dead man was placed on the forehead of Carlos.[1418]
Fortunately the delirious state of the patient prevented the shock that
might otherwise have been given to his senses. That very night the friar
appeared to Carlos in his sleep. He was muffled in his Franciscan robe,
with a green girdle about his waist, and a cross of reeds in his hand;
and he mildly bade him "be of good cheer, for that he would certainly
recover." From this time, as the physician who reports the case admits,
the patient began speedily to mend. The fever subsided, his head
returned to its natural dimensions, his eyes were restored to sight. At
the end of something less than two months from the date of the accident,
Carlos, who had shown a marvellous docility throughout his
illness,[1419] was enabled to walk into the adjoining apartment, and
embrace his father, who, during the critical period of his son's
illness, had established his residence at Alcala, showing the solicitude
natural to a parent in such an extremity.

The merit of the cure was of course referred to Fray Diego.[1420] An
account of the miracle, duly authenticated, was transmitted to Rome; and
the holy man, on the application of Philip, received the honors of
canonization from the pontiff. The claims of the new saint to the credit
of achieving the cure were confidently asserted by the Castilian
chroniclers of that and succeeding ages; nor have I met with any one
hardy enough to contest them, unless it be Dr. Olivares himself, who,
naturally jealous of his professional honor, intimated his
conviction,--this was before the canonization,--that with some
allowance for the good wrought by Fray Diego's intercession and the
prayers of the righteous, the recovery of the prince was mainly to be
referred to the skill of his physicians.[1421]

But the recovery of Carlos does not seem to have been so complete as was
at first thought. There is good reas