ers. But however that may be, Carlos, meeting the cardinal, seized
him roughly by the collar, and, laying his hand on his poniard,
exclaimed, "You scurvy priest, do you dare to prevent Cisneros from
playing before me? By the life of my father, I will kill you!"[1426] The
trembling prelate, throwing himself on his knees, was too happy to
escape with his life from the hands of the infuriated prince. Whether
the latter had his way in the end, in regard to the comedian, is not
stated. But the stuff of which a grand-inquisitor is made is not apt to
be of the yielding sort.

A more whimsical anecdote is told us by Nobili, the Tuscan ambassador,
then resident at the court. Carlos, having need of money, requested a
merchant, named Grimaldo, to advance him the sum of fifteen hundred
ducats. The money-lender readily consented, thanking the prince for the
favor done him, and adding, in the usual grandiloquent vein of the
Castilian, that "all he had was at his disposal."[1427] Carlos took him
at his word, and forthwith demanded a hundred thousand ducats. In vain
poor Grimaldo, astounded by the request, protested that "it would ruin
his credit; that what he had said was only words of compliment." Carlos
replied, "he had no right to bandy compliments with princes; and if he
did not in four and twenty hours pay the money to the last _real_, he
and his family would have cause to rue it." It was not till after much
negotiation that Ruy Gomez succeeded in prevailing on the prince to be
content with the more modest sum of sixty thousand ducats, which was
accordingly furnished by the unfortunate merchant.[1428] The money thus
gained, according to Nobili, was squandered as suddenly as it was got.

There are happily some touches of light to relieve the shadows with
which the portrait is charged. Tiepolo, who was ambassador from Venice
at the court of Madrid in 1567, when Carlos was twenty-two years old,
gives us some account of the prince. He admits his arrogant and fiery
temper, but commends his love of truth, and, what we should hardly have
expected, the earnestness with which he engaged in his devotions. He was
exceedingly charitable, asking, "Who would give, if princes did
not?"[1429] He was splendid in his way of living, making the most
liberal recompense, not only to his own servants, but to the king's, who
were greatly attached to him.[1430] He was ambitious of taking part in
the conduct of public affairs, and was sorely discontented