when excluded
from them--as seems to have been usually the case--by his father.[1431]

It was certainly to the prince's credit, that he was able to inspire
those who approached him most nearly with strong feelings of personal
attachment. Among these were his aunt Joanna, the regent, and the queen,
Isabella, who, regarding him with an interest justified by the
connection, was desirous of seeing him married to her own sister. His
aunt Mary and her husband, the Emperor Maximilian, also held Carlos,
whom they had known in early days, in the kindest remembrance, and
wished to secure his hand for their eldest daughter. A still more
honorable testimony is borne by the relations in which he stood to his
preceptor, Honorato Juan, who, at the prince's solicitation, had been
raised to the bishopric of Osma. Carlos would willingly have kept this
good man near his own person. But he was detained in his diocese; and
the letters from time to time addressed to him by his former pupil,
whatever may be thought of them as pieces of composition, do honor to
the prince's heart. "My best friend in this life," he affectionately
writes at the close of them, "I will do all that you desire."[1432]
Unfortunately, this good friend and counsellor died in 1566. By his
will, he requested Carlos to select for himself any article among his
effects that he preferred. He even gave him authority to change the
terms of the instrument, and make any other disposition of his property
that he thought right![1433] It was a singular proof of confidence in
the testator, unless we are to receive it merely as a Spanish
compliment,--somewhat perilous, as the case of Grimaldo proves, with a
person who interpreted compliments as literally as Carlos.

From all this, there would seem to have been the germs of generous
qualities in the prince's nature, which, under a happier culture, might
have been turned to some account. But he was placed in that lofty
station which exposed him to the influence of parasites, who flattered
his pride, and corrupted his heart, by ministering to his pleasures.
From the eminence which he occupied, even the smallest errors and
eccentricities became visible to the world, and the objects of unsparing
criticism. Somewhat resembling his father in person, he was different
from him both in his good qualities and his defects, so that a complete
barrier was raised between them. Neither party could comprehend the
other; and the father was thus desti