n act. The tears, according to one present, filled
his eyes, as he made this avowal.[1457]

He then summoned his council of state, and commenced a process against
the prisoner. His affliction did not prevent him from being present all
the while, and listening to the testimony, which, when reduced to
writing, formed a heap of paper half a foot in thickness.--Such is the
account given of this extraordinary proceeding by the _ayuda de
camara_.[1458]

[Sidenote: CAUSES OF HIS IMPRISONMENT.]

CHAPTER VII.

DEATH OF DON CARLOS.

Causes of his Imprisonment.--His Rigorous Confinement.--His
Excesses.--His Death.--Llorente's Account.--Various
Accounts.--Suspicious Circumstances.--Quarrel in the Palace.--Obsequies
of Carlos.

1568.

The arrest of Don Carlos caused a great sensation throughout the
country, much increased by the mysterious circumstances which had
attended it. The wildest rumors were afloat as to the cause. Some said
the prince had meditated a design against his father's life; others,
that he had conspired against that of Ruy Gomez. Some said that he was
plotting rebellion, and had taken part with the Flemings; others
suspected him of heresy. Many took still a different view of the
matter,--censuring the father rather than the son. "_His dagger followed
close upon his smile_," says the historian of Philip; "hence some called
him wise, others severe."[1459] Carlos, they said, never a favorite,
might have been rash in his thoughts and words; but he had done no act
which should have led a father to deal with his son so harshly. But
princes are too apt to be jealous of their successors. They distrusted
the bold and generous spirit of their offspring, whom it would be wiser
to win over by admitting them to some reasonable share in the
government.--"But others there were," concludes the wise chronicler of
the times, "who, more prudent than their neighbors, laid their finger on
their lips, and were silent."[1460]

For some days, Philip would allow no post to leave Madrid, that he might
be the first to send intelligence of this event to foreign courts.[1461]
On the twenty-fourth, he despatched circular letters to the great
ecclesiastics, the grandees, and the municipalities of the chief cities
of the kingdom. They were vague in their import, stating the fact of the
arrest, and assigning much the same general grounds with those he had
stated to the councils. On the same day he sent despatches to the
prin