or three years
past perceived that the prince's head was the weakest part of him, and
that he was, at no time, in complete possession of his understanding. He
had been silent on the matter, trusting that time would bring some
amendment. But it had only made things worse; and he saw, with sorrow,
that to commit the sceptre to his son's hands would be to bring
inevitable misery on his subjects and ruin on the state. With
unspeakable anguish, he had therefore resolved, after long deliberation,
to place his son under constraint.[1466]

[Sidenote: CAUSES OF HIS IMPRISONMENT.]

This at least is intelligible, and very different from Philip's own
despatches,--where it strikes us as strange, if insanity were the true
ground of the arrest, that it should be covered up under such vague and
equivocal language, with the declaration, moreover, usually made in his
letters, that, "at some future time, he would explain the matter more
fully to the parties." One might have thought that the simple plea of
insanity would have been directly given, as furnishing the best apology
for the son, and at the same time vindicating the father for imposing a
wholesome restraint upon his person. But, in point of fact, the
excessive rigor of the confinement, as we shall have occasion to see,
savored much more of the punishment dealt out to some high offender,
than of the treatment of an unfortunate lunatic. Neither is it probable
that a criminal process would have been instituted against one who, by
his very infirmity, was absolved from all moral responsibility.

There are two documents, either of which, should it ever be brought to
light, would probably unfold the true reasons of the arrest of Carlos.
The Spanish ambassador, Zuniga, informed Philip that the pope,
dissatisfied with the account which he had given of the transaction,
desired a further explanation of it from his majesty.[1467] This, from
such a source, was nearly equivalent to a command. For Philip had a
peculiar reverence for Pius the Fifth, the pope of the Inquisition, who
was a pontiff after his own heart. The king is said never to have passed
by the portrait of his holiness, which hung on the walls of the palace,
without taking off his hat.[1468] He at once wrote a letter to the pope
containing a full account of the transaction. It was written in cipher,
with the recommendation that it should be submitted to Granvelle, then
in Rome, if his holiness could not interpret it. This lette