strange
conduct to Alva, on the eve of his departure for the Netherlands. But
the people of that country were regarded at Madrid as in actual
rebellion against the crown. The reformed doctrines which they avowed
gave to the movement the character of a religious revolution. For a
Spaniard to countenance it in any way was at once to prove himself false
both to his sovereign and his faith. In such a light, we may be quite
sure, it would be viewed both by Philip and his minister, the
grand-inquisitor. Nor would it be thought any palliation of the crime,
that the offender was heir to the monarchy.[1476]

As to a design on his father's life, Philip, both in his foreign
despatches and in the communications made by his order to the resident
ministers at Madrid, wholly acquitted Carlos of so horrible a
charge.[1477] If it had any foundation in truth, one might suppose that
Philip, instead of denying, would have paraded it, as furnishing an
obvious apology for subjecting him to so rigorous a confinement. It is
certain, if Carlos had really entertained so monstrous a design, he
might easily have found an opportunity to execute it. That Philip would
have been silent in respect to his son's sympathy with the Netherlands
may well be believed. The great champion of Catholicism would naturally
shrink from publishing to the world that the taint of heresy infected
his own blood.

But, whatever may have been the motives which determined the conduct of
Philip, one cannot but suspect that a deep-rooted aversion to his son
lay at the bottom of them. The dissimilarity of their natures placed the
two parties, from the first, in false relations to each other. The
heedless excesses of youth were regarded with a pitiless eye by the
parent, who, in his own indulgences, at least did not throw aside the
veil of decorum. The fiery temper of Carlos, irritated by a
long-continued system of distrust, exclusion, and _espionnage_, at
length broke out into such senseless extravagances as belong to the
debatable ground of insanity. And this ground afforded, as already
intimated, a plausible footing to the father for proceeding to
extremities against the son.

Whatever were the offences of Carlos, those who had the best
opportunities for observation soon became satisfied that it was intended
never to allow him to regain his liberty, or to ascend the throne of
his ancestors.[1478] On the second of March, a code of regulations was
prepared by Philip relati