f a disordered mind in Carlos.

[Sidenote: HIS EXCESSES.]

The king, meanwhile, was scarcely less a prisoner than his son; for,
from the time of the prince's arrest, he had never left the palace, even
to visit his favorite residences of Aranjuez and the Prado; nor had he
passed a single day in the occupation, in which he took such delight, of
watching the rising glories of the Escorial. He seemed to be constantly
haunted by the apprehension of some outbreak among the people, or at
least among the partisans of Carlos, to effect his escape; and when he
heard any unusual noise in the palace, says his historian, he would go
to the window, to see if the tumult were not occasioned by an attempt
to release the prisoner.[1493] There was little cause for apprehension
in regard to a people so well disciplined to obedience as the Castilians
under Philip the Second. But it is an ominous circumstance for a
prisoner, that he should become the occasion of such apprehension.

Philip, however, was not induced by his fears to mitigate in any degree
the rigor of his son's confinement, which produced the effect to have
been expected on one of his fiery, ungovernable temper. At first he was
thrown into a state bordering on frenzy, and, it is said, more than once
tried to make away with himself. As he found that thus to beat against
the bars of his prison-house was only to add to his distresses, he
resigned himself in sullen silence to his fate,--the sullenness of
despair. In his indifference to all around him, he ceased to take an
interest in his own spiritual concerns. Far from using the religious
books in his possession, he would attend to no act of devotion, refusing
even to confess, or to admit his confessor into his presence.[1494]
These signs of fatal indifference, if not of positive defection from the
Faith, gave great alarm to Philip, who would not willingly see the soul
thus perish with the body.[1495] In this emergency he employed Suarez,
the prince's almoner, who once had some influence over his master, to
address him a letter of expostulation. The letter has been preserved,
and is too remarkable to be passed by in silence.

Suarez begins with reminding Carlos that his rash conduct had left him
without partisans or friends. The effect of his present course, instead
of mending his condition, could only serve to make it worse. "What will
the world say," continues the ecclesiastic, "when it shall learn that
you now refuse to conf