elled at Philip for
his part in this transaction, quotes the authority of a Spaniard of rank
for the assertion that, after Carlos had been condemned by his
father,--in opposition to the voice of his council,--the prince was
found dead in his chamber, smothered with a towel![1520] Indeed, the
various modes of death assigned to him are sufficient evidence of the
uncertainty as to any one of them.[1521] A writer of more recent date
does not scruple to assert, that the only liberty granted to Carlos was
that of selecting the manner of his death out of several kinds that were
proposed to him;[1522]--an incident which has since found a more
suitable place in one of the many dramas that have sprang from his
mysterious story.

In all this the historian must admit there is but little evidence of
positive value. The authors--with the exception of Antonio Perez, who
had his account, he tells us, from the prince of Eboli--are by no means
likely to have had access to sure sources of information; while their
statements are contradictory to one another, and stand in direct
opposition to those of the Tuscan minister and of the nuncio, the latter
of whom had, probably, better knowledge of what was passing in the
councils of the monarch, than any other of the diplomatic body. Even the
declaration of Antonio Perez, so important on many accounts, is to a
considerable degree neutralized by the fact, that he was the mortal
enemy of Philip, writing in exile, with a price set upon his head by the
man whose character he was assailing. It is the hard fate of a person so
situated, that even truth from his lips fails to carry with it
conviction.[1523]

[Sidenote: SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.]

If we reject his explanation of the matter, we shall find ourselves
again thrown on the sea of conjecture, and may be led to account for the
rumors of violence on the part of Philip by the mystery in which the
whole of the proceedings was involved, and the popular notion of the
character of the monarch who directed them. The same suspicious
circumstances must have their influence on the historian of the present
day, as with insufficient, though more ample light than was enjoyed by
contemporaries, he painfully endeavors to grope his way through this
obscure passage in the life of Philip. Many reflections of ominous
import naturally press upon his mind. From the first hour of the
prince's confinement it was determined, as we have seen, that he was
never to be