court of Castile; and we may be quite sure
that these loyal subjects would have been quick to report any injurious
treatment of the queen by her husband.

A candid perusal of their despatches dispels all mystery,--or rather,
proves there never was any cause for mystery. The sallow, sickly boy of
fourteen--for Carlos was no older at the time of Isabella's
marriage--was possessed of too few personal attractions to make it
probable that he could have touched the heart of his beautiful
step-mother, had she been lightly disposed. But her intercourse with him
from the first seems to have been such as naturally arose from the
relations of the parties, and from the kindness of her disposition,
which led her to feel a sympathy for the personal infirmities and
misfortunes of Carlos. Far from attempting to disguise her feelings in
this matter, she displayed them openly in her correspondence with her
mother, and before her husband and the world.

Soon after Isabella's arrival at Madrid, we find a letter from the
bishop of Limoges to Charles the Ninth, her brother, informing him that
"his sister, on entering the palace of Madrid, gave the prince so
gracious and affectionate a reception, that it afforded singular
contentment to the king, and yet more to Carlos, as appeared by his
frequent visits to the queen,--as frequent as the etiquette of a court,
much stiffer than that of Paris, would permit."[1544] Again, writing in
the following month, the bishop speaks of the queen as endeavoring to
amuse Carlos, when he came to see her in the evening, with such innocent
games and pastimes as might cheer the spirits of the young prince, who
seemed to be wasting away under his malady.[1545]

[Sidenote: HER RELATIONS WITH CARLOS.]

The next year we have a letter to Catherine de Medicis from one of
Isabella's train, who had accompanied her from France. After speaking of
her mistress as sometimes supping in the garden with the Princess
Joanna, she says they were often joined there by "the prince, who loves
the queen singularly well, and, as I suspect, would have no objection to
be more nearly related to her."[1546]--There is nothing improbable in
the supposition that Carlos, grateful for kindness to which he had not
been too much accustomed, should, as he grew older, have yielded to the
influence of a princess whose sweet disposition and engaging manners
seem to have won the hearts of all who approached her; or that feelings
of resentment shou