red together whatever was illustrious in the
capital,--the high ecclesiastics, and the different religious bodies,
the grandees and cavaliers of the court, and the queen's ladies of
honor. At the head of these stood the duchess of Alva, the mistress of
the robes, with the duchess of Feria--an English lady, married to the
Spanish ambassador at the court of Mary Tudor--and the princess of
Eboli, a name noted in history. The coffin of the deceased queen,
covered with its gorgeous pall of brocade, was placed on a scaffold
shrouded in black, and surrounded with numerous silver sconces bearing
wax tapers, that shed a gloomy lustre over the scene.[1569] The services
were performed amidst the deepest stillness of the audience, unless when
broken by the wailings of the women, which mingled in sad harmony with
the chant of the priests and the sweet and solemn music that accompanied
the office for the dead.[1570]

Early on the following morning the coffin was opened in presence of the
duchess of Alva and the weeping ladies of her train, who gazed for the
last time on features still beautiful in death.[1571] The duchess then
filled the coffin with flowers and sweet-scented herbs; and the remains
of mother and child were transported by the same sorrowing company to
the convent of the barefooted Carmelites. Here they reposed till the
year 1573, when they were borne, with the remains of Carlos, to the
stately mausoleum of the Escorial; and the populace, as they gazed on
the funeral train, invoked the name of Isabella as that of a
saint.[1572]

In the course of the winter, Cardinal Guise arrived from France with
letters of condolence from Charles the Ninth to his royal
brother-in-law. The instructions to the cardinal do not infer any
distrust, on the part of the French monarch, as to the manner of his
sister's death. The more suspicious temper of the queen-mother,
Catherine de Medicis, is seen in her directions to Fourquevaulx to find
out what was said on the subject of her daughter's death, and to report
it to her.[1573]--It does not seem that the ambassador gathered any
information of consequence, to add to his former details.

Philip himself may have had in his mind the possible existence of such
suspicions, when he told the cardinal that "his best consolation for his
loss was derived from his reflection on the simple and excellent life of
the queen. All her attendants, her ladies and maids, knew how well he
had treated her, as w