e
condition of things abroad. Thus we find him in conference with an
officer arrived from the Low Countries, named Spinosa, and putting a
multitude of questions respecting the state of the army, the
organization and equipment of the different corps, and other
particulars, showing the lively interest taken by Charles in the conduct
of the campaign.[304]

[Sidenote: HIS INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS.]

It has been a common opinion, that the emperor, after his retirement to
Yuste, remained as one buried alive, totally cut off from intercourse
with the world;--"as completely withdrawn from the business of the
kingdom and the concerns of government," says one of his biographers,
"as if he had never taken part in them;"[305]--"so entirely abstracted
in his solitude," says another contemporary, "that neither revolutions
nor wars, nor gold arriving in heaps from the Indies, had any power to
affect his tranquillity."[306]

So far from this being the case, that not only did the emperor continue
to show an interest in public affairs, but he took a prominent part,
even from the depths of his retreat, in the management of them.[307]
Philip, who had the good sense to defer to the long experience and the
wisdom of his father, consulted him, constantly, on great questions of
public policy. And so far was he from the feeling of jealousy often
imputed to him, that we find him on one occasion, when the horizon
looked particularly, dark, imploring the emperor to leave his retreat,
and to aid him not only by his counsels, but by his presence and
authority.[308] The emperor's daughter Joanna, regent of Castile, from
her residence at Valladolid, only fifty leagues from Yuste, maintained a
constant correspondence with her father, soliciting his advice in the
conduct of the government. However much Charles may have felt himself
relieved from responsibility for measures, he seems to have been as
anxious for the success of Philip's administration as if it had been his
own. "Write more fully," says one of his secretaries in a letter to the
secretary of the regent's council; "the emperor is always eager to hear
more particulars of events."[309] He showed the deepest concern in the
conduct of the Italian war. He betrayed none of the scruples manifested
by Philip, but boldly declared that the war with the pope was a just
war, in the sight of both God and man.[310] When letters came from
abroad, he was even heard to express his regret that they brough