, with an avidity which showed both the importance
attached to the developments the author had made, and the highly
attractive form in which he had presented them to the reader.

The Parisian scholars were now stimulated to turn to account the
treasure which had remained so long neglected on their shelves. In 1854,
less than two years after the appearance of Mr. Stirling's book, M.
Amedee Pichot published his "_Chronique de Charles-Quint_," a work
which, far from being confined to the latter days of the emperor, covers
the whole range of his biography, presenting a large amount of
information in regard to his personal habits, as well as to the interior
organization of his government, and the policy which directed it. The
whole is enriched, moreover, by a multitude of historical incidents,
which may be regarded rather as subsidiary than essential to the conduct
of the narrative, which is enlivened by much ingenious criticism on the
state of manners, arts, and moral culture of the period.

It was not long after the appearance of this work that M. Gachard, whom
I have elsewhere noticed as having been commissioned by the Belgian
government to make extensive researches in the Archives of Simancas,
gave to the public some of the fruits of his labors, in the first volume
of his "_Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint_." It is devoted to the
letters of the emperor and his household, which form the staple of the
Gonzalez MS.; thus placing at the disposition of the future biographer
of Charles the original materials with which to reconstruct the history
of his latter days.

Lastly came the work, long expected, of M. Mignet, "_Charles-Quint; son
Abdication, son Sejour, et sa Mort au Monastere de Yuste_." It was the
reproduction, in a more extended and elaborate form, of a series of
papers, the first of which appeared shortly after the publication of Mr.
Stirling's book. In this work the French author takes the clear and
comprehensive view of his subject so characteristic of his genius. The
difficult and debatable points he discusses with acuteness and
precision; and the whole story of Charles's monastic life he presents in
so luminous an aspect to the reader as leaves nothing further to be
desired.

The critic may take some interest in comparing the different manners in
which the several writers have dealt with the subject, each according to
his own taste, or the bent of his genius. Thus through Stirling's more
free and familiar n