ith my
minister's reasons, and at the same time recommended the wounded soldier
to be preferred by him, which he faithfully promised he would; but I
met the poor wretch since in Elysium, who informed me he was afterwards
starved to death.

"None who hath not been himself a prince, nor any prince till his death,
can conceive the impositions daily put on them by their favorites and
ministers; so that princes are often blamed for the faults of others.
The count of Saldagne had been long confined in prison, when his son, D.
Bernard del Carpio, who had performed the greatest actions against
the Moors, entreated me, as a reward for his service, to grant him his
father's liberty. The old man's punishment had been so tedious, and
the services of the young one so singularly eminent, that I was very
inclinable to grant the request; but my ministers strongly opposed it;
they told me my glory demanded revenge for the dishonor offered to my
family; that so positive a demand carried with it rather the air of
menace than entreaty; that the vain detail of his services, and the
recompense due to them, was an injurious reproach; that to grant what
had been so haughtily demanded would argue in the monarch both weakness
and timidity; in a word, that to remit the punishment inflicted by my
predecessors would be to condemn their judgment. Lastly, one told me in
a whisper, 'His whole family are enemies to your house.' By these means
the ministers prevailed. The young lord took the refusal so ill, that he
retired from court, and abandoned himself to despair, whilst the old one
languished in prison. By which means, as I have since discovered, I lost
the use of two of my best subjects.

"To confess the truth, I had, by means of my ministers, conceived a very
unjust opinion of my whole people, whom I fancied to be daily conspiring
against me, and to entertain the most disloyal thoughts, when, in
reality (as I have known since my death), they held me in universal
respect and esteem. This is a trick, I believe, too often played with
sovereigns, who, by such means, are prevented from that open intercourse
with their subjects which, as it would greatly endear the person of the
prince to the people, so might it often prove dangerous to a minister
who was consulting his own interest only at the expense of both. I
believe I have now recounted to you the most material passages of my
life; for I assure you there are some incidents in the lives of kings