and in the Netherlands had sadly depleted the treasury,
the credit of the country was far from good, and gradually, as a natural
reaction after the religious exaltation which had marked the whole of
the sixteenth century, a spirit of irreligion and licentiousness became
prevalent in all classes of society. As Philip had grown older and more
ascetic in his tastes, he had gradually withdrawn from society and had
left his court to its own devices. With his death, in 1598, the last
restraint was gone, and there was no limit to the excesses of the
insensate nation. Having failed in their great and zealous effort to
fasten Spanish Catholicism upon the whole of Europe, they had finally
accepted a milder philosophy, and had decided to enjoy the present
rather than continue to labor for a somewhat doubtful reward in the life
which was to come. The young king, Philip III., who began to reign under
these circumstances, was wedded in 1599 to the Archduchess Margaret of
Austria, and the feasts and celebrations which were organized in honor
of this event outrivalled in their magnificence anything of the kind
that had taken place in Spain for many years, and there was a free and
libertine spirit about all of this merrymaking which did not augur well
for the future. The Duke of Lerma, the king's favorite and prime
minister, was in full charge of the affair, and he spared no pains in
his desire to make a brave show, in spite of the critical financial
condition of the country. The young Austrian princess, upon her arrival
at Madrid, was fairly dazzled by the reception she was given; and well
she may have been, for the money expended for this purpose reaches
proportions which almost surpass belief. The Cortes appropriated one
million ducats for the occasion, and the nobles spent three million
more, three hundred thousand of this sum having been contributed by
Lerma from his own private revenues.

The Spanish court now changed its character completely, and the sombre
simplicity of the elder Philip's day gave place to a gayety and
brilliant ceremonial which were more in accord with the new spirit of
the times. Lerma filled the palace at Madrid with brilliant ladies in
waiting, for he believed, with the gallant Francis I. of France, that a
royal court without women is like a year without spring, a spring
without flowers; and a marvellous round of pleasures began, all governed
by a stately etiquette. But this gay life was rotten at the core;