he resigned to Philip his other dominions;
and embarking on board a fleet, sailed to Spain, and took his journey to
St. Just, a monastery in Estremadura, which, being situated in a happy
climate, and amidst the greatest beauties of nature, he had chosen for
the place of his retreat. When he arrived at Burgos, he found, by the
thinness of his court, and the negligent attendance of the Spanish
grandees, that he was no longer emperor; and though this observation
might convince him still more of the vanity of the world, and make him
more heartily despise what he had renounced, he sighed to find that all
former adulation and obeisance had been paid to his fortune, not to his
person. With better reason was he struck with the ingratitude of his son
Philip, who obliged him to wait a long time for the payment of the small
pension which he had reserved, and this disappointment in his domestic
enjoyments gave him a sensible concern. He pursued, however, his
resolution with inflexible constancy; and shutting himself up in his
retreat, he exerted such self-command, that he restrained even his
curiosity from any inquiry concerning the transactions of the world
which he had entirely abandoned. The fencing against the pains and
infirmities under which he labored occupied a great part of his time;
and during the intervals he employed his leisure, either in examining
the controversies of theology, with which his age had been so much
agitated, and which he had hitherto considered only in a political
light, or in imitating the works of renowned artists, particularly in
mechanics, of which he had always been a great admirer and encourager.
He is said to have here discovered a propensity to the new doctrines,
and to have frequently dropped hints of this unexpected alteration in
his sentiments. Having amused himself with the construction of clocks
and watches, he thence remarked, how impracticable the object was in
which he had so much employed himself during his grandeur; and how
impossible that he, who never could frame two machines that would go
exactly alike, could ever be able to make all mankind concur in the same
belief and opinion. He survived his retreat two years.

The emperor Charles had very early in the beginning of his reign found
the difficulty of governing such distant dominions; and he had made
his brother Ferdinand be elected king of the Romans, with a view to his
inheriting the imperial dignity, as well as his German domini