and his obsequious
counsellors meditated on the course best fitted for what was evidently a
serious conjecture. Then it was, we learn from the same authority, that
the king determined ON THE DEATH OF ESCOVEDO.

"They took a review of the various schemes that had been planned in
favour of Prince Don Juan, ever since his residence in Italy,
without the king having any communication or perfect knowledge of
them; they called to mind the grievous disappointment experienced
by the authors of these projects, at the expedition to England not
taking place according to their first idea; the attempt they made a
second time, for the same object, with his Holiness, when they were
in Flanders, and always without giving the king any account; the
design of deserting the government of Flanders, when once the
expedition to England was abandoned; the secret understandings
formed in France without the king's knowledge; the resolution they
had formed, to prefer going as adventurers into France, with six
thousand foot and one thousand horse, to filling the highest
offices; lastly, the very strong language with which the prince, in
his letters, expressed his grief and despair. The result of all
this seemed, that there was reason to fear some great resolution,
and the execution of some great blow or other which might trouble
the public peace, and the tranquility of his majesty's states, and,
moreover, that Prince Don Juan might himself be ruined, if they let
the secretary, Escovedo, remain any longer with him."

What a gap there is in the whole truth in this story, on which Perez
subsequently built his defence, we shall now briefly explain. With one
considerable exception, historians concur in their belief of the amours
of Perez with the Princess of Eboli. Ranke, who is satisfied with the
political explanation given by Perez of the murder of Escovedo,
discredits the notion of Perez being a lover of the princess, because
she was old, and blind of one eye, and because his own wife, Dona Juana
Coello, evinced towards him, throughout his trial, the most devoted and
constant affection.

"The last reason," says our author, with perfect truth, "goes for
nothing." The love of woman buries her wrongs without a tear. "As to the
objection," M. Mignet proceeds to remark, "derived from the age and
appearance of the Princess of Eboli, it has not much found