re-emerged from the tempest, Philip had overthrown the ancient
constitution of Aragon, crushed its nobility, destroyed its
independence, and incorporated its territory with the Spanish monarchy.

Perez, although compelled to fly, bade farewell for ever to his native
land with reluctance. There is something touching in the familiar image
which he uses to describe his own condition: "He was like a dog of a
faithful nature, who, though beaten and ill-treated by his master and
household, is loth to quit the walls of his dwelling." He found at
Bearn, in the court of the sister of Henry IV. of France, a
resting-place from hardship, but not a safe asylum from persecution.
During his brief residence there, three separate attempts to assassinate
him were detected or defeated; nor were these the only plots directed
against his person. M. Mignet quotes a pleasant variety of the species
from the lively pen of Perez himself.

"'When Perez was at Pau, they went so far as to try to make use of
a lady of that country, who lacked neither beauty, gallantry, nor
distinction; a notable woman, an Amazon, and a huntress; riding, as
they say, up hill and down dale. One would have thought they wanted
to put to death some new Samson. In short, they offered her ten
thousand crowns and six Spanish horses to come to Pau, and form an
intimacy with Perez; and, after having charmed him by her beauty,
to invite and entice him to her house, in order, some fine evening,
to deliver him up, or allow him to be carried off in a hunting
party. The lady, either being importuned, or desirous, from a
curiosity natural to her sex, to know a man whom authority and his
persecutors considered of so much consequence, or, lastly, for the
purpose of warning the victim herself, feigned, as the sequel makes
us believe, to accept the commission. She travelled to Pau, and
made acquaintance with Perez. She visited him at his house.
Messengers and love-letters flew about like hail. There were
several parties of pleasure; but, in the end, the good disposition
of the lady, and her attachment for Perez, gained the victory over
interest, that metal of base alloy, which defiles more than any act
of love; so that she herself came and revealed to him the
machinations from beginning to end, together with the offers made,
and all that had followed. She did much more. She off