l, certain
actresses soon sprang into popular favor and vied with each other for
the plaudits of the multitude. In theory the stage was frowned at by the
Church, the plays were very often coarse and licentious in character,
and the moral influence of this source of popular amusement was
decidedly bad; but the tinsel queens of that age, as in the present
time, were invested with a glamour which had an all-compelling charm,
and noble protectors were never wanting. Among the actresses of
notoriety in this Spanish carnival of life, the most celebrated were
Maria Riquelme, Francisca Beson, Josefa Vaca, and Maria Calderon,
familiarly known to the theatre-goers as _la bella Calderona_. Philip
IV., as much infatuated as the meanest of his subjects by the glitter of
the footlights, never lost an opportunity when at his capital to spend
his evenings in the royal box, where he showed his appreciation by most
generous applause; and he was soon on familiar terms with many of the
reigning favorites. Among them all, La Calderona seemed to please him
most, and she was soon the recipient of so many royal favors that no one
could doubt her conquest. Other lovers were discarded, she became
Philip's mistress, and she it was who bore to him a son, the celebrated
Don Juan, who became in later years a leader in revolt against his
father's widowed queen.

In the midst of this troubled life, divided between the pleasures of the
chase, the excitements of the theatre, and the many vexations of state,
Philip was reserved in his dealings with his fellow men, and few
fathomed the depth of his despair in the face of the approaching
national ruin. One person seemed to have read the sadness of his heart,
however, and that person, with whom he had a most extended
correspondence, was, strange to relate, a woman, and a nun of the most
devout type, Sister Maria de Agreda! The history of this woman is most
interesting, and she seems to have been the one serious and restraining
element in all that scene of gay riot. The Agreda family, belonging to
the lesser nobility, lived on the frontiers of Aragon, and there, in
their city of Agreda, they had founded in 1619 a convent, following a
pretended revelation which had directed them to this holy undertaking.
The year after the convent was completed, Maria de Agreda, who was then
eighteen, and her mother, took the veil at the same time and retired
from the vanity of the world. In seven years the young girl was mad