y, in Guelders and on the Austrian frontiers caused him acute pain,
although he called himself "hard to weep." No great nobleman, statesman
or financier was executed at Charles's order. He was proud of his
generalship, classing himself with Alva and Montmorenci as the best of
his day. Yet his failures nearly balanced his successes. It is true that
in his most important campaign, that against the League of Schmalkalden,
the main credit must be ascribed to his well-judged audacity at the
opening, and his dogged persistency at the close. As a soldier he must
rank very high. It was said that his being emperor lost to Spain the
best light horseman of her army. At every crisis he was admirably cool,
setting a truly royal example to his men. His mettle was displayed when
he was attacked on the burning sands of Tunis, when his troops were
driven in panic from Algiers, when in spite of physical suffering he
forded the Elbe at Muhlberg, and when he was bombarded by the vastly
superior Lutheran artillery under the walls of Ingolstadt. When blamed
for exposing himself on this last occasion, "I could not help it," he
apologized; "we were short of hands, 1 could not set a bad example."
Nevertheless he was by nature timid. Just before this very action he had
a fit of trembling, and he was afraid of mice and spiders. The force of
his example was not confined to the field. Melanchthon wrote from
Augsburg in 1530 that he was a model of continence, temperance and
moderation, that the old domestic discipline was now only preserved in
the imperial household. He tenderly loved his wife, whom he had married
for pecuniary and diplomatic reasons. Of his two well-known illegitimate
children, Margaret was born before he married, and Don John long after
his wife's death, but he felt this latter to be a child of shame. His
sobriety was frequently contrasted with the universal drunkenness of the
German and Flemish nobles, which he earnestly condemned. But on his
appetite he could place no control, in spite of the ruinous effects of
his gluttony upon his health. In dress, in his household, and in his
stable he was simple and economical. He loved children, flowers, animals
and birds. Professional jesters amused him, and he was not above a joke
himself. Maps and mechanical inventions greatly interested him, and in
later life he became fond of reading. He takes his place indeed among
authors, for he dictated the commentaries on his own career. Of music he