y
paid his guest the unusual compliment of lodging him in his own
quarters, but even busied himself in making preparations for his
reception. To make his chamber as comfortable as conventual austerity
would permit, Luis Quixada had hung it with some tapestry which remained
in the meagre imperial wardrobe. But this his master, judging that it
would rather offend than please the visitor, caused him to take down,
supplying its place with some black cloth, of which he despoiled the
walls of his own cell.

The royal recluse received the noble missionary with a cordiality which
was more foreign to his nature than to his habits, but which on this
occasion was probably sincere. Both had withdrawn themselves from the
pomps and vanities of life; but, custom being stronger than reason or
faith, their greeting was as ceremonious as if it had been exchanged
beneath the canopy of state at Augsburg or Valladolid. Not only did the
Jesuit, lapsing into the grandee, kneel to kiss the hand of Charles, but
he even insisted on remaining upon his knees during the interview.
Charles, who addressed him as duke, of course frequently entreated him
to rise and be seated, but in vain. "I humbly beg your majesty," said
he, "to suffer me to continue kneeling; for I feel," he added, in a
spirit of extravagant loyalty, "as if, in the presence of your majesty,
I were in the presence of God himself."

Being aware of his host's intentions with regard to himself and his
habit, he anticipated them, by asking permission to give an account of
his life since he made religious profession, and of the reasons which
had led him to join the Jesuits,--"of which matters," he said, "I will
speak to your majesty as I would speak to my Maker, who knows that all
that I am going to say is true." Leave being granted, he narrated, at
great length, how, being resolved to enter a monastic order, he had
prayed, and caused many masses to be said, for God's guidance in making
his choice; how, at first, he inclined to the rule of St. Francis, but
found that, whenever his thoughts went in that direction, he was seized
with an unaccountable melancholy; how he turned his eyes to the other
orders, one after another, and always with the same gloomy result; how,
on the contrary, when it at last occurred to him to join the Company,
the Lord had filled his soul with peace and joy; how it frequently
happened in the great orders that churchmen arrived at higher honors in
this life than