ved the plague might have been stayed: now, it was
going on from bad to worse. He had some consolation, however, in
recollecting how steadily he refused to hear the points at issue argued
in his presence. At this price he had declined to purchase the support
of some of the protestant princes of the empire, when marching against
the duke of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse; he had declined it even
when flying, with only ten horsemen, before the army of duke Maurice. He
knew how dangerous it was, especially for those who, like himself, had
little learning, to parley with heretics, who were armed with reasons so
apt and so well ordered. Suppose one of their arguments had been planted
in his soul; how did he know that he could ever have got it rooted out?
So have many better men of every form of faith learned to look upon
their belief as something external to themselves, to be kept hid away in
the dark, lest, like ice, it should melt in the free air and light of
heaven.

The grave was now in all his thoughts. One morning, his barber, a
malapert of the old comedies, ventured to ask him what he was thinking
of. "I am thinking," replied Charles, "that I have here a sum of two
thousand crowns, which I cannot employ better than in performing my
funeral." "Do not let that trouble your Majesty," rejoined the fellow;
"if you die and we live, we will take care to bury you with all honors."
"You do not perceive, Nicolas," said the emperor, rather pursuing his
own train of thought than replying to the barber, "that it makes a
difference in a man's walking, if he holds the light before or behind
him." The same opinion had been held by a bishop of Liege, Cardinal
Erard de la Mark, whom Charles must have known, and whose example
perhaps suggested the idea. For many years before 1558, the year of his
death, did this prelate rehearse his obsequies, annually carrying his
coffin to the tomb which he had prepared for himself in his cathedral.

Before deciding on the step, however, the emperor determined to submit
the question to his confessor, Fray Juan de Regla. They had just been
hearing the service for the souls of his parents and his wife. Speaking
of such rites in general, he asked the friar if they were most effectual
when performed before, or when performed after, death. Fray Juan, after
due deliberation, gave his verdict in favor of solemnities which
preceded decease. "Then," said the emperor, "I will have my funeral
performed while