Philip's behalf, and Fernando de Valdés, Archbishop of Seville, called upon to contribute to the royal funds 150,000 ducats. The following dialogue, related in Ochoa's own words, sufficiently reveals the astuteness both of Philip's emissary and of the Bishop: "He averred (the Archbishop to Ochoa) upon oath, that the devils might take him if ever he had possessed 100,000, or 60,000, or 30,000 ducats in all; for that he had ever spent liberally and bestowed much in charity, in addition to buying benefices and other property to the value of 150,000 ducats; and that this was surely so. Το which I made reply: 'Señor, 'tis not sufficient that you should say it, for you have now been Archbishop of Seville for ten years and more; the poorest year of which has brought you 70,000 ducats at the least.' He answered that, indeed, the archbishopric had brought him 60,000 ducats yearly. 'Then,' said I, 'ten years at 60,000 are 600,000, and seeing that your expenses are not at all immoderate, they should be fully covered by 10,000 yearly upon your house and living; another 10,000 in almsdeeds-the two together, 20,000, or in ten years 200,000. Then there are the 150,000 you say you have spent besides-in all, 350,000; while I apportion you 20,000 ducats yearly between household expenses and alms, besides yet another 10,000— 30,000 in all; a sum you cannot have spent, since you have never given a meal to anybody, nor fed yourself as other prelates and gentlemen do; this is notorious and the whole court knows it. All this being so, and after I have allowed you 10,000 ducats yearly over and above your purchases and expenses, together with the other purchases of 150,000 ducats' value-in all 450,000-what has become of the remaining 150,000 required to complete the whole 600,000?" "Herewith he grew disturbed, and again swore solemnly to me that he had no money, and that it was unseemly to coerce the prelates in that manner; nor was the money thus extorted expedient for the war, and how should God assist the King, and what would Christianity say to it. The upshot of the matter was that Valdés was allowed to reduce his gift to fifty thousand ducats. By hook or by crook, therefore, Philip secured sufficient resources to prosecute with greater or less completeness his singular and dangerous designs. Apart from this it is fair to acknowledge that the estimate commonly formed of him in Protestant countries is prejudiced and absurd. It is customary to represent him as a malevolent tyrant who tyrannized from sheer delight in tyranny; as a ferocious bigot-at a time when bigotry, as often as not, was germane to a nation's wholesome evolution-and as a monarch a monarch affecting a formidable behaviour, albeit at heart a weakling and poltroon, living the life of a peevish recluse and hypocritical devotee, and forsaking every genuine state affair to his ministers, generals, and soldiery, while arrogantly taking to himself the credit for their victories. Philip was one of those men-not by any means uncommon, even at present-who are consumed by suspicion of every influential person with whom they come in contact. The feature is by no means peculiar to cowards, and I have met with it in individuals whose bodily courage was beyond reproof. Whenever the folk surrounding Philip were of origin so lowly, or manners so straightforward, as to admit of no misgiving, or where their loyalty towards the throne had been established by assiduous and protracted service, the true, and I believe the better, part of Philip's character was plainly discernible. His weapon of defence against his many and dangerous secret enemies was the assassin's knife, a usage not confined by any means to Spain; but those who worked for him unswervingly and devotedly, from the architect Herrera to the masons and carpenters of the Escorial, had quite another tale to tell. Towards such servitors as these his manner, though not greatly expressive, owing to his habitually calm demeanor, was pleasantly affable; and in spite of the grotesque legends prevailing with regard to his treatment of his monster of a son, his tender affection for his children is amply exhibited by a large bulk of his private correspondence. His talents as a ruler were directed to mistaken ends, but at least he was no blockhead, and although he committed a number of serious faults, are there not occasions when it is better to transgress than to be idle-to be a malefactor in preference to a nonentity? Many of Philip's errors derived from the native eccentricity of his character, for he based his conduct essentially upon his private doubts and prejudices, and not upon tradition. His government was not completely unsuccessful, and following monarchs as wary as himself might yet, by reëngendering his policy, have continued for a long while to avert disaster from the nation; but in the case of kingcraft particular mental attributes are not bequeathable, and although Philip's routine was not unstable while he lived, it perished with him in the mean alcove that looks into the Church of the Escorial. The reigns ensuing upon that of Philip the Second deserve a different method of study, a method of a lighter kind, approaching to to the humorous. For it is impossible to deny to the Catholic Sovereigns, or the Emperor, or his son, certain elements of gravity or greatness which allow us to examine their actions without a smile. But with the accession of Philip the Third begins the comico-tragical decline of the Spanish empire. Kings degenerate into masqueraders; ministers into showmen, impresarios, and masters of the revels; armies into rabbles; the commons into mendicants or bandits. A perusal of the memoirs of those times is excellently calculated to excite the mirth of the student; albeit there are moments when the mirthfulness is prone to vanish, chased by the reflection that one is contemplating, not the innocent and honest recreation of a cheerful community, but the ravings of a dolorous and dreadful national mania. Of Philip the Third, in spite of all the mischief he induced, not much is to be said. He pushed, indeed, the building of convents with such anxiety that those for men alone exceeded, before the close |