The Papal representative was followed by Don Juan de Serica, one of the Secretaries of State, who came to visit Bassompierre on behalf of Philip III, and who informed him, “after several flattering observations, touching the satisfaction that the King felt at his arrival and the good opinion that he entertained of him,” that he would be accorded an audience so soon as his Majesty’s health would permit. “He was indeed ill,” says Bassompierre, “though everyone believed that he feigned to be so, in order to delay my audience and my despatches.” And then he goes on to relate how the unfortunate monarch had fallen a victim to those inexorable rules of Spanish Court etiquette, of which he was the central object: “His illness began on the first Friday in Lent (February 26). He was engaged on some despatches, and the day being cold, an excessively hot brazier had been put in the room where he was working. The reflection of this brazier fell so strongly on his face, that drops of sweat poured from it; but, as he was of a character never to find fault or complain of anything, he said nothing. The Marquis of Povar,[142] from whom I heard this, told me that, perceiving how the heat of the brazier was annoying him, he told the Duke of Alba,[143] who, like himself, was one of the Gentlemen of the Chamber, to take it away. But since they are very punctilious about their functions, he replied that it was the duty of the _sommeiller du corps_, the Duke of Uceda. Upon that the Marquis de Povar sent for him; but, unhappily, he had gone to look at a house which he was having built. And so, before the Duke of Uceda could be brought, the poor King was so broiled, that on the morrow he fell into a fever. The fever brought on an erysipelas, and the erysipelas, sometimes subsiding and sometimes increasing, at length ended in a petechial fever, which killed him.” During the next three days Bassompierre continued to receive visits from distinguished persons of the Court, the most important of whom was the old Duke del Infantado,[144] the mayor-domo mayor,[145] who came to see him in great state, with the four mayor-domos walking before. This old grandee, Bassompierre tells us, took a great fancy to him and rendered him many services while he was at Madrid. If poor Philip III was too unwell to grant Bassompierre an audience, he seemed anxious to make his stay in his capital as agreeable as possible. For, not only did he obtain from the Patriarch of the Indies, “who was like a Legate at the Court,” a Bull permitting him and one hundred members of his suite to eat meat in Lent, but authorised him to have plays performed at his house by the two companies of Royal players, which were amalgamated, in order to secure a stronger cast. The King paid the actors 300 reals for each performance, to which the munificent Frenchman added 1,000 out of his own pocket.