"The following day, the 25th September, he confessed like one chosen
of God, telling me that he knew his days to be numbered, and that his
only regret was the little he had done for the service of God and of
your Majesty; but that he trusted in God and in the Virgin Mary, that
they would take this death as for their glory, for that of the Catholic
Church, and of your Majesty, and for God's service; and that he wished
to make the world understand that, as during life he had not been
devoted to the church, as had originally been his father's wish, in
death he wished to be so, in as much as depended upon him. He besought
his brother and master to remember him of his servants, to whom he
owed much for being good and faithful to God, to himself, and to your
Majesty: and very many of them were poor, having served him by land and
by sea; many of them, moreover, had been taken away from their homes,
and he had not a maravedi wherewith to pay them their salaries, which
had been owing to them for some time. Your Majesty was also to remember
his highness's mother, whom he regarded and loved as a mother, and a
young brother, whom he knew to be such. He likewise mentioned other
persons, whose names in due time I will make known unto your Majesty.
His highness concluded by saying, 'since on earth I do not possess
an acre I might call my own, is it not just, Reverend father, that I
should desire some space in heaven?' His highness then desired that
Otavio de Gonzagua should have the command, on account of the good
will which he saw in him to your Majesty's affairs, as well as to his
highness. His highness ended by saying that, if he were not deserving
of having his bones placed beside those of his lord and father, he
desired to be buried at the church of our Lady of Monserrat, whom all
his life through he held in particular affection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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