Thus, though every thing in which royalty appeared before the public was conducted with great pomp and parade, this external magnificence was then, and always has been, an outside show, without any thing corresponding to it within. The great mass of the people of England saw only the outside. They gazed with admiration at the spectacle of magnificence and splendor which royalty always presented to their eyes, whenever they beheld it from the distant and humble points of view which their position afforded them. Prince Charles, on the other hand, was behind the curtain. His childhood and youth were exposed fully to all the real influences of these scenes. The people of England submitted to be governed by such men, not because they thought them qualified to govern, or that the circumstances under which their characters were formed were such as were calculated to form, in a proper manner, the minds of the rulers of a Christian people. They did not know what those circumstances were. In their conceptions they had grand ideas of royal character and life, and imagined the splendid palaces which some saw, but more only heard of, at Westminster, were filled with true greatness and glory. They were really filled with vulgarity, vice, and shame. James was to them King James the First, monarch of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and Charles was Charles, Prince of Wales, Duke of York, and heir-apparent to the throne. Whereas, within the palace, to all who saw them and knew them there, and really, so far as their true moral position was concerned, the father was "Old Dad," and the son, what his father always called him till he was twenty-four years old, "Baby Charley." CHAPTER II. THE EXPEDITION INTO SPAIN. 1623 The Palatinate.--Wars between the Protestants and Catholics.--Frederic dispossessed of his dominions.--Flees to Holland.--Elizabeth.--James's plan.--Donna Maria.--Negotiations with Spain.--Obstacles and delays.--Buckingham's proposal.--Nature of the adventure.--Buckingham's dissimulation.--Charles persuaded.--James's perplexity.--He reluctantly yields.--James's fears.--Royal captives.--Buckingham's violence.--Angry disputes.--James's distress.--Charles and Buckingham depart.--Charles and Buckingham's boisterous conduct.--Arrested at Dover.--Arrival at Paris.--Princess Henrietta.--Bourdeaux.--Entrance into Madrid.--Bristol's amazement.--Charles's reception.--Grand procession.--Spanish etiquette.--The Infanta kept secluded.--Athletic amusements.--Charles steals an interview.--Irregularities.--Delays and difficulties.--Letters.--The magic picture.--The pope's dispensation.--The treaty signed.--Buckingham is hated.--He breaks off the match.--Festivities at the Escurial.--Taking leave.--Return to London.--The Spanish match broken off.