Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 04 (of 15), EnglishMorris, Charles
History
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 04 (of 15), English
Morris, Charles
Great Britain -- History
"What motive had you?" asked Charles. "What have you seen that should
turn you?"
"Marry," replied Eliot, "when I was in England, I turned the whole Bible
over to find Purgatory, and because I could not find it there I believed
there was none. But now that I have come to Spain, I have found it here,
and that your Highness is in it; whence that you may be released, we,
your Highness's servants, who are going to Paradise, will offer unto God
our utmost devotions."
A purgatory it was,--a purgatory lightened for Charles by love, he
playing the role assigned by Dante to Paolo, though the infanta was
little inclined to imitate Francesca da Rimini. Buckingham fumed and
fretted, was insolent to the Spanish ministers, and sought as earnestly
to get Charles out of Madrid as he had done to get him there, and less
successfully. But the love-stricken prince had become impracticable. His
fancy deepened as the days passed by. Such was the ardor of his passion,
that on one day in May he broke headlong through the rigid wall of
Spanish etiquette, by leaping into the garden in which the lady of his
love was walking, and addressing her in words of passion. The startled
girl shrieked and fled, and Charles was with difficulty hindered from
following her.
Only one end could come of all this. Spain and the pope had the game in
their own hands. Charles had fairly given himself over to them, and his
ardent passion for the lady weakened all his powers of resistance. King
James was a slave to his son, and incapable of refusing him anything.
The end of it all was that the English king agreed that all persecution
of Catholics in England should come to an end, without a thought as to
what the parliament might say to this hasty promise, and Charles signed
papers assenting to all the Spanish demands, excepting that he should
himself become a Catholic.
The year wore wearily on till August was reached. England and her king
were by this time wildly anxious that the prince should return. Yet he
hung on with the pitiful indecision that marked his whole life, and it
is not unlikely that the incident which induced him to leave Spain at
last was a wager with Bristol, who offered to risk a ring worth one
thousand pounds that the prince would spend his Christmas in Madrid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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