[340] Lorea, Vida de Pio Quinto, cap. xxiv. § ii.--Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 80.--Rosell, Historia del Combate Naval, pp. 124, 125. [341] Philip, in a letter to his brother, dated from the Escorial in the following November, speaks of his delight at receiving this trophy from the hands of Figueroa. (See the letter, ap. Rosell, Hist. del Combate Naval, Apénd. No. 15.) The standard was deposited in the Escorial, where it was destroyed by fire in the year 1671.--Documentos Inéditos tom. iii. p. 256. [342] "Y S. M. no se alteró, ni demudó, ni hizo sentimiento alguno, y se estuvo con el semblante y serenidad que antes estaba, con el qual semblante estuvo hasta que se acabaron de cantar las vísperas."--Memorias de Fray Juan de San Gerónimo, Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. p. 258. [343] The third volume of the Documentos Inéditos contains a copious extract from a manuscript in the Escorial written by a Jeronymite monk. In this the writer states that Philip received intelligence of the victory from a courier despatched by Don John, while engaged at vespers in the palace monastery of the Escorial. This account is the one followed by Cabrera (Filipe Segundo, p. 696) and by the principal Castilian writers. Its inaccuracy, however, is sufficiently attested by two letters written at the time to Don John of Austria, one by the royal secretary Alzamora, the other by Philip himself. According to their account, the person who first conveyed the tidings was the Venetian minister; and the place where they were received by the king was the private chapel of the palace of Madrid, while engaged at vespers on All-Saints eve. It is worthy of notice, that the secretary's letter contains no hint of the _nonchalance_ with which Philip is said to have heard the tidings. The originals of these interesting despatches still exist in the National Library at Madrid. They have been copied by Señor Rosell for his memoir (Apénd. Nos. 13, 15). One makes little progress in history before finding that it is much easier to repeat an error than to correct it. [344] "Y ansi á vos (despues de Dios) se ha de dar el parabien y las gracias della, como yo os las doy, y á mi de que por mano de persona que tanto me toca como la vuestra, y á quien yo tanto quiero, se haya hecho un tan gran negocio, y ganado vos tanta honra y gloria con Dios y con todo el mundo."--Rosell, Historia del Combate Naval, Apénd. No. 15. [345] Carta del secretario Alzamora á Don Juan de Austria, Madrid, Nov. 11, 1571, ap. Rosell, Historia del Combate Naval, Apénd. No. 13. [346] See Ford, Handbook for Spain, vol. ii. p. 697. [347] Ercilla has devoted the twenty-fourth canto of the Araucana to the splendid episode of the battle of Lepanto. If Ercilla was not, like Cervantes, present in the fight, his acquaintance with the principal actors in it makes his epic, in addition to its poetical merits, of considerable value as historical testimony.