Narrative and Miscellaneous PapersDe Quincey, Thomas
General
Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays; English fiction
Upon this shore stood, ready to receive her, in front of all this mighty
crowd, the Prime Minister of Spain, the same Conde Olivarez, who but
one year before had been so haughty and so defying to our haughty and
defying Duke of Buckingham. But a year ago the Prince of Wales was in
Spain, and he also was welcomed with triumph and great joy, but not with
the hundredth part of that enthusiasm which now met the returning nun.
And Olivarez, that had spoken so roughly to the English Duke, to
_her_ 'was sweet as summer.' [Footnote: Griffith in Shakspeare, when
vindicating, in that immortal scene with Queen Catherine, Cardinal
Wolsey.] Through endless crowds of festive compatriots he conducted
her to the King. The King folded her in his arms, and could never be
satisfied with listening to her. He sent for her continually to his
presence--he delighted in her conversation, so new, so natural, so
spirited--he settled a pension upon her at that time, of unprecedented
amount, in the case of a subaltern officer; and by _his_ desire, because
the year 1625 was a year of jubilee, she departed in a few months
from Madrid to Rome. She went through Barcelona; there and everywhere
welcomed as the lady whom the King delighted to honor. She travelled to
Rome, and all doors flew open to receive her. She was presented to his
Holiness, with letters from his most Catholic majesty. But letters there
needed none. The Pope admired her as much as all before had done. He
caused her to recite all her adventures; and what he loved most in her
account, was the sincere and sorrowing spirit in which she described
herself as neither better nor worse than she had been. Neither proud
was Kate, nor sycophantishly and falsely humble. Urban VIII. it was
that then filled the chair of St. Peter. He did not neglect to raise
his daughter's thoughts from earthly things--he pointed her eyes to the
clouds that were above the dome of St. Peter's cathedral--he told her
what the cathedral had told her in the gorgeous clouds of the Andes
and the vesper lights, how sweet a thing, how divine a thing it was for
Christ's sake to forgive all injuries, and how he trusted that no more
she would think of bloodshed. He also said two words to her in Latin,
which, if I had time to repeat a Spanish bishop's remark to Kate some
time afterwards upon those two mysterious words, with Kate's most
natural and ingenuous answer to the Bishop upon what she supposed to
be their meaning, would make the reader smile not less than they made
myself. You know that Kate _did_ understand a little Latin, which,
probably, had not been much improved by riding in the Light Dragoons. I
must find time, however, whether the press and the compositors are in a
fury or not, to mention that the Pope, in his farewell audience to his
dear daughter, whom he was to see no more, gave her a general license
to wear henceforth in all countries--even _in partibus Infidelium_--a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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