"You have done me a great favour in ordering Antonio Pérez to let me know what he is writing to the ministers in Italy, about the way I am to be addressed, and not only shall I be very pleased to conform to the wishes of Y.M. in this, but also it will be my delight to guess your desires, in order that I may follow them as I ought to do; only I make bold to say, with all the humility and respect due, that it would be a boundless favour and grace if Y.M. would be pleased to communicate directly with me about what you desire, for two reasons; the chief one being that it is now your pleasure that any of your ministers should confer with me as to your wishes, as none of them are under as great an obligation to do them as I am; the other reason is that before leaving I ought to have given some notice that what Y.M. wished should have been done and with less fuss; and inasmuch as God has made me Y.M.'s brother, I cannot help saying, or continuing to feel, that personally I am worth little, but when everyone thought that I deserved more from Y.M., and expected to see it, by Y.M.'s orders I see exactly the opposite, putting me on the common level, which I do not deserve, because I have put the service of Y.M. before vanity and everything else, of which God is my witness, and it has given me so much pain to see how little you are satisfied with me, that often I think that if it is Y.M.'s pleasure I will seek some other way of serving you, as in the present one I seem so unfortunate in obtaining what I yearn for. Meanwhile I will obey Y.M.'s orders as far as possible, although it will be difficult amid the adulation I am told exists in Italy. Y.M. will believe me that I desire neither honour nor good except that with it one can serve the better, but the consideration of this detail does not affect me, only to execute your orders, which for no reason will I fail to do. "Our Lord, etc. From Barcelona, July 12, 1571." This was the first sign that Philip II gave his brother D. John of Austria of the unjust want of confidence which the ingenious Antonio Pérez knew how to sow in his path, to whom belongs the doubtful honour of being the only man who for long years could deceive and often pervert the straight and calm judgment of the prudent Monarch. CHAPTER VI