John, of Austria, 1547-1578; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598
"Tuesday, before receiving the Holy Sacrament, he called me and
sent away his confessor and the rest, and I kneeling down, he
said, 'Luis Quijada, I see I am ending little by little: for
which I give much thanks to God, because it is His Will. You
will tell the King, my son, to take care of these servants in
general, those that have served me here until death, and that he
should use Gilaone (Guillerno Wykesloot, the barber) as he
wishes, and order that in this house no guests should be allowed
to enter.' What he said about his wishes for me I do not care to
say, being an interested party. Also he wished me to say other
things to Y.M. which I will tell you when God brings me to Y.M.
Please God it may be with the happiness all desire."
In this last conversation that the Emperor had with Quijada he left a
strange remembrance to Jeromín. He commissioned his steward after his
death to give to the child Jeromín, as his property and for his use, the
old mule which he rode on, the blind pony he had kept, and the little
mule that with the other two animals formed all his stud.
At midday the Archbishop of Toledo, Fr. Bartolomé de Carranza, arrived
in Yuste, a robust old man with a loud, disagreeable voice, and long,
ill-kept white hair. He rode on a white mule, and was wrapped in a brown
garment over his Dominican habit, and over that wore a crumpled cloak
with a magnificent pectoral cross, a present from Mary Tudor, Queen of
England. His enormous suite followed him to Cuacos, but he came alone to
Yuste with the Dominicans who accompanied him, Fr. Pedro de Sotomayor
and Fr. Diego Jiménez. The Archbishop knelt when he reached the
Emperor's bedside and kissed his hand. The dying man looked at him for a
long time without speaking, and then ordered that a chair should be
given him, and asked for news of the King, his son, whom the Archbishop
had left in Flanders; but after a few words the Emperor interrupted him
abruptly, and ordered him to go and rest in his inn. Charles mistrusted
the Archbishop because the first suspicions had come to his ears of that
heresy which shortly landed the unlucky old man in prison, persecuted by
some, defended by others, and discussed by all, even to our times.
So the Archbishop went to dine in Luis Quijada's house at Cuacos, where
Doña Magdalena was awaiting him. The grave condition of the Emperor had
made a great sensation in the village; the whole neighbourhood was to be
found in the street, making a cordon from Yuste to the church of the
place, where continual prayer was offered before the Blessed Sacrament.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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