'_pallid cheeks and ashy hue in which sad death his portraiture hath writ_', (SPENSER) _wearing a rusty sugar-loaf hat and holding in his hand a common brown rosary, we see the last stage of the sumptuous Prince whose youthful bearing has been made immortal by the pencil of Titian_." (SIR WILLIAM STIRLING MAXWELL.) By Juan Pantoja de la Cruz in the Prado Gallery, Madrid. DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA'S PLACE OF BURIAL 471 _View of the Escorial and surrounding country. Present day._ _To quote Señor Baros, "The victory of St. Quentin was gained on the Feast of St. Laurence and Don Philip wished to raise an edifice in honour of the saint which should be a convent, a royal mausoleum and a palace. When the Emperor took leave of his son he had charged him to erect a worthy sepulchre for his own remains and those of the Empress. The King caused the Spanish architect Juan Bautista de Toledo to come from Naples, who designed the Escorial in the shape of a gridiron. The first stone was laid in 1563. This superb monument was finished by Juan de Herrera, 1584."_ These short notes are mostly culled from the works of Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Major Martin Hume and Señor Baros. Those on the Duque de Alba are taken from the catalogue made for the present Duke by Don Angel de Barcia, of which a portion was specially reprinted for this book. BOOK I DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA CHAPTER I Like a flock of frightened sparrows the children of Leganés arrived that afternoon at Ana de Medina's door, just as the bells were ringing for vespers. Ana's son Jeromín was the first to get there, with his big blue eyes staring and his beautiful golden hair thrown back. But there was good cause for all this, and twenty shrill voices hastened to explain it to Ana, who, startled, came to the door distaff in hand, and a scolding on her lips.