Son mozos, gastan humor, Sigue cada cual su gusto, Hacen donaire del vicio, Gala de la travesura, Grandeza de la locura, Hace al fin la edad su oficio.[4] Footnote 4: They are boys, prodigal of mirth, Each one following his own will, They make light of vice, A glory of mischief, A grandeur of folly, In short—boys will be boys. But there were students in Alcalá of the highest nobility, who paid their court to the Princes and shared their pleasures and exercises, and one of these, who appears to have been D. Rodrigo de Mendoza, second son of the Duque del Infantado, provided D. John with some of the romances so much in fashion at the time. The effect of these readings on D. John's mind was that of throwing a lighted torch down on a dry stubble field. Certainly his good sense reduced the fabulous deeds of Amadis and Palmerin to the limits of possibility, but the spirit, and the inclination to what is daring, chivalrous and romantic, inflamed his already ardent imagination, and made his heart glow, having from his childhood always been drawn to what was great and marvellous. To honour God and succour the poor, as Doña Magdalena de Ulloa had taught him, always attracted him; his dream was to serve the King loyally, as Luis Quijada had taught him, and on his own account to do great deeds, to which he seemed to be called by the blood of Charles V coursing through his veins. But, after his novel-reading, all this seemed to him small and insignificant, without glamour or glory, and besides a God to honour, a King to serve, and renown to earn, he then added a kingdom to conquer for the faith of Christ, and a lady to love, not in the low, sinful way of Prince Carlos and Mariana Gardeta, but spiritually and platonically, like the Oriana of Amadis of Gaul. These dreams, pondered over during those two years, determined for ever the great qualities and perceptible faults of D. John of Austria. While he was in this state of mind he learnt, we do not know how, that his brother D. Philip had begged a Cardinal's hat for him from the Pope Paul IV, but this was not really the wish of Charles V, as expressed in his will; because the Emperor never orders that D. John should be forced into the Church, or even adorned with the purple of a Cardinal; but only desires "that he should be well guided, that of his free and spontaneous will he should take the habit in some house of reformed friars, to which he shall be led without undue pressure or extortion whatever." The sorrow and indignation of D. John on learning this news was boundless, and he hastened to tell it to the good and discreet Doña Magdalena, bemoaning his lost illusions with all the bitterness and despair of youth.