[10] An important series of letters from Olivares to the King soon after his illness, mainly about the Infantes, their characters, their friends, and their proceedings, is in Egerton MSS., British Museum, 2081, from which I have already quoted some papers on the same subject of an earlier date. The whole object of the letters is evidently to arouse the suspicion of the King against his brothers. [11] Contemporary draft, British Museum MSS., Add. 10,236 f. 382. [12] All one side of the great square was destroyed by fire a few years after the time of which we are writing (in 1631). [13] The fact of so many of the wretched houses of the capital having only one storey is explained by the oppressive arrangement which placed at the disposal of the Court one entire floor of every house of more than one storey, a right grossly abused by Court hangers-on to quarter their relatives and friends rent free upon the citizens. In Philip IV.'s time this oppressive right had been partially commuted to a payment of 250,000 ducats annually by the municipality, which was estimated to be one-sixth of the rental value of such houses. Mesonero Romanes, _El Antigua Madrid_. [14] A vivid picture of Madrid of the time is given in _El Diablo Cojuelo_, by Velez de Guevara, a judge, and favourite of Philip IV. [15] In this he only followed the recognised rule of Spanish ministers. Quevedo, writing from Madrid to his patron the Duke of Osuna, Viceroy of Sicily, shortly before Philip's accession, says: "Men here are like strumpets, every one of them has to be bought.... The Marquis of Siete Iglesias (_i.e._ Calderon) would like a present for his cabinet, and it would be worth while to send some trifle for his cell to the King's confessor." The "trifle" he did accept was a diamond reliquary worth 20,000 reals and a splendid altar jewel. [16] Carl Justi. [17] Carl Justi. [18] _Ibid._ [19] When Sir Francis Cottington went to Spain to negotiate peace in 1629, Endymion Porter asked him to try and buy these drawings by Leonardo da Vinci from D. Juan de Espina, whom everybody knows, for Lord Arundel. The half-Spanish Porter gave a good many other commissions to Cottington on his departure: some paintings by Titian, some orange-flower water, some orange confection, a dozen baskets of oranges, six barrels of large Seville olives, caraways, figs, chestnuts, marmalade, wine, gloves, perfumes, matting, wine, dried peaches, fine crocks, etc., in considerable quantities. (Record Office SP. Spain MS. 34, November 1629.) [20] At a somewhat later period Murillo sprang into fame and fortune through Philip seeing a picture of his exposed for sale here. [21] Pacheco, _Arte de la Pintura_. [22] He offended Olivares somehow in 1627, and remained in exile until the minister fell. [23] Zabaleta, _El dia de fiesta_, Coimbra, 1666.