Philip, with a very small suite, hurried to Aragon; for already in his
absence his officers were quarrelling amongst themselves about
ridiculous questions of style and precedence, and on the very frontier
a deputation of Aragonese notables met him to ask for the dismissal of
his Commander-in-chief, Felipe Silva, the most successful General he
had; and, although not immediately, Silva, disgusted by the jealousy
that surrounded him--a Portuguese--ultimately went into retirement, to
the lasting loss of Spanish arms. Whilst Philip was busy in Aragon
ordering the coming campaign, the welcome news came to him in March
1644 of the pregnancy of his wife; but soon his joy was dashed with the
intelligence of her miscarriage and illness. The gossips said that,
attended only by the Marquis of Aytona, he rushed to Madrid secretly
for a few days to see her; but whether the cloaked cavalier who came
post from Saragossa was indeed the King is uncertain. In any case,
Philip was with his army during the summer, gradually making way before
the French, and {392} keeping up his resolution to live an exemplary
life; although the nobles and others were beginning to grumble that Don
Luis de Haro was almost as powerful a minister as his uncle Olivares
had been.
Philip was still rejoicing over the capture of the important city of
Lerida at the middle of August 1644, and the relief of Tarragona in
September, when ill news came to him of his wife's health. She had, it
seems, on the 28th September suffered some sort of choleraic attack
with erysipelas. Messengers were sent to the King, whilst the doctors,
as was their wont, bled the patient copiously until they had left her
bloodless, though with symptoms which now would be recognised at once
as those of diphtheria. Then, in their desperation, the dead body of
St. Isidore the Husbandman and the sainted image of the Atocha were
brought to the palace; though the dying woman protested that she was
unworthy to have them brought to her bedside. But the inflammation of
the throat increased, notwithstanding all the charms of the Church and
the prayers of young Baltasar Carlos, who was devotedly attached to his
mother. There was no church nor convent in Madrid that did not bring
out in procession its crucifixes and most sacred images in Prayer for
the Queen's restoration to health, and the fervent prayers of a whole
people went up in rogation that her life might be spared.
[Sidenote: Death of the Queen]