money, or any means of establishing the domination of the king, his brother, and of supporting his own renown, he took a disgust to a position which offered him no issue. Accustomed, hitherto, to rapid and brilliant enterprises, he desponded at his impotency; and already a prey to gnawing cares, which were leading him slowly to the tomb, he demanded his recall. In the ardour of his desire he wrote to Perez, as the latter pretends, "that his life, his honour, and his soul depended on his quitting that command; that he should certainly lose the two former if he delayed in his resolution, and, with them, all the fruit of his past and future services; and that the third, even through despair, ran also great risks." * He says, in another letter, "that he should return at the moment they expected him the least; even though he thought he should receive a deadly punishment;

... for they would certainly find it reasonable that he should risk a case of disobedience, in order not to undergo a case of infamy."† Perez charges Escovedo with having written, about the same period, at one time, that Don Juan would think it more honourable to pass as an adventurer into France, with six thousand foot and one thousand horse, than to be the governor of Flanders, or to return to Spain and become a courtier in order to govern every thing with his friends; then, again, that the object of his am

* Memorial de Antonio Perez, p. 320.

bition was to have a canopied seat (siège à dais) or the honours of an Infant *; and to have added: “Let us aid Señor Don Juan in whatever he may wish; when it becomes necessary, he himself will come to assist our projects." †

Nevertheless, Don Juan did not leave Flanders, but sent Escovedo to Spain to convey his bitter complaints, his pressing demands, and his vague projects. It was during this journey that Escovedo was murdered. To explain how Philip decided upon ordering his death, I will let Perez speak. After having said that new negotiations had been begun at Rome for the invasion of England; after having stated the plans of confederation plotted between Don Juan and the Guise family, plans of which we shall speak presently; after having quoted an extraordinarily audacious saying which he attributes to Escovedo, who, before going to France, had pretended that, "when once they were masters of England, they might aspire to become even masters of Spain, by opening for themselves the entrance of Santander and the citadel of that town, and constructing a fort upon the rock of Mogro ‡," Perez adds: "The king

* Memorial de Antonio Perez, p. 322.

+ Ibid., p. 321.

"Lenguage que traya Escovedo autes de yr à Flandes: que siendo dueños de Ingalatierra, se podrian alçar con España, con tener la entrada de la villa de Santander, y el castillo de la dicha villa, y con un fuerte en la petra de Mogro, alegando aqui que quando se perdiò España, desde las montanas se recobrò." Ibid., p. 326,

having well weighed all these circumstances, as well as the impatience shown by Prince Don Juan for them to send him back his secretary Escovedo, writing, for instance: Money, more money, and Escovedo!' his majesty thought proper to inquire the opinion of the Marquis de Los Velez, Don Pedro Fajardo, counsellor of state and Majordomo-major of Queen Anne, acquainted with all these affairs, and to consult him as to what would be proper to be done, and the resolution that must be taken in so serious a conjuncture. Perez did so Perez did so by the aid of the original papers themselves, and by conversations and conferences upon the whole of what has just been related.

They took a review of the various schemes that had been planned in favour of Prince Don Juan, ever since his residence in Italy, without the king having any communication or perfect knowledge of them: they called to mind the grievous disappointment experienced by the authors of these projects at the expedition to England not taking place according to their first idea; the attempt they made a second time, for the same object, with his Holiness, when they were in Flanders, and always without giving the king any account; the design of deserting the government of Flanders, when once the expedition to England was abandoned; the secret understandings formed in France without the king's knowledge;

venturers into France with six thousand foot and one thousand horse, to filling the highest offices; lastly, the very strong language with which the prince, in his letters, expressed his grief and despair. The result of all this seemed, that there was reason to fear some great resolution and the execution of some great blow or other which might trouble the public peace and the tranquillity of his majesty's states, and, moreover, that Prince Don Juan might himself be ruined, if they let the secretary Escovedo remain any longer with him.” *

The death of Escovedo was, in consequence, resolved upon. The Marquis de Los Velez was of this opinion. "He opined so well,” adds Perez, "for the suitableness of the resolution that was taken, that he said, if they asked him, with the consecrated bread in his mouth, whose life was the most important to sacrifice, Juan Escovedo's or that of any of those who were the most dangerous, he would affirm, it was Escovedo's." t

There is, doubtless, some truth in the narrative of Perez; but I cannot verify it all. I ought even to say that I have much difficulty in believing that Escovedo ever entertained the extravagant idea of making the prince, his master, undertake the conquest of Spain against Philip, after having effected that of England against Elizabeth. On the part of

* Memorial de Antonio Perez, pp. 327, 328.

† Ibid., p. 330.

Don Juan, this idea is impossible: it was contrary to his fidelity and good sense. He was always loyal towards his brother, and, if he had some rather chi merical designs, he had none that were culpable and senseless. What would incline me to doubt that either of them had this design is, that there is an important point upon which I find myself enabled to state both a want of exactness and some exaggeration in the facts advanced by Perez. This point concerns the relations of Don Juan with the Guise family and their factious but concealed concert, which added to the alarms of Philip. Perez pretends that Vargas Mexia, the Spanish ambassador at Paris, denounced this concert to the king. He seems to fix this denunciation in the spring of 1577, in mixing it up with an account of the projects attributed to Don Juan during the months of March, April, and May, in that year, and saying: "It happened that they received notice by letters from Vargas Mexia, who then occupied the post of ambassador in France, that there were persons sent by Don Juan, ever coming and going, at that court," &c. Now Vargas Mexia was named ambassador to the court of France, to succeed Don Diego de Çuniga, only in October 1577, and arrived in Paris only on the 10th of December. So much for the date; now for the facts. Perez adds: "Though the persons, sent by Don Juan, appeared during a certain time in public, it