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DON CARLOS,

SON OF PHILIP THE SECOND OF SPAIN.

WHETHER the portrait of Richard the Third, as drawn by Shakspeare, very closely resembles the last of our Plantagenet kings, is a question still to be decided; but that Don Carlos, as delineated by dramatists, is totally unlike the heir of Philip of Spain, appears beyond all reasonable doubt. A youth with a large head, a swarthy countenance, an expression half fierce, half foolish, a rickety frame, a deformed figure, one shoulder too high, one leg too long, enervated by debauchery, but still capable of consuming sixteen pound of fruit at a sitting-such was the Hapsburg Prince who has, with poetic license, been depicted as a fine hero of romance. And yet this boy was coveted by potentates and queens as a son-in-law; for he was heir to an empire which the Hapsburgs, by politic marriages, and their subjects, like Cortes and Pizarro, by fortunate adventures, had rendered the richest and most magnificent in the world-an empire on which the sun never set.

When that Duke of Burgundy known as Charles

the Rash fell at Nanci, before the serried phalanx of Switzerland, the hand of his daughter Mary and the sovereignty of the Netherlands fell to the lot of the Emperor Maximilian. While holding her court at Bruges, and riding forth one day to enjoy the noble sport of hawking, Mary of Burgundy, in leaping a fence, was thrown violently against a tree. She died from the effects of the accident; but one son, Philip, the issue of her marriage to the Emperor, espoused Jane, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and, in right of that princess, figured as King of Castille. The sudden death of Philip, when in the pride of manly beauty, so affected his widow that she became the victim of hopeless insanity, and passed the remainder of her life in a lonely tower, where she diverted herself with chasing cats. Before becoming insane, however, the daughter of Ferdinand had given birth to a prince, who afterwards, as Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, carried on with the first Francis that struggle which, for many long years, kept Europe in agitation. The son of this great Emperor was Philip the Second, who sent to our shores "the Invincible Armada."

While Philip was still Prince of Spain he wedded a daughter of the King of Portugal; and that princess, on the 8th of July, 1545, became mother of an heir to Spain and the Indies. The royal lady survived this event only a few days; and Philip, taking little interest in Carlos, as his son was named, left him almost entirely

to the care of the Princess Joanna. Unfortunately, the health of the boy was delicate, and his frame feeble, and his aunt indulged every humour to a dangerous degree. Carlos early manifested an impatience of temper and an arrogance of disposition. As he advanced in boyhood he was intrusted for education to a tutor of learning and piety; but the Prince treated his studies with the indifference of a spoiled child. He showed, however, sparks of a military spirit, liked to see soldiers, and listened with delight to stories about war.

Carlos was twelve years old when Charles the Fifth, weary of grandeur and satiated with empire, sought seclusion in the convent of St. Just. On his way thither the Emperor halted for a while at Valladolid, had an interview with his grandson, related the events of his career, and "fought his battles o'er again" for the boy's amusement. On hearing how his grandsire had nearly been captured at Innspruck; how he had fled from his foes; and how he had escaped over the Alps in a litter, Carlos exclaimed, "I never would have fled." In vain did the aged warrior expatiate on the necessity there was for doing so-his grandson only repeated the words, "I never would have fled." Charles, pleased with such a mark of spirit, betook himself to the company of monks, with the conviction that the boy inherited his genius, as well as his blood and his name. He seemed delighted with the idea that his own youth was thus renewed in his grandson.

From childhood Carlos was inclined to acts of cruelty. He one day received a snake as a present. The reptile, following the bent of its nature, bit somebody in his presence; and the Prince, following the bent of his, retaliated by biting off its head. When, on occasions, Carlos returned from the chase, he was in the habit of torturing the hares and other animals he caught, expressing pleasure while witnessing their agony, and carrying his cruelty so far as to roast them alive.

Alarmed at such proceedings, the tutor of Carlos endeavoured to mitigate the Prince's ferocity by reading him daily from "Cicero De Officiis," and not without some prospect of success; for, with all his faults, the character of this boy had a bright side. He was truthful, regular in his religious devotions, generous to his dependents, regarded with attachment by those who saw most of him and knew him best, and open-handed to the needy. "Who," he was in the habit of saying, "will give to the poor if princes do not ?"

About the time when Carlos was in his sixteenth year there occurred events which exercised a baneful influence on his character and career. At that period the Queen of England, so notorious as "the Bloody Mary," succeeded her brother Edward; and Philip, who had for years been a widower, became a candidate for her hand. The royal maiden, betrothed thirty years earlier to Philip's father, had now little time to lose, and a contract of marriage was soon concluded. One

clause stipulating that any son with whom Mary might be blessed should inherit the Netherlands, Carlos indignantly swore by St. James that in such an event he would challenge the interloper to mortal combat; but no son appeared to cheer Mary's heart, and Philip soon grew tired of a spouse who in every respect was unattractive.

It happened, however, that Philip used his influence to draw England into a quarrel with France. This resulted in the loss of Calais; but the victories of St. Quentin and Gravelines turned the fortune of the war in favour of Spain, and the King of France was fain to negotiate, at Cambresis, a treaty of peace, by which he renounced his Italian claims, and contracted to give Carlos the hand of his daughter Elizabeth, who had in other days been the destined bride of Edward of England. Ere this treaty could be signed a single event occurred to change the fortune of individuals and the fate of nations.

When the very brief reign of Lady Jane Grey terminated, and Mary Tudor was invested with the symbols of sovereignty at Westminster, the crown was carried by her sister Elizabeth. "It is very heavy," whispered Elizabeth to the ambassador of France. "Be patient," said the Frenchman; "it will seem lighter when on your own head." No prophetic power was necessary to be aware of the probability of the daughter of Anne Boleyn outliving the daughter of Katherine of Arragon. When five years had passed, Mary, sorrowing