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From the Spectator, 29 March.
CENSUS OF THE PEOPLE.

but the operas so called, by Rossini and Auber. The Prussian government, liberal as it was a few formance of operas! Nay, it not only cannot face months ago in professions, cannot stand the perRossini or Auber, but it is conscious of incompetency, and confesses the same. Now just read this confession in all its significance.

THE decennial enumeration, to be taken on the 31st of this month, seemed to be distasteful to Lord Stanley from its particularity. But the opportunity is a rare one, and ought to have been made the most of, especially under existing dilemmas. New disIn the first place, it signifies that King Frederick positions of spiritual authorities, conflicting esti- William, surrounded by an immense army, allied mates of education, the electoral franchise, criminal with Austria and Russia for a common protection, discipline, pauperism, agricultural and commercial double-tied to the European system, shakes upon interests, form at present the most interesting and agitated topics; and justice can hardly be meted in his throne if the vibrations of horse-hair and catany of these questions, unless legislation be first gut, of brass and wood, be permitted. He is so aided by full and correct returns of the number and unsafely placed, that, with his immense army, he dares not face a Neapolitan mob―upon the stage; classification of the population. Instead of excess, we fear deficiency of information, even on national he dares not let the primo tenore sing "Pêcheur, subjects, and should prefer more copious details parle bas," lest some beloved Berliner should catch than those authorized, with somewhat more strin- an idea. Frederick William has visited England, and must have seen the test to which the stability gent powers for eliciting them. But the scruples of the monarchy is put, not only at one but at two of some persons about the disclosure of ordinary opera-houses. We can suffer Alboni to sing the facts are extraordinary. Pending the last census, an eminent merchant of the city, who had nineteen patriotic air of the Italiana in Algieri without the children, pertinaciously refused to fill up his sched- slightest fear of insurrection. Tell may be per formed in three languages at once, and no one ule, lest the number might convey an impression of would think of applying the part of Gessler to Lord undue multiplication. But the truth was known; John Russell. Has it ever occurred to King Fredit was, as the French say, a great" fait accompli,' erick William, that the English plan is safer than and concealment was vain. The objections of Lord the Austrian ?-because, you see, he confesses that Stanley may have a different origin-may be more of a conservative than diffusive nature-connected even his immense armaments and grand alliances somehow with ancient protective feelings towards cannot insure him against a Mario or a Dupréz. The act also signifies a royal determination to hearth and home. It is certain that, either on continue in the present course of policy-a course scriptural grounds or some other, the prejudice based on the use of armies and police and the proagainst any enumeration of the people proved hibition of operas. Unfortunately, however, this wholly insurmountable till the commencement of the present century. In the session of 1753, a bill prohibition of operas has a self-defeating effect; for taking a census of the people was introduced by said operas. With us, when Masaniello is perit lends a peculiar force to the suggestive parts of Mr. Potter, but was violently opposed, as subver- formed at the pianoforte, the most striking fact is sive of English liberty, and meant only to facilitate parts in statistical inquiries or the exactions of the tax- apt to be the unsteadiness of the "inner" gatherer. It passed the Commons, however; but liners sing it at home, by the light of the prohi the concerted pieces; but when the beloved Beron the second reading was rejected by the Lords, bition, the salient points of the drama become as of dangerous tendency.' The mischiefs that With us Masaniello may sing resulted were numerous and great; oceans of ink. Pêcheur, parle bas" for forty nights running, to political texts. were shed in controversy, and all sorts of false facts the great profit of the manager, and not a single and theories promulgated. Dr. Price was of opin-fishmonger will think of crying "Me-karrell" in a ion, supported by some ingenious but mistaken re-lower tone; but when the beloved Berliner comes marks on births and burials, that the population had been on the decline for a century; while to that part, he finds that the king has pointed the Arthur Young, Eden, and Howlett, more truly inferred from the progress of manufactures and agriculture that there must have been an increase. This was in 1780; and Parliament, either from superstitious notions, or unwillingness to reveal the alleged decay of the country, remained quies- Frederick William consents to hold his dominions It is a vain policy, and also a costly. King cent for twenty years longer. Even in 1800 it is doubtful whether any steps would have been taken, by military occupation against its inhabitants; and had not the severe famine of that year, and the thus is entailed upon him the necessity of providing shortly previous sufferings of the people in 1795-6, police labor to look after operatic suggestions, with forcibly suggested the utility of ascertaining authen- a certain portion of standing army to act as an army of observation on the corps under the primo tenore. tically the probable sources of these national calam- It must be as expensive a plan as it is troublesome ities-whether occasioned by an increase of consumers, or by failure of farm produce. The wholesome practice has been since kept up, but at too distant intervals; and a biennial, or, as in France, a quinquennial enumeration, would be preferable, to test accurately and more frequently the rapid vicissitudes and augmenting volume of the community.

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STAGE CONSPIRACIES AND STATE ALARMS.

MASANIELLO is suppressed at Berlin, even as Tell has been-not modern imitations of those heroes,

meaning of the precept; and Berliner does speak low accordingly, and reads Schiller's Robbers, for the thousandth time, with new freshness and emphasis. Prohibitions convert dramatic points into political precepts.

and unsafe.-Ibid.

From the Examiner, 29 March. TITLES AND THEIR VALUE.

NAPOLEON in his prime asserted the pretensions and the style of a lay and military Pope-of a Charlemagne, in fact. He allowed the existence of other kings, but he marked their inferiority to himself in divers ways. One was, to invest his paladins or marshals with territorial titles in the dominions of other princes, in whom he still ao

knowledged independent sovereignty. Soult he created Duke of Dalmatia, Arrighi Duke of Padua, Talleyrand was Prince of Benevento, Oudinot Duke of Reggio. The powers of Europe submitted to those titles when there was no use in contesting them. But after 1815 they refused to receive the Imperialist titulars. The Court of Austria declared that although it would recognize any French title founded upon a victory or field of battle, even against itself, it would not recognize territorial titles such as the Duke of Dalmatia; for territorial titles conferred by a foreign sovereign implied sovereignty. The consequence was that the French nobles of Imperialist creation, except those who, like the Duke of Montebello, were named from a field of battle, were precluded from the great offices of diplomacy, in consequence of the contest which the assumption of their titles would create.

In England, foreign titles are received at a very large discount. Their worth is admitted to be not the conventional standing, but the respect that is prescriptively and popularly accorded them. But abroad titles are serious and significant appendages, and ecclesiastical titles especiaily. Were Austria, for example, at diplomatic war with Prussia, the former could not deal the latter a more terrible blow than by success in delivering over the archiepiscopal chairs of Munich or Cologne to prelates who were of the Austrian or ultra-montane Catholic interest. There is a grave difference in this matter between ourselves and abroad, so far as popular estimation is concerned.

bishop passes; and every indication is given that he is archbishop as much by royal sanction as by capitular election and papal acquiescence. But all this has its importance in Prussia, and is no precedent here. A Roman Catholic ecclesiastical title there is a very serious thing. To issue it without government sanction would be verging on high treason. To allow it without circumspection and definite purpose were a mistake not to be thought of. The Pope dares no more appoint a new Roman Catholic bishop in towns or districts where there were none before, than his Holiness dares think of flying. The development of the Roman Catholic religion has certainly as much need of a Bishop of Magdeburg as of a Bishop of St. David's; but yet, for all this plea, a Bishop of Magdeburg, or a Cardinal Archbishop of Berlin, who made his appearance in Prussia, would most assuredly be handed over to the police. And we will be bound to say, that not one Roman Catholic in Prussia would consider the government to have acted harshly or unjustly.

The papal aggression has been regarded by a section of the liberal party in this country too much with English eyes. An inroad or an insult should be judged by the idea of its value entertained by the aggressor. However lightly a citizen of London may esteem the importance of an ecclesiastic, fresh from Rome, who styles himself the Archbishop of Westminster, the Roman prelate or the Austrian minister considers it in no such light, but believes that it is a conquest made, an advantage gained, a We know what authority these foreign prelates post occupied in an enemy's territory, powerful wield, though confining themselves nominally to and convenient for annoyance. It is as the result things spiritual. We can remember the fierce of policy and calculation such as this that we should struggles about mixed marriages and philosophical judge the papal aggression, and not as either an education. The Archbishop of Cologne especially indulgence of individual vanity, or the mere natural is the first dignitary of a remote province of the product of religious necessities or ecclesiastical dePrussian monarchy, a province very generally Ro-velopment. man Catholic, and with as many differences between it and the Prussian government as Ireland with England. The whole system of law, and property, and interests, are dissimilar. In the great outburst of 1848, the Roman Catholic party and its prelates in the Rhenish provinces favored the popular movement, as the same party had done in former times in Belgium. For, although the Roman Catholics of Prussia enjoy perfect equality, they hoped, from a successful insurrection, something more than equality—that is, local ascendency, which would soon have rooted out every principle of free and Protestant teaching from Bonn, for example, and rendered that university a mere appendage to Rome or to Vienna. But as the popular movement developed itself, it took not a religious or a sacerdotal, but a strong communist tendency. So this alarmed the priests and the Archbishop of Cologne, and they all scudded back, in terror at Freiligrath and his friends, to the alliance and protection of the Prussian Protestant throne.

In all these cases, however, the authority, the great temporal power, though based on purely ecclesiastical jurisdiction, is evident. The Prussian government acknowledges this power, and sanctions this authority. It admits the title, and orders the prelate to be treated with military honors. The soldiers invariably present arms as the arch

LIKENESS IN DIFFERENCE.

THERE was a tale of feeling,
Told at eve, in a stately room,
Where the air was an odor stealing,

And the light was a gorgeous gloom ;-
And there was a story whispered

At a window, whose only blind
Was of wet vine-leaves, that glistered
And shook in the swaying wind;
Two tales that were diverse spoken,
Yet their import one, I knew,
And the language of each was broken-
And both were true!

There was a maiden queenly

Through bright halls gliding came,
Which grew brighter, as still serenely
She smiled o'er an unbreathed Name:
And there sat a maiden lonely

On the hearth, striving, line by line,
By the light of the embers only,
To spell out a Valentine.
Two hearts that were keeping duly
One time and one tune in each breast,
Both true-loved and loving truly-
And both were blest!

Household Words.

The LIVING AGE is published every Saturday, by E. LITTELL & Co., at the corner of Tremont and Bromfield Streets, Boston. Price 123 cents a number, or six dollars a year in advance. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 365.-17 MAY, 1851.

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THE 28th of September, 1556, was a great day in the annals of Laredo, in Biscay. Once a commercial station of the Romans, and, in later times, the naval arsenal whence St. Ferdinand sailed to the Guadalquivir and the conquest of Seville, its haven is now so decayed and sand-choked, that it can scarcely afford refuge to a fishing-craft. Here, however, on the day in question, three centuries ago, a fleet of seventy Flemish and Spanish sail cast anchor. From a frigate bearing the imperial standard of the house of Austria came a group of gentlemen and ladies, of whom the principal personage was a spare and sallow man, past the middle age, and plainly attired in mourning. He was received at the landing-place by the Bishop of Salamanca and some attendants, and being worn with suffering and fatigue, he was carried up from the boat in a chair. By his side walked two ladies, in widows' weeds, who appeared to be about the same age as himself, and whose pale features, both in cast and expression, strongly resembled his own. Since Columbus stepped ashore at Palos, with his red men from the New World, Spain had seen no debarkation so remarkable; for the voyagers were the Emperor Charles V. and his sisters, Mary, queen of Hungary, and Eleanor, queen of Portugal and France, now on their way from Brussels, where they had made their last appearance on the stage of the world, to those Spanish cloisters, wherein they had resolved to await the hour when the curtain should drop on life itself.

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Charles himself appears to have been powerfully affected by the scene and circumstances around him, Kneeling upon the long-desired soil of Spain, he is said to have kissed the earth, ejaculating, I salute thee, O common mother! Naked came I forth of the womb to receive the treasures of the earth, and naked am I about to return to the bosom of the universal mother." He then drew from his bosom the crucifix which he always wore, and, kissing it devoutly, returned thanks to the Saviour for having thus brought him in safety to the wished-for haven. The ocean itself furnished its comment upon the irretraceable step which he had taken. From Flushing to Laredo, the weather had been calm, and the voyage prosperous; but the evening of the day of landing closed with a storm, which shattered and dispersed the fleet, and sunk the frigate which the emperor had quitted a few hours before. This accident must have recalled to his recollection a similar escape which he had made many years before on his coronation day at Bologna. There he had just passed through a wooden gallery which connected his palace with the church where the Pope and the crown awaited him, when the props upon which the structure rested gave way, and it fell with a sudden crash, killing several persons in the street below.

The emperor's first care, after landing, was to send a message to the general of the order of St. Jerome, requiring his attendance at Valladolid, and VOL. XXIX. 19

CCCLXV. LIVING AGE.

desiring that no time might be lost in preparing the convent of Yuste for his reception. He himself set forward, as soon as he was able to travel, and was carried sometimes in a horse-litter, sometimes in a chair on men's shoulders, by slow and painful stages to Burgos. Near that ancient city, he was met by the Constable of Castille, Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, who lodged him for some days in the noble palace of his family, known as the Casa del Cordon, from a massive cord of St. Francis, wrought in stone, with which the architect has adorned and protected the great portal. The little town of Dueñas was the next resting-place, and there its lord, the count of Buendia, did the honors of his feudal castle on the adjacent height rising abruptly from the bare plains of the Arlanzon. At Torquemada, the royal party was received by the bishop of the diocese, Pedro de Gasca, a divine, whose skilful diplomacy, in repressing a formidable rebellion, had saved Peru to Castille, and who had lately been rewarded by the emperor with the mitre of Palencia. But in spite of these demonstrations of respect and gratitude, Charles was made painfully sensible of the change which his own act had wrought in his condition. The barons and the great churchmen who, a few months before, would have flocked from all parts to do him honor, now appeared in very scanty numbers, or they permitted him to pass unnoticed through the lands, and by the homes which they perhaps owed to his bounty. He and his sister Eleanor must have remembered with a sigh the time when he first set foot in Spain, thirty-eight years before, and found the shores of Asturias, and the highways of Castille, thronged with loyal crowds, hastening to tender their homage. In the forgetfulness of the new generation, he may also have been reminded how he himself had treated, with coldness and slighting, the great Cardinal Ximenes, who had worn out his declining years in defending and maintaining the prerogatives of the Catholic crown. His long and varied experience of men made him incapable of deriving any pleasure from their applause, but not altogether incapable of being pained by their neglect. His pride was hurt at finding himself so quickly forgotten; and he is said to have evinced a bitter sense of the surprise, by the remark, “I might well say that I was naked!" It is probable, therefore, that he declined the honors of a public entry into Valladolid, not merely from a desire to shun the pomps and vanities of state, but also from a secret apprehension that it might prove but a pitiful shadow of former pageants. That the citizens might not be balked of their show, while the emperor entered privately on the 23rd of October, it was agreed that the two queens, his sisters, should make their appearance there in a public manner the next day.

Valladolid was at that time the opulent and flourishing capital of Spain, and the seat of government, carried on under the regency of the emperor's daughter, Juana. This young princess was the widow of the prince of Brazil, heir-apparent of the crown of Portugal, and mother of the unfor tunate king Sebastian. She performed the duties of her high place with great prudence, firmness,

for the aversion which the king entertained towards Carlos. Following the advice of her father, the Infanta soon after ordered the removal of the prince to Burgos; but the plague breaking out in that city, he was sent, by an ominous chance, to Tordesillas, to the palace from whose windows the unhappy Juana, dead to the living world, had gazed for forty-seven years at the sepulchre of her fair and faithless lord.

and moderation; but with this peculiarity, that she mind; and it is said to have laid the foundation appeared at her public receptions closely veiled, allowing her face to be seen only for a moment, that the foreign ambassadors might be satisfied of her personal identity. With her nephew, Don Carlos, then a boy of ten years old, by her side, the Infanta met her father on the staircase of the palace of the Count of Melito, which he had chosen for his place of sojourn. The day following, the arrival of the two queens was celebrated by a grand procession, and by an evening banquet and ball in the royal palace, at which the emperor appears to have been present. Some few of the grandees, the Admiral and the Constable of Castille, Benavente, Astorga, Sesa and others, were there to do honor to their ancient lord, whose hand was also kissed in due form by the members of the council of Castille. At this ball, or perhaps at some later festivity, Charles caused the wives of all his personal attendants to be assembled around him, and bade each, in particular, farewell. Perico de Sant Erbas, a famous jester of the court, passing by at the moment, the emperor good-humoredly saluted him by taking off his hat. "What! do you uncover to

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me?" said the bitter fool; does it mean that you are no longer emperor?" "No, Pedro," replied the object of the jest; "it means that I have nothing to give you beyond this courtesy."

During his stay of ten days, Charles bestowed but a passing glance on the machine of government over which he had so long presided, and which was now directed by his demure daughter. The secretary of the council, Juan Vazquez de Molina, an old and trusted servant of his own, was the only public man with whom he held any confidential converse. The new rooms which he had caused to be erected at Yuste, and the ordering of his life there, were now of more moment to him than the movements of the leaguers in Flanders, or the state of opinion in Germany. He therefore gave frequent audiences to Francisco de Tofiño, the general of the Jeromites, and to Fray Martin de Angulo, prior of Yuste. Having resolved that his solitude should be shared by his natural son, Don Juan of Austria, a nameless lad of ten, then living in the family of his mayordomo, Luis de Quixada, he despatched that trusty follower to remove his household from Castille to Estremadura.

A sojourn of about ten days at Valladolid sufficed the emperor for rest, and for the preparations for his journey. His daughter was occupied with the duties of administration; and of his sisters he appears to have seen enough on the way from Flanders. Whether it was that he was weary of these royal matrons, or that he regarded their society as a worldly enjoyment which he ought to forego, he declined their proposal to come and reside near his retreat, at Plasencia. After much debate, they finally chose Guadalaxara as their residence, where they quarrelled with the Duke of Infantado for refusing them his palace, and went to open war with the alcalde for imprisoning one of their serving men.

Early in November* their brother set out on his last earthly journey. The distance from Valladolid to Yuste was between forty and fifty leagues, or somewhere between 130 and 150 English miles. The route taken has not been specified by the emperor's biographers. The best and the easiest road lay through Salamanca and Plasencia. But as he does not appear to have passed through the latter city, he probably likewise avoided the former, and the pageants and orations with which the doctors of the great university would have delighted to celebrate his visit. In that case, he must have taken the road by Medina del Campo and Peñaranda. At Medina he doubtless was lodged in the fine old palace of the crown, called the Torre de Mota, where, fifty years before, his grandmother, Isabella the Catholic, ended her noble life and glorious reign; and at Peñaranda he was probably entertained in the mansion of the Bracamontes. These two towns rise like islands in their nakedundulating plains, covered partly with corn, partly with marshy heath. Southward, the country is clothed with straggling woods of evergreen oak, It was at Valladolid that Charles saw for the becoming denser at the base and on the lower first and last time the ill-fated child who bore his slopes of the wild Sierra of Bejar, the centre of name, and had the prospect one day of wearing that mountain chain which forms the backbone of some of his crowns. Although only ten years old, the Peninsula, extending from Moncayo in Aragon, Don Carlos had already shown symptoms of the to the Rock of Lisbon on the Atlantic. At the mental malady which darkened the long life, of alpine town of Bejar, cresting a bold height, and queen Juana, his great-grandmother by the side overhanging a tumbling stream, the great family both of his father, Philip of Spain, and of his of the Zuñigas, created dukes of the place by Isamother, Mary of Portugal. Of a sullen and pas- bella, and known to fame in arts and arms and the sionate temper, he lived in a state of perpetual dedication of Don Quixote, possess a noble castle, rebellion against his aunt, and displayed in the ruined by the French, which there can be little nursery the weakly mischievous spirit which doubt served as a halting-place for the imperial marked his short career at his father's court. His pilgrim. He advanced by very short stages, travgrandfather appears not to have suspected that his elling in a litter, and often suffering great pain. mind was diseased, but to have regarded him as a But his spirits rose as he neared the desired haven. forward and untractable child, whose future inter- In the craggy gorge of Puertonuevo, as he was ests would be best served by an unsparing use of being carried over some unusually difficult ground the rod. He therefore recommended increased in a chair, his attendants were deploring the exseverity of discipline, and remarked to his sisters, treme ruggedness of the pass. "I shall never that he had observed with concern the boy's un-have to go through another," said he, "and truly promising conduct and manners, and that it was it is worth enduring some pain to reach so sweet very doubtful how the man would turn out. This and healthy a resting-place as Yuste." Having opinion was conveyed by Queen Eleanor to Philip * Sandoval says he left on the 4th November; Cabrera, II., who had requested his aunt to note carefully that he left on the 1st; and Siguença gives the end of the impression left by his son on the emperor's October as the time of his departure.

crossed the mountains without mischance, he arrived on the eleventh of November, St. Martin's day, at Xarandilla, a little village at the foot of the steep Peñanegra, and then, as now, chiefly peopled with swineherds, whose pigs, feeding in the surrounding forests, maintain the fame of porciferous Estremadura. Here he took up his abode in the castle of the Count of Oropesa, head of a powerful branch of the great house of Toledo, and feudal lord of Xarandilla.

This visit, which was intended to be brief, was prolonged for nearly three months. Before entering the cloister of Yuste, the emperor wished to pay off the greater part of his retinue. But for this purpose money was needful, and money was the one thing always wanting in the affairs of Spain. The delay which took place in providing it on this occasion has often been cited as an instance of the ingratitude of Philip II.; but it is probable that a bare exchequer, and a clumsy system of finance, which crippled his actions as a king, have also blackened his character as a son.

The emperor endured the annoyance with his usual coolness. On his arrival at the castle, he was waited on by the prior of Yuste, with whom he had already become acquainted at Valladolid. He afterwards repaid the attention by making a forenoon excursion to Yuste, and inspecting more carefully the spot which his memory and his hope had so long pictured as the sweetest nook in a world of disappointment. This visit took place on the 23rd of November, St. Catherine's day. On alighting at the convent, Charles immediately repaired to the church, and prayed there awhile; after which, he was conducted over the monastic buildings, and then over the new apartments which had been erected for his reception. The plan of this addition had been made by the architect, Gaspar de Vega, from a sketch, it is said, drawn by the emperor's own hand. He now expressed himself as quite satisfied with the accuracy with which his ideas had been wrought out, and returned through the wintry woods in high good humor.

The arrival at Xarandilla of Luis Quixada, with Don Juan of Austria, was another of those little incidents which had become great events in the life of Charles. As he did not choose during his life to acknowledge the youth as his son, the future hero of Lepanto passed for the page of Quixada, and was presented to his father as bearer of an offering from Doña Magdalena de Ulloa. He was then in his twelfth year, and was remarkable for his personal beauty and his engaging manners. These so captivated Charles, that he ever afterwards liked to have the boy about him; and it was one of the few solaces of his solitude to note the princely promise of this unknown son of his old

age.

At length, the tardy treasury messenger arrived, bearing a bag of thirty thousand ducats for the former possessor of Mexico and Peru. The emperor was now enabled to pay their wages to the servants whom he was about to discharge. Some of these he recommended to the notice of the king or the princess-regent; to others he dispensed sparing gratuities in money; and so he closed his accounts with the world.

On the afternoon of the 3d of February, 1557, being the feast of St. Blas, he was lifted into his litter for the last time, and was borne westward along the rough mountain track beneath the leafless oaks, to the monastery of Yuste. He was accompanied by the Count of Oropesa, Don Fernan

do de Toledo, and his own personal suite, including the followers whom he had just discharged, but who evinced their respect by attending him to his journey's close. The cavalcade reached Yuste about five in the evening. Prior Angulo was waiting to receive his imperial guest at the gate. On alighting, the emperor, being unable to walk, was placed in a chair, and carried to the door of the church. At the threshold he was met by the whole brotherhood in procession, chanting the Te Deum to the music of the organ. The altars and the aisles were brilliantly lighted up with tapers, and decked with their richest frontals, hangings, and plate. Borne through the pomp to the steps of the high altar, Charles knelt down and returned thanks to God for the happy termination of his journey, and joined in the vesper service of the brotherhood. When that was ended, the friars came to be presented to him one by one, each kissing his hand and receiving his fraternal embrace. During this ceremony, his departing servants stood round, expressing their emotion by tears and lamentations, which were still heard late in the evening, around the gate of the convent. Attended by the Count of Oropesa and the gentlemen of his suite, Charles then retired to take possession of his new home, and to enter upon that life of prayer and repose for which he had so long sighed.

The monastery of Yuste stands on the lower slopes of the lofty mountain chain which walls towards the north the beautiful Vera, or valley, of Plasencia. The city of Plasencia is seated seven leagues to the westward in the plains below; the village of Quacos lies about an English mile to the south, towards the foot of the mountain. The monastery owes its name to a streamlet which descends from the sierra, and its origin to the piety of one Sancho Martin of Quacos, who granted in 1402 a piece of land to two hermits from Plasencia. Here these holy men built their cells and planted an orchard, and obtained, in 1408, by the favor of the Infant Don Fernando, a bull for the foundation of a Jeromite house in the rule of St.

Augustine. In spite, however, of this authority, while the works were still in progress, the friars of a neighboring convent, armed with an order from the Bishop of Plasencia, set upon them and dispossessed them of their land and unfinished walls, an act of violence against which they appealed to the Archbishop of Santiago. The judgment of the primate being given in their favor, they next applied for aid to their neighbor, Garci Alvarez de Toledo, lord of Oropesa, who accordingly came forth from his castle of Xarandilla, and drove out the intruders. Nor was it only with the strong hand that this noble protected the young community; for, at the chapter of St. Jerome, held at Gaudalupe in 1415, their house would not have been received into the order, but for his generosity in guaranteeing a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of a prior and twelve brethren under a rule in which mendicancy was forbidden. The buildings were also erected at his cost, and his subsequent benefactions were large and frequent. He was therefore constituted by the grateful monks protector of the convent, and the distinction became hereditary in his descendants, the counts of Oropesa.

Their early struggles past, the Jeromites of Yuste grew and prospered. Gifts and bequests were the chief events in their peaceful anuals. They became patrons of chapelries and hermitages; they made them orchards and olive-groves; and

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