its wealth, and its influence from generation to generation. The church was one of the corporations in Western Europe, but there were the feudal noblesse, and in some countries, as in France, an organized body of lawyers to counteract it. At present in Turkey there is no great corporation, save that of the Ulemas. There was formerly the feudal and military class to counteract them, with the formidable Viziers and Pashas. The Sultan had the power even to decapitate the Mufti that displeased him. But the Sultan no longer cuts off heads. And there is no longer a military corporation, feudal or otherwise. The Pashas are little more than civil governers; there is no esprit de corps amongst them, nor are the troops attached to them.

Russia, the great antagonist of Turkey, and which boasts to be so superior in civilisation and organisation, is in short nothing but a military power. There is but one apprenticeship and existence, one avenue to life and rank in Russia, that of the army. The son of the highest noble is nothing until he has served. The empire is a camp, and every man of education and worth an officer in it. It counts a million of soldiers, while the Sultan, with such a wide and certainly as rich a territory, has not more than a 150,000. This military organisation has not prevented Russia from enjoying most of the blessings of advancing civilisation. It has not checked industry. Had the Sultan a similar system-had he more soldiers, less laws and lawgivers, priests and fanaticism, he would be as much advanced in the path of civilisation as Russia, and be as well prepared to defend his independence.

The laws which confine the males of the imperial family to the harem, preclude the possibility of a warlike Sultan. When of old, the Sultans used to entrust provinces and expeditions to their sons, Turkey never wanted a powerful sovereign. Since Sultans have been the disciples and the companions of women, till they are dragged from the women's apartments and placed upon the throne, the Mussulmen have never had a chief worthy of them. Mehemet Ali managed better. The heir-apparent of the throne of Egypt commands its fleet, and has learned to know and to rule over his fellow-men. The Sultan, besides his young children, has a brother, who is heir to his throne. No one has ever seen or spoken to this brother. It is not supposed, that even the brothersin-law of the Sultan have made his acquaintance. The Mahomedan law sets aside hereditary right, and places the crown on the uncle's head, rather than on that of the deceased Sultan's son, because maturity is indispensable. And yet, at the same time that maturity, which mingling in the world and its business gives, is rejected and rendered impossible. Insolence and cruelty were once the maxims of Turkish rule. Humility, humanity, and fear-fear both of Turks and foreigners, and even relatives-have taken their place, and rendered the Turk in spirit, as in real power, but the shadow of his former self.

89

THE LAST YEARS OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH.*

BY F. A. MIGNET.

AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.'

BEFORE Charles the Fifth left Flushing and sailed towards Biscay, Philip the Second had announced to the Princess Donna Juana, who was Regent of Spain in his absence, the approaching arrival of their father the Emperor. On the 27th of July, he had written to her to send to the port of Laredo an alcalde of the Court, named Durango, with sufficient money for the purchase of all the provisions and the collection of all the means of transport which would be required at his arrival, and during his journey across the north-eastern provinces of the Peninsula. Durango was further to bring with him the pay of the fleet, and six chaplains, whom the Emperor desired to meet on his disembarkation. On the 28th of August, the day on which Charles the Fifth left Ghent for Zealand, Philip the Second sent a second letter of instructions to his sister; and, on the 8th of September, he wrote to her a third time :

"Most serene Princess, my dear and beloved sister, my lord the Emperor... who is in good health, thank God! will embark on the earliest day . . . in order not to cause you any inconvenience. His Majesty has resolved to lodge at Valladolid, in the house of Gomez Perez de las Marinas, where Ruy Gomez used to live. You will order that it be cleaned and arranged, that furniture be bought, and that every preparation be made; that the apartments may be, with great celerity, rendered fit to receive his Majesty, who, on disembarking, will send before him Roggier, his aposentador de palacio (harbinger of the royal household), to make ready his lodgings on the road, and to arrange his apartments according to his will at Valladolid." Not satisfied with entering into all these details to secure his father a comfortable reception in Spain, Philip the Second wished that he should be paid those attentions and receive those honours with which he was, for his own part, anxious to dispense. For instance, he adds: "Although his Majesty has made no allusion to this point, it would be fitting that some of the principal personages and gentlemen should repair to the port at which he means to disembark, and that they should be accompanied by a bishop and six chaplains, whom I have already mentioned to you... Imperial Majesty is on board the ship Bertendona, in which an apartment has been fitted up for him with every convenience. You will provide for the wants of this vessel and of the rest of the fleet, the crews of which must receive that part of their pay which

* Continued from p. 668, vol. xxxiii.

His

is still due to them, without fail, and you will please to inform me of what has been done."

After having received this letter on the 17th of September, the very day on which the fleet, which was to convey the Emperor into Spain, left the port of Rammekens, the Princess Donna Juana hastened to execute the orders of the King, her brother. She directed that the house of Gomez Perez should be prepared for his reception at Valladolid, which was then the residence of the Court and the seat of the Government. She again commanded the alcalde, Durango, to proceed with his alguazils to Laredo, and to perform the duties which she had entrusted to him. At the same time, she ordered that public prayers should be offered for the safe arrival of the Emperor; she directed the Constable and Admiral of Castile to hold themselves in readiness to go and congratulate him on reaching Spain; and she requested Don Pedro Manrique, Bishop of Salamanca, and chaplain to the King, to start without delay for Laredo: "I know," she said, "that his Majesty will see you with greater pleasure than any other person, as he will be delighted to meet, on his arrival, so old and so faithful a servant."

But the measures, suggested with such provident urgency by Philip the Second, and directed with such affectionate zeal by his sister, were executed, for the most part, with true Spanish slowness. At that time, and in that country especially, nothing was ever done quickly, and actions always lagged very far behind orders. Everything, therefore, was not ready when Charles the Fifth appeared off the coast of Biscay. His voyage had been successful and tolerably rapid. The vessel, of 565 tons burden, on board of which he travelled, and which he entirely occupied, was arranged solely for his service, and in such a manner as to render his passage down the Channel and across the Gulf of Gascony less painful to his infirmities. On the upper deck, between the mainmast and the poop, were the imperial apartments, consisting of two rooms and two closets, flanked by an oblong room, which served as a corridor for ingress and egress, and surrounded by three other small chambers, intended for his bodyservant, his chamberlain, and an assistant (ayuda de camara). They were handsomely carved inside and hung with green cloth; draughts of air were carefully excluded, and eight glass windows afforded views over the sea. The Emperor's bed, and several other articles of furniture, were suspended from the ceiling like swings, and fastened by wooden props, so as not to follow all the movements of the ship, and to remain tolerably still while it was tossed about by the force of the waves. The other end of the deck, near the prow, was occupied by the gentlemen in the Emperor's service. The lower deck contained the pantry, the kitchen, the store-rooms, the cellar, and the apartments of all the officers belonging to these departments of the household. Finally, the provisions for the journey and the supply of fresh water, which was contained in enormous earthenware jars with padlocked hds, were deposited in the hold.

Having cleared the dangerous sand-banks of Zealand, on the 17th of September, in very fine weather, the fleet arrived, on the 18th, between Dover and Calais, where an English admiral came out with five ships to salute the father of his king, and kiss his hands. The Emperor did not get out of the Channel till the 22nd. On that day, leaving on the right hand the Isle of Wight, which had at first been fixed upon as a halting-place, and profiting by a favourable wind, which lasted through the voyage, the fleet made all sail towards Spain, and on the 28th arrived at the port of Loredo at rather a late hour. The Emperor went on shore the same evening, and not one of those who accompanied him saw him kiss the ground on landing, or heard him utter the words ascribed to him by Strada and Robertson,-" O common mother! naked came I forth from thy womb, and naked am I about to return thither." He found no one at Laredo but the Bishop of Salamanca, and the Court Alcalde, Durango, who had not yet received the money necessary for the supply of the Emperor's wants and for the payment of the fleet. He was greatly irritated at this, and Martin Gaztelu wrote thus to Vasquez de Molina, the Secretary of State :

"His Majesty is angry at the negligence displayed in not providing certain things which it was befitting to prepare, and which the King had ordained. The six chaplains who ought to have come to serve him, are all the more wanted, because those whom he brought with him are ill, and it is necessary every day to go in search of a priest to say mass. He is in want also of two physicians, because half the people in his fleet are ill, and seven or eight of his servants are dead. The postmaster ought to have sent an officer of couriers for his service; he has felt, and still feels, the privation very much. If the Bishop of Salamanca had not procured him certain commodities, he would have found nothing on the spot suitable to a majesty like his. No one has written him a single letter, or sent to inquire how he is coming. All this should have been done simultaneously at Santander, Corunna, and here. These are the things of which he complains; and he says other things of a very sanguinary cha

racter."

This ill-explained delay in the execution of the orders of Philip the Second, and this ill-judged expression of the dissatisfaction of Charles the Fifth, have been transformed into an act of ingratitude on the part of the one, and a token of regret on the part of the other. Most historians have asserted that, on the very day after his father's abdication, Philip the Second had, if not refused, at least neglected to place at his disposal a hundred thousand golden crowns which the Emperor had reserved for his own use in his retirement. Nothing of the kind was the case. There is no allusion whatever in the letter we have quoted to these hundred thousand crowns. The Emperor's complaints have reference to the preparations, which had been made neither soon enough, nor completely enough, for his arrival in Spain; and he is far from throwing any blame upon his son, who had communicated

his wishes on this point several times, in the most peremptory and precise manner. The Court of Valladolid itself had been not so much negligent as taken by surprise. Charles the Fifth, whose return had been announced and postponed so often, was not expected so soon. Besides, it was always very difficult in Spain to find money at the right time, and to ensure obedience at the necessary moment.

On the 1st of October, as soon as the Princess Donna Juana was informed of the Emperor's disembarkation by Don Alonzo de Carvajal, who had been dispatched to her from Laredo, she sent a supply of money for the fleet, and provisions of all kinds for her father. She hastened to write, on the same day, to Luis Quixada, who was at his country-house of Villa-Garcia. "This morning," she says, "I received information that my lord the Emperor, and the most serene Queens my aunts, arrived on Monday last, the eve of St. Michael, at Laredo; that his Majesty went on shore the same evening; that my aunts disembarked the next day, and that all are well. I have rendered hearty thanks to Our Lord for this; and it has caused me, as in reason it should, extreme joy. As the Emperor will have need of you for his journey, and as it is important for me to know the exact time at which he will arrive in this city, I beseech you to set out as soon as you receive this letter, and to travel post-haste to join his Majesty. As soon as you arrive, give him an account of the two sorts of lodgings which you know he can have here, and inform me, with all diligence, which of the two his Majesty prefers, and whether he wishes that stoves or any other things should be placed in the rooms, so that all may be in readiness when he arrives.

"I beg you also to inquire of his Majesty whether he desires that I shall send him a guard of infantry or cavalry, for his own escort, or for that of the most Serene Queens, my aunts. Whether he wishes that any grandees or gentlemen should come to form his retinue. Whether he wishes that any reception should be prepared for his Majesty, or for my aunts, at Burgos, and in this city; and what kind of a reception. Whether he commands the prince, his grandson, to come to meet him, and where. Whether he thinks it desirable that I should do the same, or that the councils which are at Valladolid should do so. Inform me diligently and particularly of his will in all these matters.

"I charge you also to take care, during the journey, that his Majesty is abundantly provided with all things of which he may have need, as well as the most Serene Queens, my aunts. Acquaint the Alcalde Durango of what he will have to procure, that nothing may be wanting, and let me know what I must send from hence. By doing all this, you will give me great pleasure."

She sent Don Enriquez de Guzman to congratulate the Emperor in her name; and on the following day, young Don Carlos, who was then eleven years of age, wrote a letter with his own hand to his grandfather to inquire his orders: "Sacred, Imperial, and Catholic Majesty, I have learned that your Majesty is in good health, and I infinitely rejoice to hear it, so much so, that I could not