United States or Heard Island and McDonald Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


That evening saw a new bond of alliance between these two persons, young, handsome, and of opposite sexes, they agreed to be friends, and nothing more. Fools! "Idem velle, et idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est."* SALLUST. *To will the same thing and not to will the same thing, that at length is firm friendship. "/Carlos./ That letter. /Princess Eboli./ Oh, I shall die. Return it instantly."

This paper, written in Philip's own hand, had been delivered to Eboli on the very day of his visit to Bergen, and bore the superscription that it was not to be read nor opened till the messenger who brought it had left his presence. It directed the Prince, if it should be evident Marquis was past recovery, to promise him, in the King's name, the permission of returning to the Netherlands.

Such were the instructions of Philip to Eboli, and precisely in accordance with the program, was the horrible comedy enacted at the death-bed of the envoy. Three days after his parting interview with his disinterested friend, the Marquis was a corpse.

Know her to-day; I was the wretched thief Who plundered thee. QUEEN. What! Thou? EBOLI. And gave thy letters Up to the king? QUEEN. What! Thou? EBOLI. And dared accuse thee! QUEEN. Thou! Couldst thou this? EBOLI. Revenge and madness love I hated thee, and loved the prince! QUEEN. And did His love so prompt thee? QUEEN. And who arrested him? EBOLI. I had owned my love, But met with no return.

It seemed as if she saw the broken-down Emperor, his son Philip with his head haughtily thrown back, his favourite, the omnipotent minister, Ruy Gomez, the Prince of Eboli, who with his coal-black hair and beard would have resembled Quijada if, instead of the soldierly frankness of the major-domo, an uneasy, questioning expression had not lurked in his dark eyes, the brilliant Bishop of Arras, who had again so kindly placed her under obligation to him, and the Frieslander Viglius, who had dropped into her soul the wormwood whose bitterness she still tasted, and whose motto, "The life of mortals is a watch in the night," seemed to flash from his green eyes.

Now all's explained! Rise up! you loved him I have pardoned you I have forgotten all. Now, princess, rise. EBOLI. No, no; a foul confession still remains. I will not rise, great queen, till I QUEEN. Then speak! What have I yet to hear? EBOLI. The king! Seduction! Oh, now you turn away. And in your eyes I read abhorrence. Yes; of that foul crime I charged you with, I have myself been guilty.

As this unfortunate lady's only crime consisted in her husband's intrigue with the king's mistress, Princess Eboli, in which she could scarcely be considered an accomplice, this permission to exchange one form of incarceration for another did not seem an act of very great benignity.

He threatened to denounce to the King, who seemed the only person about the court ignorant of the affair, this double treason of his mistress and his minister. Perez and Anna of Eboli, furious at Escovedo's insolence, and anxious lest he should execute his menace determined to disembarrass themselves of so meddlesome a person.

The same two men among Philip's advisers were prominent as at an earlier day the Prince of Eboli and the Duke of Alva. They still represented entirely opposite ideas, and in character, temper, and history, each was the reverse of the other. The policy of the Prince was pacific and temporizing; that of the Duke uncompromising and ferocious.

DUCHESS D'OLIVAREZ, Principal Attendant on the Queen. Ladies Attendant on the Queen: MARCHIONESS DE MONDECAR, PRINCESS EBOLI, COUNTESS FUENTES, The Royal Gardens in Aranjuez. CARLOS and DOMINGO. DOMINGO. Our pleasant sojourn in Aranjuez Is over now, and yet your highness quits These joyous scenes no happier than before. Our visit hath been fruitless.