the tranquility of retirement, without fetching one penitent figh, or cafting back one look of defire, towards the power or dignity which he had abandoned.

No wonder, then, that Charles's refignation fhould fill all Europe with aftonishment; and give rife, both among his contemporaries, and among the hiftorians of that period, to various conjectures concerning the motives which determined a prince, whofe ruling paffion had been uniformly the love of power, at the age of fifty-fix, when objects of ambition operate with full force on the mind, and are pursued with the greatest ardour, to take a resolution fo fingular and unexpected.

The emperor, in pursuance of his determination, having affembled the ftates of the Low Countries at Bruffels, feated himself for the laft time, in the chair of state; on one fide of which was placed his fon, and on the other, his fifter, the queen of Hungary, regent of the Netherlands, with a fplendid retinue of the grandees of Spain and princes of the empire ftanding behind him. The prefident of the council of Flanders, by his command, explained, in a few words, his intention in calling this extraordinary meeting of the states.. He then read the inftrument of refignation, by which Charles furrendered to his fon Philip all his territories, jurifdiction, and authority in the Low Countries; abfolving his fubjects there from their oath of allegiance to him, which he required them to transfer to Philip his lawful heir; and to serve him with the fame loyalty and zeal that they had manifefted, during fo long a courfe of years, in fupport of his government.

Charles then rofe from his feat, and leaning on the fhoulder of the prince of Orange, because he was unable to stand without fupport, he addreffed himself to the audience; and, from a paper which he held in his hand in order to affift his memory, he recounted with dignity, but without oftentation all the great things which he had undertaken and performed, fince the commencement of his administration. He obferved, that from the feventeenth year of his age, he had dedicated all his thoughts and attention to public objects, reserving no portion of his time for the indulgence of his eafe, and very little for the enjoyment of private pleafure; and either in a pacific or hoftile manner, he had vifited Germany nine times, Spain fix times, France four times, Italy feven times,

the Low countries ten times, England twice, Africa as often, and had made eleven voyages by fea; that while his health permitted him to difcharge his duty, and the vigour of his conftitution was equal, in any degree, to the arduous office of governing fuch extensive dominions, he had never shunned labour, nor repined under fatigue; that now, when his health was broken, and his vigour exhaufted by the rage of an incurable diftemper, his growing infirmities admonished him to retire; nor was he fo fond of reigning, as to retain the sceptre in an impotent hand, which was no longer able to protect his fubjects, or to render them happy; that instead of a fovereign worn out with difeafes, and fcarcely half alive, he gave them one in the prime of life, accustomed already to govern, and who added to the vigour of youth all the attention and fagacity of maturer years; that if, during the courfe of a long adminiftration, he had committed any material error in government, or if, under the preffure of fo many and great affairs, and amidst the attention which he had been obliged to give to them, he had either neglected or injured any of his fubjects, he now implored their forgiveness; that, for his part, he should ever retain a grateful fense of their fidelity and attachment, and would carry the remembrance of it álong with him to the place of his retreat, as his fweeteft confolation, as well as the beft reward for all his fervices; and, in his laft prayers to Almighty God would pour forth his ardent wishes for their welfare.

Then turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees and kiffed his father's hand, "If," fays he, "I had left you, by my death, this rich inheritance: to which I have made fuch large additions, fome regard would have been justly due to my memory on that account; but now, when I voluntarily refign to you what I might have ftill retained, I may well expect the warmest expreffions of thanks on your part. With thefe, however, I difperfe; and fhall confider your concern for the welfare of your fubjects and your love of them, as the best and moft acceptable teftimony of your gratitude to me. It is in your power, by a wife and virtuous administration, to juftify the extraordinary proof which I give this day of my paternal affection, and to demonftrate that you are worthy of the confidence which I repofe in you. Preferve an inviolable

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regard for religion; maintain the Catholic faith in its purity; let the laws of your country be facred in your eyes; encroach not on the rights and privileges of your people; and if the time fhall ever come, when you fhall wifh to enjoy the tranquility of private life, may you have a fon endowed with fuch qualities, that you can refign your fceptre to him, with as much fatisfaction as I give up miue to you."

As foon as Charles had finifhed this long address to his fubjects, and to their new fovereign, he funk into the chair, exhausted and ready to faint with the fatigue of fuch an extraordinary effort. During his difcourfe, the whole audience melted into tears; fome from admiration of his magnanimity; others foftened by the expreffions of tenderness towards his fon, and of love to his people; and all were affected with the deepest forrow, at losing a fovereign, who had diftinguished the Netherlands, his native country, with particular marks of his regard and attachment.

SECTION XXVII,

The same subject continued.

A FEW weeks after the refignation of the Netherlands, Charles, in an affembly no lefs fplendid, and with a ceremonial equally ponpous, refigned to his fon the crowns of Spain, with all the territories depending on them, both in the old and in the new world. Of all thefe vaft poffeffions, he referved nothing for himfelf, but an annual penfion of an hun-. dred thousand crowns, to defray the charges of his family, and to afford him a small fum for acts of benevolence and charity.

Nothing now remained to detain him from that retreat for which he languifhed. Every thing having been prepared fome time for his voyage, he fet out for Zuitburg in Zealand, where the fleet had orders to rendezvous. In his way thither, he paffed through Ghent; and after stopping there a few days, to indulge that tender and pleafant melancholy, which arifes in the mind of every man in the decline of life, on vifiting the place of his nativity, and viewing the fcenes and objects familiar to him in his early youth, he pursued his journey accompanied by his fon Philip, his daughter the archduchefs, his fifters the dowager queens of France and Hungary, Maximilian his fon-in-law, and a numerous retinue of

the Flemish nobility. Before he went on board, he difmiffed them with marks of his attention or regard; and taking leave of Philip with all the tenderness of a father who embraced his fon for the laft time, he fet fail under convoy of a large. fleet of Spanish, Flemish, and English fhips.

His voyage was profperous and agreeable; and he arrived at Laredo in Bifcay, on the eleventh day after he left Zealand. As foon as he landed, he fell proftrate on the ground; and confidering himfelf now as dead to the world, he kiffed the earth, and faid, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked I now return to thee, thou common mother of mankind." From Laredo he proceeded to Valladolid. There he took a last and tender leave of his two fifters whom he would not permit to accompany him to his folitude, though they entreated it with tears; not only that they might have the confolation of contributing, by their attendance and care, to mitigate or to foothe his fufferings, but that they might reap inftruction and benefit, by joining with him in thofe pious exercises, to which he had confecrated the remainder of his days.

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From Valladolid, he continued his journey to Plazencia in Eftremadura. He had paffed through that city a great many years before; and having been ftruck at that time with the delightful fituation of the monaftery of St. Juftus, belonging to the order of St. Jerome, not many miles diftant from that place, he had then obferved, to fome of his attendants, that this was a spot to which Dioclefian might have retired with pleasure. The impreffion had remained fo ftrong on his mind, that he pitched upon it as the place of his retreat. It was feated in a vale of no great extent, watered by a small brook, and furrounded by rifing grounds, covered with lofty trees; from the nature of the foil, as well as the temperature of the climate, it was esteemed the most healthful and delicious fituation in Spain. Some months before his refignation, he had fent an architect thither, to add a new apartment to the monaftery, for his accommodation; but he gave ftrict orders, that the ftyle of the building fhould be fuch as fuited his prefent ftation, rather than his former dignity. It confifted only of fix rooms, four of them in the form of friars' cells, with naked walls; the other two, each twenty feet

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fquare, were hung with brown cloth, and furnished in the moft fimple manner. They were all on a level with the ground; with a door on one fide into a garden, of which Charles himself had given the plan, and had filled it with various plants, which he propofed to cultivate with his own hands. On the other fide, they communicated with the chapel of the monaftery, in which he was to perform his devotions. Into this humble retreat, hardly fufficient for the comfortable accommodation of a private gentleman, did Charles enter, with twelve domeftics only. He buried there, in folitude and filence, his grandeur, his ambition, together with all thofe vaft projects, which, during half a century, had alarmed and agitated Europe; filling every kingdom in it, by turns, with the terror of his arms, and the dread of being fubjected to his power.

In this retirement, Charles formed fuch a plan of life for himfelf, as would have fuited the condition of a private perfon of a moderate fortune. His table was neat but plain; his domeftics few; his intercourfe with them familiar; all the cumbersome and ceremonious forms of attendance on his perfon were entirely abolished, as deftructive of that focial eafe and tranquility, which he courted, in order to soothe the remainder of his days. As the mildnefs of the climate, together with his deliverance from the burdens and cares of government, procured him, at firft a confiderable remiffion from the acute pains with which he had been long tormented, he enjoyed, perhaps, more complete fatisfaction in this humble folitude, than all his grandeur had ever yielded him. The ambitious thoughts and projects, which had fo long engroffed and difquieted him, were quite effaced from his mind. Far from taking any part in the political tranfactions of the princes of Europe, he reftrained his curiofity even from any inquiry concerning them; and he feemed to view the bufy fcene which he had abandoned, with all the contempt and indifference arifing from his thorough experience of its vanity, as well as from the pleafing reflection of having difentangled himself from its cares.

DR. ROBERTSON.