Don John. "There is some comfort in discharging one's heart of
matters that have long lain so heavy on it; and I swear to you,
Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling surprised to find my cheeks so
lank, and my eyes so hollow, you would rather be amazed to find an
ounce of flesh upon my bones, did you know how careful are my days,
and how sleepless my nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil
war!--The haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul
but that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabançons--all the varied
tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to vie with each
other which shall succeed best in thwarting and humiliating me. And
for what do I bear it? What honour or profit shall I reap on my
patience? What thanks derive for having wasted my best days and best
energies, in bruising with my iron heel the head of the serpent of
heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some toy of a mass neglected or an
ave forgotten, will perchance give me over to the tender questioning
of his grand inquisitor, as the shortest possible answer to my
pretensions to a crown,--while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when
roused from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified gratification--'_There_ spoke
the blood of Charles the Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"

Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the loyalty
towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula; and that his
services as governor of the Low Countries were fully appreciated.

"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe was
already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don John, with
a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of my feelings and