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for all his fervices; and, in his laft prayers to Almighty God, would pour forth his ardent withes for their welfare.

Then turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees and kifsed 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 still retained, I may well expect the warmeft exprefsions of thanks on your part. With thefe, however, I difpenfe; and fhall confider your concern for the welfare of your fubjects, and your love of them, as the best and most acceptable teftimony of your gratitude to me. It is in your power, by a wife and virtuous adminiftration, 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 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 with to enjoy the tranquillity 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 mine to you."

As foon as Charles had finifhed this long addrefs to his fubjects, and to their new fovereign, he funk into the chair, exhaufted 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 exprefsions of tenderness towards his fon, and of love to his people; and all were affected with the deepeft forrow, at lofing a fovereign, who had diftinguifhed the Netherlands, his native country, with particular marks of his regard and attachment.

SECTION XXVII.

Continuation of the Emperour CHARLES v.

A FEW weeks after the refignation of the Netherlands, Charles, in an afsembly no lefs fplendid, and with a ceremonial equally pompous, 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 pofsefsions, he referved nothing for himself, but an annual penfion of an hundred thousand crowns, to defray the charges of his family, and to afford him a small fum for acts of beneficence 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 passed through Ghent; and after flopping there a few days, to indulge that tender and pleasant 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 purfued his journey, accompanied by his fon Philip, his daughter the Arch-duchefs, 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 difmifsed 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 last time, he fet fail under convoy of a large fleet of Spanish, Flemish, and English ships.

His voyage was profperous and agreeable; and he arrived at Laredo in Biscay, on the eleventh day after he left Zealand. As foon as he landed, he fell prostrate on the ground; and confidering himself now as dead to the world, he kissed 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 laft 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 footh his fufferings, but that they might reap inftruction and benefit, by joining with him in those pious exercifes, to which he had confecrated the remainder of his days.

From Valladolid, he continued his journey to Plazencia in Eftremadura. He had pafsed 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 observed to fome of his attendants, that this was a spot to which Dioclefian might have retired with pleasure. The imprefsion 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 efteemed 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 present station,` 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 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 proposed 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 domestics 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 himself, as would have fuited the condition of

His table

a private person of a moderate fortune. 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 cafe and tranquillity, which he courted, in order to footh the remainder of his days. As the mildness of the climate, together with his deliverance from the burdens and cares of government, procured him, at first, a confiderable remifsion 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 so long engrossed and disquieted 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 pleasing reflection of having difentangled himself from its cares.

DR. ROBERTSON.

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