prized relique of the wood of the sacred Cross, which had been successively the property of Charles V. and Philip II. The English party are reported to have observed, that Valladolid was too small a place for such festal shows, and that they would have made a much finer display in the streets of London. But it is a melancholy sight to the traveller, who now visits this abode of old. magnificence, when he finds the noble church, with its rich façade and gable crowned with the arms of the courtly Sandoval, after being sorely defaced by the French Marshals under Napoleon, turned to the vile uses of a public prison. His (22.) The public ceremony, by which Philip III. swore to observe the peace made by the Constable in his name with King James, followed a few days after. The Lord Admiral was honoured with a seat in the King's presence among the nobles of his Court. dress for the occasion was a suit of white satin, doublet and hose alike, such as is sometimes represented in portraits of the age of Vandyke. When the treaty had been signed by the royal hand, the trumpets gave a flourish of joy, and the business of the mission was at an end. The Duke of Lerma's skill in giving dinners was at least unquestionable. Lord Howard was now to witness it. However numerous the guests, the excellent order and silence of the serving-men, the well-attempered music of the minstrels, the rich display of all that was bright and rare on the side-boards, the gold and silver plate, the Venice-glasses and china-ware, and withal the changes of costly viands, in such abundance as to satiate the most hungry soul, and so exquisitely cooked as to entice the coyest appetite, supply the chronicler of the Court with continual themes of admiration. After the rich repast, the evening was concluded with one of those comedies of which Lope had now furnished a plentiful supply to the courtly theatre. The place was a new and wide as the Abbot's hall (23.) At another time the English visitors were invited to a masque and ball given in honour of the young Prince. The Duke seems to have been the presiding genius here also. spacious saloon, long and at Fountains, where, the curtain being withdrawn, the upper end displayed a hanging roof, spangled like the vault of heaven, but with little mirrors instead of stars, reflecting all the blaze of flambeaux, lamps and chandeliers, and twinkling to every movement of the courtly company below. Through this glittering throng the little Princess Royal, then a child of four years old, afterwards the queen of Louis XIII. and mother of Louis XIV., was drawn by two diminutive ponies in a little triumphal car: from which she was lifted to take a seat in front of her royal parents, to hear the singers and gaze at the spectacle, till she was desirous to be carried to her bed. There was an old Spanish dance called the Torch dance,* which modern authorities do not sufficiently explain. Philip III., whose accomplishments as a dancer are well attested, took his part in it towards the conclusion of these revels. After treading a measure with Catharine de la Cerda, already mentioned as the subject of many of Gongora's admiring sonnets, the King bade her challenge the Queen to take her place, while he left his to be taken by Lord Howard. The English envoy duly appreciated the high courtesy of being invited to dance with the Queen of Spain. The gentlemen of his suite appear to have only figured in a pas seul by turns, as many as took a part in the ball. (24.) The Court-Masques seem to have closely resembled those which were performed at the English Court in the reigns of the first Stewarts, for which Inigo Jones furnished the machinery, and for which Ben Jonson, Shirley, and other poets exercised their craft. Strange, that the Muse of Masques should afterwards have ceased to inspire in both countries, when England had seen her triumph in Milton's Comus, and Spain had witnessed her wild and solemn power in the wonderful Autos of Calderon. (25.) The rest of the days were given to martial shows; a review of cavalry, which, unfortunately falling on a day of excessive heat, was fatal to some of the officers or soldiers engaged in it; bull-fights; tiltingmatches, and tournaments; at which the caparisons * La Danza de la Hacha; Cabr. 252. of the steeds and liveries of the riders were magnificent. The Spanish chronicler who records these things does it with a tacit reflection on the English tailors, that they could not quite match all this Castillian finery. Or perhaps he means to contrast Spanish profusion with Scottish thriftiness, when he tells us how the Lord High Admiral presented Queen Margaret, in the name of Anne of Denmark, with a piece of jewellery, a spread eagle made up of pearls and precious stones. It was valued at 12,000 ducats; but his royal mistress bade him accompany it with a message of regret that her poverty could not afford a richer present. Cabrera takes care to say that the presents sent from the Court of Spain in return were of higher value. But some of the most distinguished nobles, while they begged the Ambassador's acceptance of beads of ambergris and fine lace-work, desired him to send them from King James some English hawks and Irish grey-hounds.* These noble dogs were valued for their use and boldness in the boarhunt. When Gondomar was afterwards leaving his office as Ambassador to the English Court, King James granted him the peculiar privilege, that he and his heirs might export horses, dogs, and falcons.+ (26.) Gongora wrote a severe satirical sonnet on this occasion it seems, however, to have been for a time suppressed :‡ * Cabrera, 245, 252, 3. + Davila, 241. Published by Pellicer in his edition of Don Quixote, 1798, I. cxv. "Our Queen had borne a Prince. When all were gay, A Lutheran envoy came across the main With some six hundred followers in his train, A million ducats of the gold of Spain Well, we baptiz'd our Prince; Heaven bless the child! Your grave Don Quixote, Sancho, and his ass.' That this sonnet is Gongora's there seems no reason to doubt: it bears strong marks of his hand in its terse style and caustic humour. But that the poet could write with more decorum on the same subject, is evident from the concluding stanzas of his "Panegyric," composed about the same time. He alludes to the public characters already mentioned, and also to the Archduke Albert, who had been a zealous promoter of the peace; and sufficiently intimates the common feeling of the Spaniards towards the memory of the unfortunate Mary Stewart, while he makes a somewhat whimsical estimate of her son's motives: "In him, who reigns where many a shadow thrown The lord of Britain, Mary's rightful son, Elizabeth's adopted heir, King James, *Pellicer, Pref. to Don Quixote, cxv. Cervantes had written a relation of these festivities, dedicating it to the Count of Miranda. Valladolid, 1605, 4to. |