Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1861-05-23

ague Every third day his convusiye trem-
| bngs, his detection, his fits of wandering,
seemed 10 Indicate the approach OF dissolution.
| His misery was increased by the knowledge
F.! that everybody, was calculating how long lie
| had to live and wondering what would become
| Of his kingdom when he should hr dead The
stately dgnitaries OF the household the ply
ScianS whO ministered to his diseased body,
the diviues whose business il was to sOOth his
not less diseased mind, the very wife who
should have been intent on those gentle Offices
by WHICH the female tenderness can alleviate
even the misery Of hopeless decay, were all
thinking Of the new world which was to com
mence with his death, and would have been
perfectly willing to see him in the hands OF the
emhamer, if they could have been certain
that his successor would be tue prince who
Interest they esponsed.
In very short time the kings malady took
a new form That he was too weak to lift bis
food to bis mishappen mouth that at thirty
seven he had the bald head and wrinkled face
of a man of seventy ; that his complexion was
turning from yellow to green !; that he fire.
uucntlv fell down in fits, and remained long
insensihIe-these were no longer the worst
symptoms of his maIady. He had always been
afraid of ghosts and demons, aud it had long
beeu necessary Ihat three ftiaTs should watch
every night 10y his restless bed as a guard
against fohgohlins But now he was firmly
convinced that he was bewitched, that he was
nossessed. that there was O devil will hin him,
that there were devils all around him lie
wns exercised according 10 the forms of his
church, but this ceremony, instead of queting
him, scared him out of almost all the little rea.
son that nature had given him. Ia his misery
and DESPAIR he was induced to resort TO irreg-
ular modes of relief His conressor brought
to court imposters who pretended that they
could interrogate the powers of darkness. The
devil was called up, sworn and examined. This
strange denoneut made oath, as in the pres
euce of GoD, that his Catholic majesty was uH-
der spell, which had been laid on him many
years before, for the purpose of preventing the
continuation of the royal line. \ drug had
been compounded out of the brains and kid
news of human corpse, and had been admin
i>tercd in a cup Of chocolate. This potion
had dried up all tie sources of life aud the
best remedy to which the patient could now
rcsor. would Le to swallow Il bowl OF con5ecra-
ted oil every morning before breakfast.
Unhagpily, the authors OF this story fell
into contradictions which they Conld excuse
only hy throwing the blame on Saten, who
thcy snid, was an unwilling witness, and a
liar from the beginning. In the midst Of their
couuli < the juqujsitiOn came down upon
them 1t must be admitted that if the holy
Office had reserved all its terforS for such cas-
es. it would not have been remembered as the
most hateful ulcature that was ever known
among civilized men The subaltern impos
. - into l,ut tho
chief criminal coutnued to lie master Of the
king and Of the kingdom. Meanwhile, in the
disiempered mnd Of Charles one mania sue
ceeded another \ longing to pry into those
mysteries of the grave from which human
beings avert their thoughts had long been
ncyeditary in his house Juaua, from whom
the mental constitution Of he: poSterity seems
10 have derived morbid tuint, had set, year
after year, hy the bed on which lay the ghast-
Iy remains of her husband, apparreled in the
r;ch embroidery aud jewels which he had been
wont TO wear while living. Her son Charles
found an eccentric pleasure IN celebrating his
own 0bscuuieS, in putting on his shroud pIa-
cing himself in the coffin, covering himself
with the pail, and lying as one dead till the
requiem had been sung, and the monrnerS had
dpnarted, leaving him alone III the tomb
4 liilD II. lOHlll u Sb'hA F"'Id0"AN "a -"1''''-
on the hinge chest of hrcuZe in which his re.
mains were to be Ibid, and especially on the
skal which, encrced with the crown of Spain,
erjnned Mt him from the cover Phillip ~,
too. Eankered after LurialS and burial places, |
cratifed his curiosity hy gazing on the remains
CT his great grandfather, the Emperor, ana
sometimes stretched himself out at iu'I length,
Ike "a corpse. in the niche which he had select
ed for himself in the royal cemetery. In thht
cemetery his son was now attracted 10y
strange fascination. Europe could show no
more magnificent place OF Scpuiturc A STAR
case iucruStcd with jasper led dow2 from the
stately church Of the E,cura into an octagon
situated Just beneath the high alter. me vault,
impervious to the sun, was rich with gold ana
precious marbles, which reflected the blaze
from huge chandelier of silver. On the right
auG on the left repoSed, cach in q massive sar.
cophagns, the departed kings and queens OF
Spain Into this mauSoIeum the king descend
ed with long train of courtiers, and ordered
the collins TO be uncoscd His mother had
been embalmed with such consummate skill
that she appeared as she had appeared on her
death bed The body of his grandfather, too,
seemed entire but crumbled into dust at the
first touch. From Charles neither the remains
of his mother nor those of his grandfather conld
draw any signs of sensblity. But when the
gentle and graceful Louise. of Orleans, the
miserable mans first wife, she who lighted up
his dark existence with one short and pale
CLEAN OF his happiness, presents herself after
the lapse of ten years, to bis eyes bis snilen
apathy gave wav. Z" She is in heaven"
he cried. land shall soon be there with
her :" and, with all the speed of which his
I'mps were capable, he tottered back TO tbe
MINER air