The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-04-18

THE LAST DAYS OF CHARLES II. OF SPAIN
His stomach failed; nor was this strange, for in
him the malformation of the jaw, characteristic oil
his family, serious that he could not masti,
cate his food, and he in the habit of swallow,
ing oas and sweetmeats in the state in which they
were set before him. While suffering from nd-
gestion he was attacked by ague. Every third day
his c0nvusive trembings, his detection, his fits o.
wandering, seemed to indicate the approach OF dis
solution. His misery was increased By the knowl
edge that everybody was calculating how long be
had to live, and wondering what would become o.
his kingdom when he should be dead The stately
dignitares of his household, the physicians who
ministered to his diseased body, the divines whose
business it to soothe his not less diseased mind
the very wife who should have been intent or
those gentle offices by which female tenderness car
alleviate even the misery of hopeless decay, were
all thinking of the new worldlwhich was to com
mence with his death, and would have been per-
fectly willing to see him in the hanps of the EN-,
balmer, if they could have been certain that hi:
successor would be the prince whose interest they
espoused.
| In a very short time the kings malady took
| new form. That he was too weak to lift his foot
| TO his misshapen mouth; that at thirty-seven h.
had the bald head and wrinkled face of man o
seventy; that his complexion was turning from vel
low to green; that he frequently fell down in fits
and remained long insensible-these were m
longer the worst symptoms of his malady. He had
always been afraid OF ghosts and demons, and i
had long been necessary that three friars should
watch every night by his restless bed as guarc
against hobgOblins. But now he firmly con
WINGED that he was bewitched that he pos
sesSed, that there a devil within him, thai
there were devils all around him. He was exOr
csed according to the forms of his church. but thi:
ceremony. instead of quetng him, scared him ou
of almost all the little that nature had giver
him.
In his misery and despair he induced to re
sort to irregular modes of relief His conlessol
brought to court impostors who pretended thai
they could interrogate the powers of darkness
The devil was called up, sworn and examined
This strange deponent made oath, in the pres
ence of God. that his Catholic Majesty was under
spell, which had been laid on Kim many years be
fore, for the purpose Of preventing the continue
ton of the royal line 4 drug had been compound
ed out Of the brains and kidneys of human corpse
and had been administered in a cup of chocolate
This potion had dried up all the of life, and
the best remedy to which the patient could now
resort would be to swallow bowl of cOnsecrated
oil every morning before b eakfast.
Unhappily. the authors OF this story fell into
contradictions which they could excuse only By
throwing the blame on Satan, who, they said, was
an unwilling witness and a liar from the begin
ming. In the midst OF their cODjuriDg the inquiSi-
ton came down upon them. 1t must be admitted
that if the holy office had reserved all its terrors
for such cases. it would not have been remembered
the most hateful ludicature that was ever known
among civilized men. The subaltern impostors
were thrown into dungeons. But the chief crimi-
kingdom. Meanwhile in the distempered mind of
Charles one mania succeeded another. A longing
to pry into those mysteries of the grave from
which human beings avert their thoughts had long
been hereditary in his house.
Juana, from whom the mental costitution Of her
posterity seems to have derived morbid faint,
had sat, year after year, by the bed on which lay
the CHASTITY remains of her husband, apparelled in
the rich embroidery and jewels which he had been
wont to wear while living. Her son Charles
found eccentric pleasure in celebrating his n
obsequies, in putting on his shroud, placing him
self in the coffin, covering himself with the pail,
and lying as one dead till the requiem had been
sung, and the mourners had departed leaving him
alone in the tomb. Philip II. found similar
pleasure in gazing on the huge chest of bronze in
which his remains were to be laid, and especially
on the skull which, encircled with the crown of
Spain, grinned at him from the cover.
Philip w., too, hankered after burias and burial
places, gratified his curiosity by gazing the
mains of his great grandfather, the Emperor, and
sometimes stretched himself out at full length,
like corpse, in the niche which he had selected
for himself in the royal cemetery. In that Gene
terry his son was now attracted by strange fascina-
ton. Europe could show no more magnificent
place of sepulture. staircase incrusted with
jasper led down from the stately church of the Es-
curia, into an octagon situated Just beneath the
high altar. The vault, impervious to the sun, was
rich with gold and precious marbles, which re-
Elected the blaze from huge chandelier OF silver.
On the right and on the left reposed each in n
massy sarcophagus, the departed kings and queens
of Spain.
Into this mausoleum the king descended with
long train of courtiers and ordered the collins to
be Enclosed. His mother had been embalmed with
such consummate skill that she appeared she had
appeared on her death bed The body ofhs grand
father, too, seemed entire, but crumbled into dust
at the first touch. From Charles neither the re-
mains of his mother nor those of his grandfather
could draw any signs of sensibility. But when the
gentle and graceful Louise, of Orleans, the msera-
BILE mans first wife she who lighted up his dark
existence with one short and pale CLEAN of happi-
ness, presented herself after the lapse of ten years.
to his eyes, his sulen apathy gave way. "She is
in heaven he cried, "and l shall soon be there
with her, and, with all the speed of which his
limbs were capable, he tottered back to the upper
air.