Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-04-24
VOL. Xxx. NO. 45

their thoughts, had long been hereditary to his
house.
Juana from whom the mental constitution of
her pOsterity seems to have derived morbid
taint had sat, year after year. by the bed which
lay the CHASTITY remains OF her husband. appareed
in the rich embroidery and jewels which he had
been wont 70 wear while living. Her son Charles
found an eccentric pleasure in celebrating his own
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 the Second found a
similar pleasure in gazing on the huge chest of
brOnZ in which his remains were to be laid, and
especially on the skull which, encircled with the
crown OF Spain, grnned at him from the cover.
Philip the Fourth, too, hankered after burias and
burial places, gratfed his curiosity by gazing on
the remains of his great grandfather, the Empe-
ror, and sometimes stretched himself out at full
length like a corpse in the niche which he had
selected for himself in the royal cemetery. To
that cemetery his son now attracted by IA
strange fascination. Europe could show no more
magnificent place Of sepulture. A staircase in
crusted with jasper lei down from the stately
church of the Escurial into octagOn situated
Just beneath the high altar The vault, impeTvi-
Gus to the sun, was rich with gold and precious
marbles, which reflected the blaze from a huge
chandelier of silver. On the right hand and on
the left reposed, each in a masSy sarcophagus,
the departed Kings and Queens of Spain In
this mausoleum the King descended with long
train of courtiers and ordered the coffin to be un
closed His mother had been embalmed with
such cOnsummate skill that she appeared as she
had appeared on her death-bel. The body of his
grandfather too seemed entire, but crumbled in
to dust at the first touch. From Charles neither
the remains OF his mother nor those of his grand
father could draw any sign of sensibility. But,
s1.1 4
the miserable mans first wife, she who had lighted
up his dark existence with one short and pale
CLEAN of happiness, presented herself, after the
lapse of ten years, to his eyes, his sullen apathy
gave way. "She is in heaven" he cried "and /
shall soon be there with her, and with ali the
speed of which his limbs were capable, he tottered
back TO the upper air.
THE PRILsT AND KING CHARLES OF SPAIN.
PortOcaTrero one of race Of men of
whom we, happily for US, have seen very little,
but whose influence has been the curse of Roman
Catholic countries. He was, like Sixtus the
Fourth and Alexander the Sixth, n politician
made out of an impiOus priest Such politicians
are generally worse than the worst of the laty
more merciless than any ruiian that can be found
IN camp, more dishonest than any pettfogger
who haunts the tribunals The sanctity of their
profession has rnsanctifying influence on
them. The lessons of the nursery, the habits of
boyhood and of early youth, leave in the minds
of the great majority of avowed infidels some
traces OF religion, which, in seasons of mourning
and OF sickness, become painfully discernable.
But it is scarcely possible that any such trace
should remain in the mind of the bypocrite who,
during many years, is constantly going through
what he considers the mummery of preaching,
saying mass, baptizing. striving. When
cesiastic of this sort mixes in the contests of
men of the world. he is, indeed, much to be
T.rl. IL
as an ally. From the pulpit where he daily employs
his elOquence to embellish what he regards as
fables, from the altar whence he daily looks down
with secret scorn on the PROSTATE dupe who be-
lieve that he can turn drop of wine into blood;
from the confessional where he daily studies with
cold and scientific attention the morbid anatomy
of guilty consciences, he brings to courts some
| talents which may move the envy of the more
cunning and INSCRIPTIONS of lay courtiers; rare
skill in reading characters and in managing tenn
pers, rare art of assimilation, a dexterity
in insinuating what is not safe to affirm or to
propose in explicit terms. There are two feel
ings which often prevent an unprincipled layman
from becoming utterly depraved and despicable
domestic feeling and chivalrous feeling His
heart may be softened by the endearments of
| family. His pride may revolt from the thought
or doing what does not become gentleman. But
neither with the domestic feeling nor with the
chivalrous feeling has the wicked priest any sym
pathy. His gown excludes him from the closest
and most tender of human relations, and at the
same time dispenses him from the observation of
the fashionable code of honor.
Such priest was PortOcaTero, and he seems
| to have been a comsummate master of his craft.
To the name of statesman he had no pretensons.
The lofty part of his predecessor, Ximenes, was
out of the range not more of his intellectual than
his moral capacity. To remain paralyzed and
torpid monarchy, to introduce order and economy
into BANKRUPT treasury. to restore the discipline
of an army which had become a mob, to refit a
navy which was perishing from mere rottenness,
/ these were achievements beyond the power, be-
yound even the ambition of that ignoble nature.
But there was one task for which the new Minis
lister was admirably qualified-that of establish
ing. by nsof supersttious terror, an absolute
dominion over a feeble mind. and the feebest of
all minds was that of his unhappy sovereign.