The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1861-05-01

third day his convusive tremblnos, his
detection, his fits of wandering, seemed to
indicate the approach of dissolution. His
misery was increased by the knowledge
that every body was calculating how long
he had to live. and wondering what would
become of his kingdom when he should be
dead. The stately dignitaries of his house
hold, the physicians who ministered TO his
diseased body, the divines whose business
! il was 10 sooihe his not less diseased mind
the very wife who should have been intent
on those gentlh Offices by which female
tenderness can alleviate even the misery OF
hopeless decay, were all thinking of the
new world which was TO commence with
his death, and would have been perfectly
willing TO see him in the hands of the en-
baImer, if they could have been certain
that his successor would be the prince
whose interest they espoused
In very short time the kings maIady
took new form. That he was too weak
to lift his food TO his misshapen 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 frequently fell down in fits,
aud renal ned long insensible-these were
no longer the worst symptoms of his mala>
dy. He had always been afraid of ghosts
and demons, and ii had long been necessa-
| ry that three friars should watch every night
by his restless bed as a guard against hob
COLLINS But now he was firmly convinced
/ that he was bewiiched, that he was possess
ed, that there was devil within him, that
there were devils all around him. He was
exercised according TO The forms of his
church, but this ceremony, instead of qui-
/ citing him, scared him out of almost all the
little reason that nature had given him. In
! his misery and despair he was induced TO
resort TO irregular modes Of relief. His
pretend that they could interrogate the
powers of darkness. The devil was called
np, sworn and examined. This strange
deponent made oath, as in the presence OF
God, that his Catholic majesty was under a
spell, which had been laid on him many
years before, for the purpose of preventing
the continaaiion of the royal line. A drug
had been compounded out of the brains and
kidneys of a human corpse, and had been
administered in a cup of chocolate. This
portion had dried up all the sources of life,
ard the best remedy to which The patient
could now resort would be 10 swallow a
bowl of consecfated oil every morning be-
fore breakfast.
Unhapplly, the authors OF this story fell
into contradictions W hich they could excuse
i only by throwing the blame on Saian, who
the said, vas an unwilling witness: and a
liar from the beginning. In the midst o.
their coniuring the inguisition came down
j upon them. 1t must be admitied that Il the
holy Office had reserved all its ierfors for
such cases, It would not have been renieTn-
bered as the most hateful iudicature that
was ever known among civilized men,
The subaItern imposters were thrown into
dungeons. But the chief criminal contin-
ed 10 be master OF the king and of the king
DOM Meanwhile, in the distempered mind
of Charles one mania succeeded. another.-
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
constitution of her poslerity seems TO have
derived morbid taint, had sat, year after
year, by the bed on which lay the ghastly
remains of fler husband. apParreled in the
rich embroidery and jewels which he had
been wont to wear while living Her son
Charles found an eccentric pleasure in eel
ebraiing his own obsequies, in putting on
his shroud, placing himself in the coffin,
covering himself with the pail aud lying
as one dead till the requiem had been sung
and The nourners had departed, leaving
him alone in the tomb. Philip II. found a
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 ffoai the cover Philip ~. too,
hankersd after 5urials and burial places,
gfaiified his curiosity by gazing on the re-
mains of his great grandfather, :he.emper-
| or, and ssmei;mes stretched himself oui at
full length. ike corpse, in the niche
/ which be had selected ior himself In the
loyal cemetry. In that cemetfy his son
was now attracted By sitangs fascination.
Europe could shou no more magnificent
/ place Of sepnlchre. A staircase inctus.ed
with jasper led down from the stately
chuEch Of the Esenfiai into an ocsagon stu.
a.ed just beneath The high altar. The vault
Z impersions 10 The sun, was ricn with gold
and precious nasbles, which reflected Lhs