able, with a fair wind. Our company were Dunkirk merchants, and several French gentlemen, with whom we entered into conversation in French, as Mr. Ramsay and I had been early accustomed to speak that language at home, both from my father's early initiating me in it, which he himself spoke well, but likewise from my having been three years abroad as a Student of Medicine in Holland, and three months at Paris about ten years before this period. Mr. Ramsay and I, therefore, made a resolution to speak no other language but French while we remained in France, and, upon our arrival in Italy, no other language but Italian; as we had been well founded in it before we left Edinburgh. July 26.-On the morning of the 26th we arrived at Calais, and were less troubled with custom-house oflicers than at Dover, everything of that kind being better regulated in France than in England. One of our Flemish merchants was in person very like my brother, Sir William Dick, and gave us a favourable account of his travels in England, and of the flourishing condition of the city of Dunkirk. At Calais there was a very lean gentle man who dined with us at the inn, and, from circumstances that we had not leisure to inquire into, expressed a great reluctance for parting with us as we were immediately to set out for Paris. It being warm weather, our posting equipage happened not to be suitable to the modes of France; but we followed our own way, for coolness, being in our white stockings without boots, to the great surprise of all the Frenchmen we met. July 27.-Arrived at Boulogne, and remarked, as we came along, the open country, and, indeed, the Scotish appearance of Picardy. A Dr. Hay, who had been in the rebellion of 1715, and a great partisan of that cause, found us out immediately when we arrived, and gave us a very kind reception; and by him we were invited to dine with Mr. Smith, the great Scotch wine merchant there, who had been formerly in that same cause, and entertained us with many various scenes in which they both had been concerned in that disastrous business, of which, he said, he made the most of it by following a trade very beneficial, which, he hoped, soon afterwards would lead him to Scotland, to purchase a landed estate in his own country. July 28.-Set out in the morning for Amiens, where we arrived in the afternoon; saw the cathedral; liked the place much. Both Abbeville and Amiens are thriving towns for manufactures. July 29.-Our road was through a fine corn country, and, at that time, the people were all employed about their harvest. We dined at Clermont, and saw the Duke of Berwick's house opposite to it. From eating much fruit, and grapes, not quite ripe, the weather also being very warm, I fell sick upon the road, and, in a common bye inn, within a post of Chantilly, I was obliged to put up, where we were but indifferently used by the surly landlord; however, after passing a not very comfortable night, I found myself very well next morning. July 30.—Went to Chantilly, where the Duke of Bourbon's fine palace is: there we saw the most magnificent stables in Europe, which contain many hundreds of the finest horses, with every accommodation for them. On every hand there were fine gardens. and waterworks without, and rich furniture, paintings, tapestry, and statues within; particularly those of Condé, and Turenne, with all their battles painted near them. Came to Paris that night, about four o'clock; went to lodge at Mr. Roberts' bagnio, where we were well bathed and served, but paid very dear for what we had in that house. We met there with Mr. Horn, Lord Drumore's son, and Mr. Oswald of Duniekean. Went with them to see the Palais Royal, and, in the evening, went to the Italian comedy; both which places gave us very great entertainment. The first has the noblest collection of pictures in Europe, and belongs to the Duke of Orleans, the son of the Regent, the first Prince of the Blood in France. August 2.-Went to Mr. Alexander, our banker; saw there Dr. Hickman, who travelled with the Duke of Kingston, and one Mr. Diggs. That day we dined with Captain Urquhart, a * Evelyn Pierrepoint, the second Duke of Kingston, succeeded 1726, died 1773. Scots gentleman in the Spanish service, who was to go with Mr. Horn to meet the Earl Marshal,* then at Valencia, in Spain. Saw that day the Luxembourg gallery, with all the fine paintings of Rubens there. Walked afterwards in the gardens, which are well kept, but not in the best taste; little of nature; all is regularity; the walks are very broad, where there is often a vast resort of good company, extremely well dressed. The ladies are all painted, and the red of their cheeks has a very flaming appearance; the married ladies chiefly, being laid on without mercy, which makes a sad havock on natural beauty, but is of particular solace to ladies coming into years; for, by covering their wrinkles, it puts them upon a level with the young beauties who would soon eclipse them in every respect. August 3.-Took lodgings in the Rue Dauphine; met at the British Collie House there with Mr. M'Querger, a gentleman famous afterwards in the defence of the young gentleman who claimed the estate and titles of the Earl of Anglesey; also met Dr. Hickman, Mr. Diggs, and Mr. Bridges. Went with them to the Academy of Painting, dined with them at the Croidfer, and, after dinner, went with them to the Cardinal de Polignac's; there we saw the finest collection of Greek statues in Europe, lately brought from Rome, viz.: the story of Achilles beguiled by Ulysses, with the armour he presented, &c. From thence we went to the Invalides, a royal hospital for wounded and old soldiers. It is of great extent, great elegance and magnificence in the architecture, and has the best contrivance in the arrangement of the wards, and good regular orders, that I have seen; the best that are observed in any hospital in Europe: it contains some thousands of men who have bravely and long served their country, or have bled in its cause. We went from thence to the Opera, but did not much admire the music, which was entirely in the French taste, loud and noisy, great in the execution, but very mean and little in the harmonious part which belongs to good music. August 4.-Went to the cathedral of Notre Dame on St. Geneviève's day, the patroness of Paris, where there were great processions and solemnities. In the afternoon went with Mr. Diggs to the church of St. Geneviève; there saw the pious Duke of Orleans, and his sister the Queen of Spain, who came to assist at the solemnity. The music we heard there was very good. Went from thence in the evening to the Concert Spirituelle, in the King's palace in the Louvre, where we heard the best performers in France, and the composition of the Italian taste. From the last date to the end of August we employed every day in visiting all the places round Paris, as far as the King's palace at Versailles, twelve miles from Paris. We went with Mr. Oswald to see King Stanislaus, the Queen's father, at his country palace at Meudon, where he lived in retirement and elegance, after the bustling disagreeable life he had while King of Poland, from which he was driven to his good. The King,† and his daughter the Queen, made him frequent visits, and often consulted him in matters of state. The weather being very fine, we staid at Versailles and visited the palace and gardens with accuracy, but with astonishment at everything in the gardens, which were of great extent, but no ways in the style of nature. Art only prevailed, and that at an immense expense: the statues were numerous, and but very few of them exquisite, and those only by Girardon,‡ of whom, indeed, there were some noble groups, besides single pieces. The walks were very broad, and, in some places, could admit of the King's coaches-and-six, and his guards and attendants, to go through them. The waterworks and cascades were extremely showy; they were erected and kept at an immense charge; they play but seldom, and that on great occasions. It was our good fortune that some Polish ladies having arrived, who were relations to the Queen (one of which was indeed exceeding handsome), the waterworks were ordered to play for their entertainment; and the ladies were conducted in little hand One of the leading adherents of the Pretender, and who had been attainted for his concern in the Rebellion of 1715. + Louis XV. GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXIX. † François Girardon, died 1715, aged 83. chairs, pushed forwards by some of the guards, to all the waterworks in the gardens, which gave us the best of opportunities of seeing the whole. We afterwards walked through the palace, and the long gallery, which is very noble and lofty, and ornamented with the several paintings done of Alexander's battles by Le Brun. In the apartments we saw several capital pictures of the best masters, particularly of Raphael. The King's stables are very magnificent, and all filled with the finest horses to serve them for the diversion of hunting, in which he is every day occupied, with a circle of his courtiers and favourites. We saw him one day in the chapel attending the morning's mass; he has a good countenance and manly, but is underlimbed in his walking, yet he makes a fine figure on horseback. Everything in Versailles has the look of too great an expense and too much show; consequently the taste is not universally good, though, it must be owned, there are great many fine things there. I bought up there the works of Porelle, where the description of several and very elegant prints are bound up, in my library. In these the best streets and buildings in Paris, and also the finest parts, buildings, and gardens of Versailles, are most elegantly and accurately described, which collection had belonged to Mons. Claude Bernard Audevurdes Comptes, a gentleman in high offices, who had died some time before our arrival, by which means I purchased this and some other of his things when they were brought to sale. To all which I refer for inspection and consideration. In pursuance of our jaunts round the city of Paris, we observed what was remarkable at Trianon near Versailles, and the Duke of Orleans' country palace of St. Cloud, but found them all copies in small of the King's greater works at Versailles. THE CLOISTER LIFE OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. By William Stirling, Author of Annals of the Artists of Spain. 1852. 8vo. NO event in history has been more misunderstood than the resignation of the imperial throne by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and his subsequent cloister life at Yuste. The want of documents rendered the narratives of this period imperfect; or, at least, these do not appear to have been extensively consulted.* Thus the cause and the motive for the resignation and the retirement being but partially known, the act was described speculatively— rather than historically-as it appeared through the mists of tradition, or as it was pictured by the imagination. Hence the conflict of opinions in the moral estimation of that resolution which was equal to exchange the grandeur and the power of empire for the narrow cell and the religious seclusion of the cloister. The historian described the act as that of a mind worn out by *As regards documents relative to the reign of Charles V. a great deal has of late been done. Dr. Karl Lanz has printed at Leipzig, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1844-6, the "Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V." from the Royal Archives and the Burgundian library at Brussels, containing documents, with but few exceptions, now for the first time printed, and of great importance, as determining the cause of Charles's resignation. M. Gachard, of Brussels, has printed also much documentary matter relative to the affairs of the Netherlands, and promises further contributious towards the history of Charles's reign. The French government has in course of publication, in the series of "Documents Inédits," Negociations Diplomatiques entre la France et l'Autriche durant les Trente premières Années du 16 Siécle, publiées par Le Glay. 2 vols. 4to. 1845" "Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granville d'apres les MSS. de Besançon, publiés par Ch. Weiss, 8 vols. 4to. 1841-1850;" and from various public libraries, and the collections in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, M. Champollion Figeac has compiled a volume of great interest,-" Captivité du Roi François I." 4to. 1847. Much also has been added to our information by the researches of printing societies and publications in Germany. There is now no dearth of materials for a new Life of Charles V. The the cares of government, crushed by adverse fortune, struck down by the recoil of unsuccessful ambition. The moralist descanted upon the insufficiency of worldly state to satisfy the longings of the immortal soul. politician deplored the superstition which induced a mighty monarch to forego the government of nations, the association with great warriors and statesmen, for the society of ignorant monks, and the observance of a debasing ritual. Another idea conceived of the act may not, perhaps, be unfairly illustrated by the following note in the masterly translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso by William Stewart Rose. It occurs in vol. vii. p 157, to canto 40, stanza 76, line 5, of the original. “Dudon finished his career as a hermit,―a very common practice with the supposed knights-errant, and, like all the usages of romance, paralleled by many instances in real life during the middle ages. Ariosto's own age furnished the most notable example, in the self-seclusion of the Emperor Charles the Fifth." We submit this to be the poet's view. How far justified by historical evidence Mr. Stirling's volume will now show. We only regret the name of William Stewart Rose is no longer associated with the pleasures of literature at the present day; no man treated history and historical character in a more fair and candid spirit; no writer more tempered judgment with the grace of an accomplished mind. Nor, indeed, to a late period, if historians were the guides, could general readers be censured for wandering from the right path. The little that was accurate was narrated by Spanish authors; but Spanish literature has never prevailed with any great force in England. Its noble ballad history is still known to the majority through the translations of Southey, J. H. Frere, and J. G. Lockhart-the criticism of the Schlegels-or the pleasing History of Southern Literature by Sismondi. Cervantes' Don Quixote is a household book; and if we add the best Picaresque novels, we have we think described the general extent of our information as regards Spanish authors. For Charles the Fifth we are referred to Robertson. To estimate the value of this historian, we shall briefly enumerate the Spaniards who have narrated the Cloister Life of Charles, derived from the preface to Mr. Stirling's work. The first, and perhaps the best, account is to be found in Joseph de Siguença's History of the Order of St. Jerome. This was published in 1595-1605. To great learning Siguença united a style remarkable for its simple eloquence. In relating the life of the Emperor at Yuste he had the advantage of conversing with many eye-witnesses of the facts. Fray Antonio de Villacastin and several other monks of Yuste, the Emperor's confessor Regla, and his favourite preacher Villalva ; and he may also have had intercourse with Quixada the Chamberlain, and Gaztelu the secretary; and at Toledo or Madrid he had opportunities of knowing Torriano the Emperor's mechanician. The next anthor is Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, whose History of Charles the Fifth appeared in 16041606, 2 vols. folio. In the latter volume a supplementary book is devoted to the Cloister Life at Yuste. It was founded from a MS. narration written by Fray Martin de Angulo, prior of the convent. Juan Antonio de. Vera y Figueroa, Count of La Roca, printed his epitome of the Life of Charles the Fifth, in quarto, at Madrid, in 1613. He added but little to the preceding, but may have conversed with persons of Charles' suite. The Jesuit Pedro Ribadeneira, in his Life of Father Francisco Borgia, published in 1592, gave a circumstantial account of the interviews which took place in Estramadura between that remarkable man and the Emperor, which he had ample opportunities of hearing from the lips of Borgia himself. We are now to consider the history by Robertson. If we compare Robertson with Macaulay, he is inferior to him in brilliancy of thought, energy of narrative, and copious felicity of illustration. His imagination is warm and glowing, but does not present such striking pictures to the mind. His skill in generalisation is less, he cannot portray character so powerfully, nor does he recal the past with that deep dramatic effect which both actor and event awaken when revived by the research, the imagination, and the careful study of the later writer. If we compare Robertson with Hume, his style is less enriched with philosophical reflection, is unequal in breadth of description, does not present to us those deep thoughts which arise from the narrative, and break away like bold headlands from the plain, nor are the great actors on his scene arrayed with so much dignity, nor his events so boldly massed. But in those cardinal virtues of an historian, care and industry, in research, impartiality, the love of truth, and unimpassioned judg ment, he is eminently superior. To both Hume and Macaulay he is equal in intellectual lucidity, and by many will be preferred, through the absence of all exaggeration, the uniform subjection of his imagination, the selection of his topics, the elevated simplicity and the consequent dignity of his style. His great deficiency arises from his imperfect authorities; he could impart dignity and grace to superficial knowledge upon some points, and this he did, yet even on these he must be judged in relation to his opportunities and his time. In the case of the Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth his inaccuracy has been long admitted. Citing, says Mr. Stirling, the respectable names of Sandoval, Vera, and De Thou, he seems to have relied chiefly upon Leti, one of the most lively and least trustworthy of the historians of his time. He does not appear to have been aware of the existence of Siguença. We will now describe the authorities for the present work, in addition to the authors already noticed. A visit Mr. Stirling paid to Yuste in 1849 first led him to look into the original narratives of the event. An article by M. Gachard, in the Bulletins of the Royal Academy of Brussels, vol. xii. part i. 1845, to which the attention of our readers is directed, informed him that the archives of the Foreign Office of France contained a long account of the retirement of Charles the Fifth, illustrated with original letters, of which he gives the following account. At the restoration of Ferdinand the Seventh the royal archives of Spain, preserved in the castle of Simancas, near Valladolid, were entrusted to the care of Don Tomas Gonzalez, canon of Plasencia. From the documents there existing Gonzalez, whose name is held in deserved repute as a contributor to the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of History of Spain, prepared this account of the Emperor's life at Yuste, and had fairly copied it for the press, when death brought his labours to a premature close. His books and papers devolved to his brother Manuel, who succeeded him in his post at Simancas. In 1836 Manuel was displaced, and being reduced to poverty, offered his MS. for sale, and finally disposed of it in 1844, for the sum of 4,000 francs, to M. Mignet, then director of the archives of the French Foreign Office. It is entitled, "The Retirement, Residence, and Death of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, in the Monastery of Yuste, a historical narrative founded on documents." The bulk of the memoir consists almost wholly of original letters selected from the correspondence carried on between the courts at Valladolid and Brussels and the retired Emperor and his household, in the years 1556, 1557, and 1558. principal writers are Philip the Second, the Infanta Juana, Juan Vazquez de Molina, secretary of state, Francisco de Eraso, secretary to the King, Don Garcia de Toledo, tutor to Don Carlos, the Emperor, Luis Quixada, his chamberlain, Martin de Gaztelu, his secretary, William Van Male, his gentleman of the chamber, and Mathisio and Cornelio, his physicians. The thread of the narrative is supplied by Gonzalez, who has done his part with great judg ment, permitting the story to be told, as far as possible, by the original actors in their own words. Such are the authorities consulted by Mr. Stirling, from whose pages we shall now extract such passages as may serve to present the Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth to our readers, and of which M. Gachard promises also a narrative. The Charles the Fifth had long nourished the desire to exchange the pomp and care which hedge a throne for the seclusion and repose of the cloister. He had agreed with the Empress Isabella, who died in 1538, that as soon as state affairs would permit they were to retire for the remainder of their days,he into a convent, she into a nunnery. This design had become rumoured among the courtiers. In 1548 Philip the Second was sent for to receive the oath of allegiance from the Nether |