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THE ROYAL FAMILY.
for the dark hour of adversity, received the fatal tidings in a spirit of meek and humble acquiescence, testifying her resignation in the beautiful language of Scripture, "The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be his name!"[1]
His aimable character "Thus," says Martyr, who had the melancholy satisfaction of rendering the last sad offices to his royal pupil, "was laid low the hope of all Spain." "Never was there a death," says another chronicler, " which occasioned such deep and general lamentation throughout the land." All the unavailing honors which affection could devise were paid to his memory. His funeral obsequies were celebrated with melancholy splendor, and his remains deposited in the noble Dominican monastery of St. Thomas at Avila, which had been erected by his parents. The court put on a new and deeper mourning than that hitherto used, as if to testify their unwonted grief.[2] All offices, public and private, were closed for forty days; and sable-colored banners were suspended from the walls and portals of the cities. Such extraordinary tokens of public sorrow bear strong testimony to the interest felt in the young prince, independently of his ex-- ↑ Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 183. Martyr draws an affecting picture of the anguish of the bereaved parents, which betrayed itself in looks more eloquent than words. "Reges tantam dissimulare ærumnam nituntur; ast nos prostratum in internis ipsorum animum cernimus; oculos alter in faciem alterius crebro conjiciunt, in propatulo sedentes. Unde quid lateat proditur. Nimirum tamen, desincrent humanâ carne vestiti esse homines, essentque adamantc duriorcs, nisi quid amiserint sentirent."
- ↑ Biancas, Coronaciones de los Sercnissimos Reyes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, 1641,) lib. 3, cap. 18.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 6.—Sackcloth was substituted for the white serge, which till this time had been used as the mourning dress.
