and from thence chiefly is derived the strong prejudice,. which prevails against his personal bravery; an inference, however, which must be owned, from general experience, to be extremely fallacious.

SECTION XXVI.

HUME.

CHARLES V. EMPEROR OF GERMANY, RESIGNS HIS DOMIN-IONS, AND RETIRES FROM THE WORLD.

THIS great emperor, in the plenitude of his power, and Io possesion of all the honors which can flatter the heart of nan, took the extraordinary resolution to resign his kingdoms, and to withdraw entirely from any concern in business or the affairs of this world, in order that he might spend the remainder of his days in retirement and solitude. Though ..it requires neither deep reflection, nor extraordinary discernment, to discover that the state of royalty is not exempt from cares and disappointments; though most of those who are exalted to a throne, find solicitude, and satiety, and disgust, to be their perpetual attendants in that envied preeminence; yet, to descend voluntarily from the supreme to a sub-ordinate station, and to relinquish the possession of power, in order to attain the enjoyment of happiness, seems to be an effort too great for the human mind. Several instances, indeed, occur in history, of monarchs who have quitted a throne, and have ended their days in retirement. But they were either weak princes, who took this resolution rashly, -and repented of it as soon as it was taken; or unfortunate princes, from whose hands some strong rival had wrested their sceptre, and compelled them to descend with reluctance into a private station. Dioclesian is perhaps the only prince capable of holding the reins of government, who ever resigned them from deliberate choice; and who continued, during many years, to enjoy the tranquillity of retirement, without fetching one penitent sigh, or casting back one look of desire towards the power or dignity which he had abandoned.

No wonder, then, that Charles' resignation should fill all Europe with astonishment; and give rise, both among his contemporaries, and among the historians of that period, to various conjectures concerning the motives which determined prince, whose ruling passion had been goiformly the love

of power, at the age of fifty-six, when objects of ambition operate with full force on the mind, and are pursued with the greatest ardor, to take á resolution so singular and unexpected.

The emperor, in pursuance of his determination, having assembled the states of the Low Countries at Brussels, seat; ed himself for the last time, in the chair of state; on ené side of which was placed his son, and on the other, his sis ter, the queen of Hungary, regent of the Netherlands, with a splendid retinue of the grandees of Spain, and princes of the empire standing behind him. The president of the council of Flanders, by his command, explained in a few words, his intention in calling this extraordinary meeting of the states. He then read the instrument of resignation, by which Charles surrendered to his son Philip all his territories, jurisdiction, and authority, in the Low Countries; absolving his subjects there from their oath of allegiance to him, which he required them to transfer to Philip his lawful heir; and to serve him with the same loyalty and zeal that they had manifested, daring so long a course of years in support of his government.

Charles then rose from his seat, and leaning on the shoulder of the prince of Orange, because he was unable to staud without support, he addressed himself to the audience; and from a paper which he held in his baud, in order to assist his memory, he recounted with dignity, but without ostentation, all the great things which he had undertaken and performed, since the commencement of his administration. He observed, that from the seventeenth year of his age he had dedicated all his thoughts and attention to public objects, reserv ing no portion of his time for the indulgence of his ease, and very little for the enjoyment of private pleasure; that either in the pacific or hostile manner, he had visited Germany nine times, Spain six times, France four times, Italy seven times, the Low Countries ten times, England twice, Africa as often, and had made eleven voyages by sea; that while his health permitted him to discharge his duty, and the vigor of his constitution was equal, in any degree, to the arduous office of governing such extensive dominions, he had never shunned labor nor repined under fatigue: that now, when his health was broken, and his vigor exhausted by the rage of ap incurable distemper, his growing infirmities admonished him to retire, nor was he so fond of reigning, as to retain

the sceptre in an impotent hand, which was no longer able to protect his subjects, or to render them happy; that instead of a sovereign worn out with diseases, and scarcely half alive, he gave them one in the prime of life, accustomed already to govern, and who added to the vigor of youth all the attention and sagacity of maturer years; that if, during the course of a long administration, he had committed any material error in government, or if under the pressure of so many and great affairs, and amidst the attention which he had been obliged to give to them, he had either neglected or injured any of his subjects, he now implored their forgiveDress; that for his part, he should ever retain a grateful sense of their fidelity and attachment, and would carry the remem brance of it along with him to the place of his retreat, as his sweetest consolation, as well as the best reward for all his ser vices; and in his last prayers to Almighty God, would pour forth his ardent wishes for their welfare.

well

Then turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees, and, kissed his father's hand, “ If," says he, "I had left you, by my death, this rich inheritance, to which I have made such large additions, some regard would have been justly due to my memory on that account: but now, when I voluntarily resign to you what I might have still retained, I may expect the warmest expressions of thanks on your part.With these, however, I dispense; and shall consider your concern for the welfare of your subjects, aud. your love of them, as the best and most acceptable testimony of your gratitude to me. It is in your power, by a wise and virtu ous administration, to justify the extraordinary proof which I give this day of my paternal affections, and to demonstrate that you are worthy of the confidence which I repose in you. Preserve an inviolable regard for religion; maintain the Catholic faith in its purity; let the laws of your country be sacred in your eyes; encroachroot on the rights and privileges of your people: and if the time shall ever come, when you shall wish to enjoy the tranquillity of private life may you have a son endowed with such qualities, that you can resign your sceptre to him with as much satisfaction as I give up mine to you."

As soou as Charles had finished this loog address to his subjects, and to their new sovereign, he sunk into the chair, exhausted and ready to faint with the fatigue of such an extraordinary effort. During bis discourse the whole audience

melted into tears; some from admiration of his magnauimity; others softened by the expressions of tenderness towards his son, and love to his people; and all were affected with the deepest sorrow, at losing a sovereigo who had distinguished the Netherlands, his native country, with particular marks of his regard and attachment.

SECTION XXVI.

THE GAME BUBJECT CONTINUED..

A FEW weeks after the resignation of the Netherlands, Charles, in an assembly no less splendid, and, with a ceremo nial equally pompous, resigned to his son the crowns of Spain, with all the territories depending on them, both in the old and in the new world. Of all these vast possessions, he reserved nothing for himself, but an annual pension of an hundred thousand crowns, to defray the charges of his famdy, and to afford him a small sum for acts of beneficence and charity.

Nothing now remained to detain him from that retreat for which he lauguished. Every thing having been prepared some time for his voyage, he set out for Zuitburg in Zealand, where the fleet had orders to rendezvous. In his way thith er, he passed through Ghent; and after stopping there a few days, to indulge that tender and pleasant melancholy which arises in the mind of every man in the decline of life, on visiting the place of his nativity, and viewing the scenes and ob jects familiar to him in his early youth, he pursued his jour ney, accompanied by his son Philip, his daughter the arch duchess, his sisters the dowager queens of France and Husgary, Maximilian his son-in-law, and a numerous retinue of the Flemish nobility. Before he went on board, he dismissed them, with marks of his attention and regard; and taking leave of Philip with all the tenderness of a father who embraced his son for the last time, he set sail under convoy of a large fleet of Spanish, Flemish, and English ships.

His voyage was prosperous and agreeable; and he arriv ed at Laredo in Biscay, on the eleventh day after he left Zealand. As soon as he landed, he fell prostrate on the ground: and considering himself now as dead to the world, he kissed the earth, and said, "Naked came I out of any mother's aromb, and naked I now return to thee, thou com

mon mother of mankind." From Laredo he proceeded to Valladolid. There he took a last and tender leave of his two sisters; whom he would not. permit to accompany him to his solitude, though they entreated it with tears; not only that they might have the consolation of contributing by their attendance and care, to mitigate or to sooth his sufferings, but that they might reap instruction and benefit, by joining with him in those pious exercises to which he had consecrated the remainder of his days.

From Valladolid, he continued his journey to Placenzia in Estramadura. He had passed through that city a great many years before; and having been struck at that time with the delightful situation of the monastery of St. Justus, belonging to the order of St. Jerome, not many miles distant from that place, he had then observed to some of his attendants, that this was a spot to which Dioclesian might have retired with pleasure. The impression had remained so strong on his mind, that he pitched upon it as the place of his retreat. It was seated in a vale of no great extent, watered by a small brook, and surrounded by rising grounds, covered with lofty trees; from the nature of the soil, as well as the temperature of the climate, it was esteemed the most Dealthful and delicious situation in Spain. Some months he fore his resignation, he had sent an architect thither, to ada a new apartment to the mosastery, for his accommodation; but he gave strict orders, that the style of the building should be such as suited his present station, rather than his former dignity. It consisted only of six rooms four of them in the form of friars' cells, with naked walls; the other two, cach twenty feet square, were hung with brown cloth, and furnished in the most simple mancer. They were on a leve with the ground; and with a door on one side into a garden, of which Charles himself had given the plan, and had filled it with various plants, which he proposed to cultivate with bis own hands. On the other side, they communicated with the chapel of the monastery, in which he was to perform his devotions. In this humble retreat, hardly sufficient for the comfortable accomodation of a private gentleman, did Charles enter, with twelve domestics only. He buried there, in so jude and silence, his grandeur, his ambition, together with all those vast projects, which, during half a century, had a Tamed and agitated Europe; filling every kingdom in it, by