Chapter xvii.
_Julian enters into the person of a king._
"I was now born at Oviedo in Spain. My father's name was Veremond, and Iwas adopted by my uncle king Alphonso the chaste. I don't recollect inall the pilgrimages I have made on earth that I ever past a moremiserable infancy than now; being under the utmost confinement andrestraint, and surrounded with physicians who were ever dosing me, andtutors who were continually plaguing me with their instructions; eventhose hours of leisure which my inclination would have spent in playwere allotted to tedious pomp and ceremony, which, at an age wherein Ihad no ambition to enjoy the servility of courtiers, enslaved me morethan it could the meanest of them. However, as I advanced towardsmanhood, my condition made me some amends; for the most beautiful womenof their own accord threw out lures for me, and I had the happiness,which no man in an inferior degree can arrive at, of enjoying the mostdelicious creatures, without the previous and tiresome ceremonies ofcourtship, unless with the most simple, young, and unexperienced. As forthe court ladies, they regarded me rather as men do the most lovely ofthe other sex; and, though they outwardly retained some appearance ofmodesty, they in reality rather considered themselves as receiving thanconferring favours.
"Another happiness I enjoyed was in conferring favours of another sort;for, as I was extremely good-natured and generous, so I had dailyopportunities of satisfying those passions. Besides my own princelyallowance, which was very bountiful, and with which I did many liberaland good actions, I recommended numberless persons of merit in distressto the king's notice, most of whom were provided for. Indeed, had Isufficiently known my blest situation at this time, I should havegrieved at nothing more than the death of Alphonso, by which the burdenof government devolved upon me; but, so blindly fond is ambition, andsuch charms doth it fancy in the power and pomp and splendour of acrown, that, though I vehemently loved that king, and had the greatestobligations to him, the thoughts of succeeding him obliterated my regretat his loss, and the wish for my approaching coronation dried my eyes athis funeral.
"But my fondness for the name of king did not make me forgetful of thoseover whom I was to reign. I considered them in the light in which atender father regards his children, as persons whose wellbeing God hadintrusted to my care; and again, in that in which a prudent lordrespects his tenants, as those on whose wealth and grandeur he is tobuild his own. Both these considerations inspired me with the greatestcare for their welfare, and their good was my first and ultimateconcern.
"The usurper Mauregas had impiously obliged himself and his successorsto pay to the Moors every year an infamous tribute of an hundred youngvirgins: from this cruel and scandalous imposition I resolved to relievemy country. Accordingly, when their emperor Abderames the second had theaudaciousness to make this demand of me, instead of complying with it Iordered his ambassadors to be driven away with all imaginable ignominy,and would have condemned them to death, could I have done it without amanifest violation of the law of nations.
"I now raised an immense army; at the levying of which I made a speechfrom my throne, acquainting my subjects with the necessity and thereasons of the war in which I was going to engage: which I convincedthem I had undertaken for their ease and safety, and not for satisfyingany wanton ambition, or revenging any private pique of my own. They alldeclared unanimously that they would venture their lives and everythingdear to them in my defence, and in the support of the honour of mycrown. Accordingly, my levies were instantly complete, sufficientnumbers being only left to till the land; churchmen, even bishopsthemselves, enlisting themselves under my banners.
"The armies met at Alvelda, where we were discomfited with immense loss,and nothing but the lucky intervention of the night could have saved ourwhole army.
"I retreated to the summit of a hill, where I abandoned myself to thehighest agonies of grief, not so much for the danger in which I then sawmy crown, as for the loss of those miserable wretches who had exposedtheir lives at my command. I could not then avoid this reflection--that,if the deaths of these people in a war undertaken absolutely for theirprotection could give me such concern, what horror must I have felt if,like princes greedy of dominion, I had sacrificed such numbers to my ownpride, vanity, and ridiculous lust of power.
"After having vented my sorrows for some time in this manner, I began toconsider by what means I might possibly endeavour to retrieve thismisfortune; when, reflecting on the great number of priests I had in myarmy, and on the prodigious force of superstition, a thought luckilysuggested itself to me, to counterfeit that St James had appeared to mein a vision, and had promised me the victory. While I was ruminating onthis the bishop of Najara came opportunely to me. As I did not intend tocommunicate the secret to him, I took another method, and, instead ofanswering anything the bishop said to me, I pretended to talk to StJames, as if he had been really present; till at length, after havingspoke those things which I thought sufficient, and thanked the saintaloud for his promise of the victory, I turned about to the bishop, and,embracing him with a pleased countenance, protested I did not know hewas present; and then, informing him of this supposed vision, I askedhim if he had not himself seen the saint? He answered me he had; andafterwards proceeded to assure me that this appearance of St James wasentirely owing to his prayers; for that he was his tutelar saint. Headded he had a vision of him a few hours before, when he promised him avictory over the infidels, and acquainted him at the same time of thevacancy of the see of Toledo. Now, this news being really true, thoughit had happened so lately that I had not heard of it (nor, indeed, wasit well possible I should, considering the great distance of the way),when I was afterwards acquainted with it, a little staggered me, thoughfar from being superstitious; till being informed that the bishop hadlost three horses on a late expedition, I was satisfied.
"The next morning, the bishop, at my desire, mounted the rostrum, andtrumpeted forth this vision so effectually, which he said he had thatevening twice seen with his own eyes, that a spirit began to be infusedthrough the whole army which rendered them superior to almost any force:the bishop insisted that the least doubt of success was giving the lieto the saint, and a damnable sin, and he took upon him in his name topromise them victory.
"The army being drawn out, I soon experienced the effect of enthusiasm,for, having contrived another stratagem[I] to strengthen what the bishophad said, the soldiers fought more like furies than men. My stratagemwas this: I had about me a dexterous fellow, who had been formerly apimp in my amours. Him I drest up in a strange antick dress, with a pairof white colours in his right hand, a red cross in his left, and havingdisguised him so that no one could know him, I placed him on a whitehorse, and ordered him to ride to the head of the army, and cry out,'Follow St James!' These words were reiterated by all the troops, whoattacked the enemy with such intrepidity, that, notwithstanding ourinferiority of numbers, we soon obtained a complete victory.
"The bishop was come up by the time that the enemy was routed, and,acquainting us that he had met St James by the way, and that he hadinformed him of what had past, he added that he had express orders fromthe saint to receive a considerable sum for his use, and that a certaintax on corn and wine should be settled on his church for ever; andlastly, that a horseman's pay should be allowed for the future to thesaint himself, of which he and his successors were appointed receivers.The army received these demands with such acclamations that I wasobliged to comply with them, as I could by no means discover theimposition, nor do I believe I should have gained any credit if I had.
"I had now done with the saint, but the bishop had not; for about aweek afterwards lights were seen in a wood near where the battle wasfought; and in a short time afterwards they discovered his tomb at thesame place. Upon this the bishop made me a visit, and forced me to gothither, to build a church to him, and largely endow it. In a word, thegood man so plagued me with miracle after miracle, that I was forced tomake interest with the pope to convey him to Toledo, to get rid of him.
"But to p
roceed to other matters.--There was an inferior officer, whohad behaved very bravely in the battle against the Moors, and hadreceived several wounds, who solicited me for preferment; which I wasabout to confer on him, when one of my ministers came to me in a fright,and told me that he had promised the post I designed for this man to theson of count Alderedo; and that the count, who was a powerful person,would be greatly disobliged at the refusal, as he had sent for his sonfrom school to take possession of it. I was obliged to agree with myminister's reasons, and at the same time recommended the wounded soldierto be preferred by him, which he faithfully promised he would; but I metthe poor wretch since in Elysium, who informed me he was afterwardsstarved to death.
"None who hath not been himself a prince, nor any prince till his death,can conceive the impositions daily put on them by their favourites andministers; so that princes are often blamed for the faults of others.The count of Saldagne had been long confined in prison, when his son D.Bernard del Carpio, who had performed the greatest actions against theMoors, entreated me, as a reward for his service, to grant him hisfather's liberty. The old man's punishment had been so tedious, and theservices of the young one so singularly eminent, that I was veryinclinable to grant the request; but my ministers strongly opposed it;they told me my glory demanded revenge for the dishonour offered to myfamily; that so positive a demand carried with it rather the air ofmenace than entreaty; that the vain detail of his services, and therecompense due to them, was an injurious reproach; that to grant whathad been so haughtily demanded would argue in the monarch both weaknessand timidity; in a word, that to remit the punishment inflicted by mypredecessors would be to condemn their judgment. Lastly, one told me ina whisper, 'His whole family are enemies to your house.' By these meansthe ministers prevailed. The young lord took the refusal so ill, that heretired from court, and abandoned himself to despair, whilst the old onelanguished in prison. By which means, as I have since discovered, I lostthe use of two of my best subjects.
"To confess the truth, I had, by means of my ministers, conceived a veryunjust opinion of my whole people, whom I fancied to be daily conspiringagainst me, and to entertain the most disloyal thoughts, when, inreality (as I have known since my death), they held me in universalrespect and esteem. This is a trick, I believe, too often played withsovereigns, who, by such means, are prevented from that open intercoursewith their subjects which, as it would greatly endear the person of theprince to the people, so might it often prove dangerous to a ministerwho was consulting his own interest only at the expense of both. Ibelieve I have now recounted to you the most material passages of mylife; for I assure you there are some incidents in the lives of kingsnot extremely worth relating. Everything which passes in their minds andfamilies is not attended with the splendour which surrounds theirthrone--indeed, there are some hours wherein the naked king and thenaked cobbler can scarce be distinguished from each other.
"Had it not been, however, for my ingratitude to Bernard del Carpio, Ibelieve this would have been my last pilgrimage on earth; for, as to thestory of St James, I thought Minos would have burst his sides at it; buthe was so displeased with me on the other account, that, with a frown,he cried out, 'Get thee back again, king.' Nor would he suffer me to sayanother word."