[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE, MADRID.]
The days passed on. Buckingham declared to Olivares that Charles had no
thought of becoming a Catholic. Charles avoided the subject, and talked
only of his love. The Spanish ministers blamed Bristol for his
indecision, and had rooms prepared for the prince in the royal palace.
Charles willingly accepted them, and on the 16th of March rode through
the streets of Madrid, on the right hand of the king, to his new abode.
The people were now permitted to applaud to their hearts' desire, as no
further pretence of a secret existed. Glad acclamations attended the
progress of the royal cortege. The people shouted with joy, and all,
high and low, sang a song composed for the occasion by Lope de Vega, the
famous dramatist, which told how Charles had come, under the guidance of
love, to the Spanish sky to see his star Maria.
"Carlos Estuardo soy
Que, siendo amor mi guia,
Al cielo d'Espana voy
Por ver mi estrella Maria."
The palace was decorated with all its ancient splendor, the streets
everywhere showed signs of the public joy, and, as a special mark of
royal clemency, all prisoners, except those held for heinous crimes,
were set at liberty, among them numerous English galley-slaves, who had
been captured in pirate vessels preying upon Spanish commerce.
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