That conference came to a sudden end.
As the stay of the prince in Madrid now seemed likely to be protracted,
attendants were sent him from England that he might keep up, some show
of state. But the Spanish court did not want them, and contrived to make
their stay so unpleasant and their accommodations so poor, that Charles
soon packed the most of them off home again.
"I am glad to get away," said one of these, James Eliot by name, to the
prince; "and hope that your Highness will soon leave this pestiferous
Spain. It is a dangerous place to alter a man and turn him. I myself in
a short time have perceived my own weakness, and am almost turned."
"What motive had you?" asked Charles. "What have you seen that should
turn you?"
"Marry," replied Eliot, "when I was in England, I turned the whole Bible
over to find Purgatory, and because I could not find it there I believed
there was none. But now that I have come to Spain, I have found it here,
and that your Highness is in it; whence that you may be released, we,
your Highness's servants, who are going to Paradise, will offer unto God
our utmost devotions."
A purgatory it was,--a purgatory lightened for Charles by love, he
playing the role assigned by Dante to Paolo, though the infanta was
little inclined to imitate Francesca da Rimini.
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