CHAPTER XXIII

Meanwhile D. John of Austria was not losing time, and heartened by the first help that Philip II sent, set about to gain all the results possible from the victory of Gembleux. Since this defeat the rebels had fallen back towards Brussels, fearful lest D. John was going there, and he, leaving them in this belief, continued his plan of campaign with clever strategy, and in little more than a month became master of Louvain, Bouvignes, Tilemont, Sichem, Diest, Nivelles and Philippeville. There he stopped, tired out by this hard work, in which fell on him not only the anxieties of a general, but the duties of a soldier, and there, too, he received the news of Escovedo's death. This was the finishing stroke for D. John. It is not known when or through whom the information came to him; but the fatal news must have come quickly, as already on the 20th of April he wrote a beautiful letter to Philip, true transcript of his noble, generous and Christian soul[17].

Footnote 17:

"Sir. With greater sorrow than I know how to express I have heard of the unhappy death of the secretary Escovedo, for which I cannot be consoled or ever shall be, as Y.M. has lost such a servant as I know; and I, that Y. M. knows; and though I sorrow over this as I do, above all I feel it that at the end of many years and services he should have ended by such an unworthy death, for having served his King with such faithfulness and love without other consideration or practices, such as are now in use. And though it is wrong to judge anyone hastily, I do not think I am falling into this sin now, as I mention no one; but I hold as a fact what I say, and as a man who has had so much opportunity, and who knows the frankness with which Escovedo treated Y.M.'s service, I fear where it may have come from. But, after all, I am not certain, or, not knowing, I will only say, by the love of Our Lord, I beg Y.M., with all the earnestness possible, that you will not permit such an offence to be committed in your city, or allow so great a one to be done to me, without using all possible diligence to ascertain whence it comes, and to punish it with the rigour it deserves. And although I believe that Y.M. will have already done so very thoroughly, and will have done so, being such a Christian and justice-observing Prince, all the same, I wish to beg you that, as a gentleman, I may defend, and allow to be defended, the honour of one who deserved it as much as Escovedo, and this because I am the more bound, as with good reason I can imagine myself to have been the cause of his death, for that which Y.M. knows better than another. Do not take it amiss if I beg not only to remember, and urge, as I shall do by each courier, about what concerns the deceased, until justice is done and his services remunerated; even if I should overlook the rest, that as a gentleman I must do.

"Again I pray Y.M., as humbly and earnestly as I am able, that it will be your pleasure to send me an answer to all these things, as I confess to Y.M. that nothing could happen to worry me more than his death has done, until everything relating to the deceased is settled.

"I do not know how he has left his affairs, so I can enter into no details, but I beg Y.M. to remember Escovedo's purpose, which was that of honour, and the sincerity with which he served you, and of the small comfort he leaves in his house, and do all the favours to those who remain in it that they deserve, especially to the eldest son, of those offices and emoluments which the father held, that Pedro Escovedo deserves them, and will go on deserving them more and more, if he is employed and favoured, Y.M. knows better than anyone. And because I think, according to what he was obliged to spend and the little he had, he may have left some debts which might pain his soul, and his children and wife here below, I will also beg Y.M. to order them to be favoured by the wherewithal to pay them. Although I chiefly beg that, being left like a father to the said eldest son, you will do me this signal favour of giving him in all everything his father enjoyed, because as to the debts I can easily pay the most of the food and dress, and what are obliged to be paid, which is the least I can do for the repose of him who worked for me till death, as he did, to help to enable me to do the best for Y. M.'s service in whatever passed through his hands, which he did, as I have claimed and shall claim all my life. Consider, Y. M., if these obligations deserve that he should have these offices, and if I can be confident that you will do this favour, that I ask in all that I beg, and shall beg for continually, until the justice and favour that the blood and services of the deceased cry out for, are gained."

A little later, while at Namur, he writes on the 3rd of May to his friend D. Rodrigo de Mendoza: "Of the little I shall say in this, the first thing shall be how grieved I am at the death of Escovedo, the more that they do not find out from whence comes such an ill deed; because certainly, besides how greatly he was needed for H.M.'s service in what he was looking after, I also wanted him infinitely, and I have lost a great support, and even more so, I think, in the future. May God rest him in heaven, and reveal to me who killed him."

And further, he wrote to Gian Andrea Doria on the 7th of June: "Of Escovedo's unhappy death I do not know what to say, particularly from such a distance, even if I could say anything were I nearer; but in my opinion it is a case which asks for prompt action more than words: but so many suspicions and no certainty stop one's mouth and tie one's hands, so at present one can only wait and feel what one must about such a servant and a case like this death of Escovedo."

* * * * *

These are all D. John's papers about Escovedo's death which have come down to us. Though nothing in these letters shows clearly that he had sounded all the depths of iniquity hidden behind the treacherous crime, it is impossible to think to the contrary. From the first moment public opinion in Madrid pointed at Antonio Pérez and the Princesa de Évoli as authors of the murder, and even, it is said, came near to the truth; a fact to be remembered, as those who wrote nearest the event, Van der Hammen and Cabrera de Córdoba, mention "that to authorise the assassination, Antonio Pérez gave the assassins a writing signed by the King, of the sort that are given blank to ambassadors and viceroys to shorten some business." The declaration of Antonio Enriquez at the famous trial eleven years later proves that these rumours reached beyond Spain. "Antonio Enriquez said that in Italy and Flanders it was openly said that Antonio Pérez killed Escovedo because of the Princesa de Évoli." It is impossible that these rumours should not have reached the ears of D. John, or that, with his shrewdness, he should not have put two and two together, the truth proved to him by the old story of their intrigue. One fact makes it patent that if D. John knew nothing for certain, he had at least very strong suspicions that Antonio Pérez was the murderer of Escovedo. From this time the intimate correspondence which he kept up with the false secretary abruptly ceases, and he only replies to the honeyed, flattering letters by stiff and official dispatches such as could not be avoided between the Governor-General and the Secretary for Flanders. And further, we think D. John must then have known, at any rate in part, of the treason and calumnies of Pérez and the absolute ruin of his credit with D. Philip effected by these means; which accounts for the depression, despondency, and presentiment of death that overwhelmed the hero of Lepanto at this time, never to leave him during his remaining months of life.