mêlée, and some sword-play, making, we doubt not, glorious diversion.
The purple light in which he basked for only a few months was the sole recompense of his surpassing achievement. The kind fairy, while he was enjoying himself in Italy, had come to the term of her glittering endowments. A less benevolent spirit was about to take her place. And the favoured knight who had been wafted to rank and fame by the quickest and easiest of ascents, was now, after a brief enjoyment of silken pleasures, to become acquainted, ere his youth had passed, with adversity – to drag out his few days in labour and sorrow – and to sink below the horizon ere the noontide of his manhood.
With Tunis was lost a possible kingdom for Don John, who had conceived the idea of making it the capital of his dominion. He had not, however, long suffered the frustration of his hopes in that direction before another day-dream which seemed full of promise was set before him. Some wandering English and Irish Catholics made proposals to him to raise an army for the purpose of invading England or Ireland, and, by the aid of the native Papists, conquering those kingdoms. He was to deliver Mary Queen of Scots from captivity, set her on the throne of Elizabeth, and then marry her. The Pope, as he was informed, would certainly second his efforts to win back the British Isles to the Catholic faith; moreover, the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth would remove one of the chief supports of the rebellion against his brother Philip, which had been for a long time active in the Netherlands. There is no doubt that the King of Spain, who had, as "bloody" Mary's husband, once been King-Consort of England, entertained serious thoughts of overthrowing the Protestant Queen; but he does not appear, when the temptation was first suggested to Don John, to have wished his brother to be an actor in that business – knowing which disinclination, the hero of Lepanto again cast his eyes over the Levant and the shores of the Mediterranean generally, in search of a realm. He thought it not impossible that out of the Italian States, or even out of some of the Spanish dominions, a kingdom might be carved for him.
But Philip was overruled by events, and he felt compelled ere long to look with some favour on the project of marrying Don John to the Scottish Queen. He made no progress at all in pacifying the Low Countries, and the sudden death of his lieutenant there rendered necessary a new appointment to the viceroyalty of those dominions. Not unnaturally, now that operations by sea were not being prosecuted with much vigour, the King turned to his now famous half-brother, as his best resource for ensuring the able government of the Netherlands. Accordingly, he informed him of the employment which he designed for him, and desired that he would set off with despatch, because a commander was urgently required there – and with secrecy and without parade, because a quiet and unostentatious appearance among the Netherlander might be evidence that the new commander threw himself into their midst without hostility or suspicion. The King was under the impression (which proved to be a most erroneous one) that ships and troops, ostensibly assembled in the Netherlands for the repression of insurrection, might be available
