Calderon the Courtier, a Tale, Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron, 1803-1873
English
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Below is a summary of Calderon the Courtier, a Tale, Complete
CALDERON, THE COURTIER
BY
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER I. The Antechamber
CHAPTER II. The Lover and the Confidant
CHAPTER III. A Rival
CHAPTER IV. Civil Ambition, and Ecclesiastical
CHAPTER V. The true Fate of Morgana
CHAPTER VI. Web upon Web
CHAPTER VII. The open Countenance, the concealed Thoughts
CHAPTER VIII. The Escape
CHAPTER IX. The Counterplot
CHAPTER X. We reap what we sow
CHAPTER XI. Howsoever the Rivers wind, the Ocean receives them All
CALDERON, THE COURTIER.
A TALE.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANTE-CHAMBER.
The Tragi-Comedy of Court Intrigue, which had ever found its principal
theatre in Spain since the accession of the House of Austria to the
throne, was represented with singular complication of incident and
brilliancy of performance during the reign of Philip the Third. That
monarch, weak, indolent, and superstitious, left the reins of government
in the hands of the Duke of Lerma. The Duke of Lerma, in his turn, mild,
easy, ostentatious, and shamefully corrupt, resigned the authority he had
thus received to Roderigo Calderon, an able and resolute upstart, whom
nature and fortune seemed equally to favour and endow. But, not more to
his talents, which were great, than to the policy of religious
persecution which he had supported and enforced, Roderigo Calderon owed
his promotion. The King and the Inquisition had, some years before our
story opens, resolved upon the general expulsion of the Moriscos the
wealthiest, the most active, the most industrious portion of the
population.
"I would sooner," said the bigoted king--and his words were hallowed by
the enthusiasm of the Church--"depopulate my kingdom than suffer it to
harbour a single infidel." The Duke de Lerma entered into the scheme
that lost to Spain many of her most valuable subjects, with the zeal of
a pious Catholic expectant of the Cardinal's hat, which he afterwards
obtained. But to this scheme Calderon brought an energy, a decision, a
vehemence, and sagacity of hatred, that savoured more of personal
vengeance than religious persecution. His perseverance in this good work
established him firmly in the king's favour; and in this he was supported
by the friendship not only of Lerma, but of Fray Louis de Aliaga, a
renowned Jesuit, and confessor to the king. The disasters and distresses
occasioned by this barbarous crusade, which crippled the royal revenues,
and seriously injured the estates of the principal barons, from whose
lands the industrious and intelligent Moriscos were expelled, ultimately
concentred a deep and general hatred upon Calderon. But his
extraordinary address and vigorous energies, his perfect mastery of the
science of intrigue, not only sustained, but continued to augment, his
power. Though the king was yet in the prime of middle age, his health
was infirm and his life precarious. Calderon had contrived, while
preserving the favour of the reigning monarch, to establish himself as
the friend and companion of the heir apparent. In this, indeed, he had
affected to yield to the policy of the king himself; for Philip the Third
had a wholesome terror of the possible ambition of his son, who early
evinced talents which might have been formidable, but for passions which
urged him into the most vicious pleasures and the most extravagant
excesses. The craft of the king was satisfied by the device of placing
about the person of the Infant one devoted to himself; nor did his
conscience, pious as he was, revolt at the profligacy which his favourite
was said to participate, and, perhaps, to encourage; since the less
popular the prince, the more powerful the king.
But all this while there was formed a powerful cabal against both the
Duke of Lerma and Don Roderigo Calderon in a quarter where it might least
have been anticipated. The cardinal-duke, naturally anxious to cement
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