shouted his orders to rushing squadrons, and listened with brightening
eye to the trumpet of victory. Reason returned, however, before the hour
of death, and permitted him, the opportunity to make the dispositions
rendered necessary by his condition. He appointed his nephew, Alexander
of Parma, who had been watching assiduously over his deathbed, to succeed
him, provisionally, in the command of the army and in his other
dignities, received the last sacraments with composure, and tranquilly
breathed his last upon the first day of October, the month which, since
the battle of Lepanto, he had always considered a festive and a fortunate
one.

It was inevitable that suspicion of poison should be at once excited by
his decease. Those suspicions have been never set at rest, and never
proved. Two Englishmen, Ratcliff and Gray by name, had been arrested and
executed on a charge of having been employed by Secretary Walsingham to
assassinate the Governor. The charge was doubtless an infamous
falsehood; but had Philip, who was suspected of being the real criminal,
really compassed the death of his brother, it was none the less probable
that an innocent victim or two would be executed, to save appearances.
Now that time has unveiled to us many mysteries, now that we have learned
from Philip's own lips and those of his accomplices the exact manner in
which Montigny and Escovedo were put to death, the world will hardly be
very charitable with regard to other imputations. It was vehemently
suspected that Don John had been murdered by the command of Philip; but
no such fact was ever proved.

The body, when opened that it might be embalmed, was supposed to offer
evidence of poison. The heart was dry, the other internal organs were
likewise so desiccated as to crumble when touched, and the general color
of the interior was of a blackish brown, as if it had been singed.