Note 343 — Chapter XI · WAR WITH THE TURKS.

The third volume of the Documentos Inéditos contains a copious extract from a manuscript in the Escorial written by a Jeronymite monk. In this the writer states that Philip received intelligence of the victory from a courier despatched by Don John, while engaged at vespers in the palace monastery of the Escorial. This account is the one followed by Cabrera (Filipe Segundo, p. 696) and by the principal Castilian writers. Its inaccuracy, however, is sufficiently attested by two letters written at the time to Don John of Austria, one by the royal secretary Alzamora, the other by Philip himself. According to their account, the person who first conveyed the tidings was the Venetian minister; and the place where they were received by the king was the private chapel of the palace of Madrid, while engaged at vespers on All-Saints eve. It is worthy of notice, that the secretary's letter contains no hint of the nonchalance with which Philip is said to have heard the tidings. The originals of these interesting despatches still exist in the National Library at Madrid. They have been copied by Señor Rosell for his memoir (Apénd. Nos. 13, 15). One makes little progress in history before finding that it is much easier to repeat an error than to correct it.