Note 1487 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Letter of Fourquevaulx, April 13, 1568. ap. Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. II. p. 143.
A letter of condolence from the municipality of Murcia was conceived in such a loyal and politic vein as was altogether unexceptionable. "We cannot reflect," it says, "without emotion, on our good fortune in having a sovereign so just, and so devoted to the weal of his subjects, as to sacrifice to this every other consideration, even the tender attachment which he has for his own offspring." This, which might seem irony to some, was received by the king, as it was doubtless intended, in perfect good faith. His indorsement, in his own handwriting, on the cover, shows the style in which he liked to be approached by his loving subjects. "This letter is written with prudence and discretion."—A translation of the letter, dated February 16, 1568, is in Llorente, Histoire de l'Inquisition, tom. III. p. 161.