Note 1513 — Chapter VII

Thus, for example, he makes the contradictory statements, at the distance of four pages from each other, that the prince did, and that he did not, confide to Don John his desire to kill his father (pp. 148, 152). The fact is, that Llorente in a manner pledged himself to solve the mystery of the prince's death, by announcing to his readers, at the outset, that "he believed he had discovered the truth." One fact he must be allowed to have established,—one which, as secretary to the Inquisition, he had the means of verifying,—namely, that no process was ever instituted against Carlos by the Holy Office. This was to overturn a vulgar error, on which more than one writer of fiction has built his story.