The "two columns," said Suriano, "which sustain this great machine, are Ruy Gomez and Alva, and from their councils depends the government of half the world." The two were ever bitterly opposed to each other.

Incessant were their bickerings, intense their mutual hate, desperate and difficult the situation of any man, whether foreigner or native, who had to transact business with the government.

If he had secured the favor of Gomez, he had already earned the enmity of Alva.

Was he protected by the Duke, he was sure to be cast into outer darkness by the favorite .-- Alva represented the war party, Ruy Gomez the pacific polity more congenial to the heart of Philip.

The Bishop of Arras, who in the opinion of the envoys was worth them all for his capacity and his experience, was then entirely in the background, rarely entering the council except when summoned to give advice in affairs of extraordinary delicacy or gravity.