Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/183

 ISABELLA OF CASTILE 121 eight hundred thousand of Spain's most wealthy subjects. The coast was lined with vessels of every kind, and size, busy with the transportation of these un- happy victims, when Columbus was seeking for vessels and men to cross the " Sea of Darkness." And now we are beginning to understand the momentous events that culminated in the reign of Isabella. We find that religious enthu- siasm, inspired during the long wars with the " Infidel Moors," developed into religious bigotry. In the Jews, Spain expelled the most wealthy portion of her subjects ; in the Moors, the most industrious ; the wealth and industry of the nation were sacrificed for race and creed. And then within its own race and creed arose a new foe to combat ; with equal energy and blind zeal Spain crushed Protestantism within her borders through the terrors of the Inquisition. But let us not lay the whole blame of such intolerant Christianity upon the unfortunate woman who fell heir to the crown of Castile during the period when the Church of Rome had the power to bind the consciences of men. Let us re- member that as a woman Isabella was an honor to her sex ; as a Christian she lived devoutly ; as a queen she ruled wisely for the uplifting of her nation, and that the only censure the world casts upon her is the fortitude with which she said " Infidelity must be banished from the land." " Bury me in Granada, the brightest jewel in my crown," she said, when dying, in far-off Castile, November 26, 1504. The way was long and the De- cember winds were cold as the royal cortege, with knightly escort, wended its way across the barren heights of Central Spain into the beautiful valley of Anda- lusia, across the lovely vega, past Santa Fe, up the rugged slope of the acropolk of Granada into the Chapel Isabella, near the unrivalled Alhambra. Here in the very heart of the last Moorish capital, while the whole nation mourned, they laid all that was mortal of the great queen, whom Lord Bacon has named "the corner-stone of the greatness of Spain." Twelve years later, January 23, 1516, they laid King Ferdinand beside her, 'the wisest king that ever ruled in Spain." (Prescott.) Their grandson, Charles V., now summoned the finest artists in the world to prepare royal mausoleums for Ferdinand and Isabella and for his parents, Joanna of Castile and Philip of Burgundy. The cathedral of Granada is the Spanish temple of victory. It covers the site of an ancient Moorish mosque. Within its royal chapel one may read, in bas-relief, the whole story of the re-conquest of Spain. On either side of its high altar kneel the life-size statues of the final conquerors; while in solemn, stately magnificence, the royal mausoleums of purest Carrara marble, with their reclining portrait figures of Ferdinand and Isabella in soft, time-tinted alabaster, tell us that here the nation, "redeemed from bondage,", laid their deliverers to rest. And here, at the close of nearly four hundred years, a hand from across the sea lays this tribute, with a garland of white roses and a wreath of olive leaves and immortelles, upon the tomb of ISABELLA OF CASTILE. JtS. J