Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/191

47 OcioUer 6. MINORITY OF FERDINAND. 47 two jears, she was poisoned by the command of chapter her sister. ^^ The retribution of Providence not * unfrequentlj overtakes the guilty even in this world. The countess survived her father to reign in Navarre only three short weeks; while the crown was ravished from her posterity for ever by that very Ferdinand, whose elevation had been the object to his parents of so much solicitude and so many crimes. Within a fortnight after the decease of Carlos, Fcrdinami ^ swDi'ii heir the customary oaths of allegiance, so pertinaciously ^°^,'l'^ withheld from that unfortunate prince, were ten- i h; i dered by the Aragonese deputation, at Calatayud, to his brother Ferdinand, then only ten years of age, as heir apparent of the monarchy ; after which he was conducted by his mother into Catalonia, in order to receive the more doubtful homage of that province. The extremities of Catalonia at this time seemed to be in perfect repose, but the capital was still agitated by secret discontent. The ghost of Carlos was seen stalking by night through the streets of Barcelona, bewailing in piteous accents his untimely end, and invoking vengeance on his unnatural murderers. The manifold miracles wrought at his tomb soon gained him the reputa- 32 Lebrija, DeBello Navariensi, Lebrija, a contemporary, (loc. cit.) (Granatoe, 1545,) lib. 1, cap. l,fol. in imputing it to poison. The fact 74. — Aleson, Anales de Navarra, of her death, which Aleson, on I ubi supra. — Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, know not what authority, refers to cap. 38. — The Spanish historians the 2d of December, 1464, was not are not agreed as to the time publicly disclosed till some months or even mode of Blanche's death, after its occurrence, when disclo- All concur, however, in attributing sure became necessary in conse- it to assassination, and most of quence of the proposed interposi- them, with the learned Antonio tion of the Navarrese cortes.