Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/316

292 292 ITALIAN WARS PAin II. ticular, it was greeted w'xxh. fetes, illuminations, and the most emphatic public rejoicing, in the very ejes of the French minister, who was compelled to witness this unequivocal testimony of the detes- tation in which his countrymen were held.^'^ The tidings fell heavily on the ears of the French in Naples. It dispelled the dream of idle dissipation in which they were dissolved. They felt little concern, indeed, on the score of their Italian ene- mies, whom their easy victories taught them to 4" Comines, M^moires, p. 96. — Comines takes great credit to him- self for his perspicacity in detecting the secret negotiations carried on at Venice against his master. Ac- cording to Bembo, however, the affair was managed with such pro- found caution, as to escape hif no- tice until it was officially anno need by the doge himself; when he was so much astounded by the intelli- gence, that he was obliged to ask the secretary of the senate., who accompanied him home, the par- ticulars of what the doge had said, as his ideas were so confused at the time, that he had not perfectly comprehended it. Istoria Vinizia- na, lib. 2, pp. 128, 129. Zurita's lilV and writings The principal light, by which we are to be guided through the re- mainder of this history, is the Aragonese annalist, Zurita, whose great work, although less known abroad, than those of some more recent Castilian writers, sustains a reputation at home, unsurpassed by any other, in the great, substantial qualities of an historian. The no- tice of his life and writings has been swelled into a bulky quarto by Dr. Diego Dormer, in a work entitled, " Progresses de la Ilisto- ria en el Reyno de Aragon. Zara- goza, 1680 ;" from which I extract a few particulars. Geronimo Zurita, descended from an ancient and noble family, was born at Saragossa, December 4 th, 1512. He was matriculated at an early age in the university of Al- oalii. He tlicre made extraordinary proficiency, under the immediate in- struction of the learned Nufiez de Guzman, commonly called El Pin- ciano. He became familiar with the ancient, and a variety of mod- ern tongues, and attracted particu- lar attention by the purity and ele- gance of his Latinity. His personal merits, and his father's influence, recommended him, soon after quit- ting the university, to the notice of the emperor Charles Y. He was consulted and employed in affairs of public importance, and subse- c|uently raised to several posts of honor, attesting the entire confi- dence reposed in his integrity and abilities. His most honorable ap- pointment, however, was that of national historiographer. In 1547, an act passed the cortea general of Aragon, providing for the office of national chronicler,