Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/387

363 ALLIANCES AND DEATHS. 3Q3 try by arms at once, than endure this insolence of chapteii the cortes." To which Antonio de Fonseca, the '. same cavalier who spoke his mind so fearlessly to King Charles the Eighth, on his march to Naples, had the independence to reply, " That the Ara- gonese had only acted as good and loyal subjects, who, as they were accustomed to mind their oaths, considered well before they took them ; and that they must certainly stand excused if they moved with caution in an affair, which they found so diffi- cult to justify by precedent in their history." ^^ This blunt expostulation of the honest courtier, equally creditable to the sovereign who could en- dure, and the subject who could make it, was re- ceived in the frank spirit in which it was given, and probably opened Isabella's eyes to her own precipitancy, as we find no further allusion to coer- cive measures. Before any thine; was determined, the discussion Herdaugn •^ " ter's death. was suddenly brought to a close by an unforeseen and most melancholy event, — the death of the queen of Portugal, the unfortunate subject of it. That princess had possessed a feeble constitution from her birth, with a strong tendency to pulmonary complaints. She had early felt a presentiment that she should not survive the birth of her child ; this feeling strengthened as she approached the period 32 Blancas, Coronaciones, lib. 3, among half a dozen others, whom cap. 18. — Zurita, Hist, del Rey she particularly recommended to Hernando, torn. v. lib. 3, cap. 30. her successors for their meritorious It is a proof of the high esteem and loyal services. See the docu- in which Isabella held this inde- ment in Dormer, Discursos Varies, pendent statesman, that we find his p. 354. name mentioned in her testament