Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/404

380 dinary would not long be buried in the shades of a convent." He is said, also, to have predicted that Ximenes would one day succeed him in the chair of Toledo. A prediction, which its author con- tributed more than any other to verify.

He recommended Ximenes in such emphatic terms to the queen, as raised a strong desire in her to see and converse with him herself. An invita- tion was accordingly sent him from the cardinal to repair to the court at Valladolid, without intimating the real purpose of it. Ximenes obeyed the sum- mons, and, after a short interview with his early patron, was conducted, as if without any previous arrangement, to the queen's apartment. On find- ing himself so unexpectedly in the royal presence, he betrayed none of the agitation or embarrassment to have been expected from the secluded inmate of a cloister, but exhibited a natural dignity of man- ners, with such discretion and fervent piety, in his replies to Isabella's various interrogatories, as con- firmed the favorable prepossessions she had derived from the cardinal.

Not many days after, Ximenes was invited to 1492 take charge of the queen's conscience. Far from appearing elated by this mark of royal favor, and the prospects of advancement which it opened, he seemed to view it with disquietude, as likely to interrupt the peaceful tenor of his religious duties; and he accepted it only with the understanding,