Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/424

400 400 RISE OF XIMENES. PART Marsollier, has obtained a very un- II. deserved repute. The author, not content with the extraordinary qualities really appertaining to his hero, makes him out a sort of uni- versal genius, quite ridiculous, ri- valling Moliere's Dr. Pancrace him- self. One maj form some idea of the historian's accuracy from the fact, that he refers the commence- ment and conduct of the war of Granada chiefly to the counsels of Ximenes, who, as we have seen, was not even introduced at court till after the close of the war. Marsollier reckoned largely on the ignorance and gullibility of his readers. The event proved he was not mistaken.