Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/115

89 INVASION OF SPAIN. 89 ing up for this purpose the prospect of an ultimate chapter accommodation, and suggesting the reestablishment '- — of his kinsman, the unfortunate Frederic, on the Neapolitan throne, as the best means of effecting it. The artifice, however, was too gross even for the credulous Louis ; who peremptorily demanded of the ambassadors the instant and absolute ratifi- cation of the treaty, and, on their declaring it was beyond their powers, ordered them at once to leave his court. " I had rather," said he, " suffer the loss of a kingdom, which may perhaps be retrieved, than the loss of honor, which never can." A noble sentiment, but falling with no particular grace from the lips of Louis the Twelfth.^ The whole of this blind transaction is stated in "is policy exainiued. so irreconcilable a manner by the historians of the different nations, that it is extremely difficult to draw any thing like a probable narrative out of them. The Spanish writers assert that the public commission of the archduke was controlled by strict private instructions ;^ while the French, on the other hand, are either silent as to the latter, or represent them to have been as broad and unlimited 3 Gamier, Hist, de France, torn, even, are quoted in evidence of his V. p. 388. — Abarca, Reyes de Ar- hypocrisy, while the most objec- agon, torn. ii. rey 30, cap. 13, sec. tionabie acts of his rival seem 3. — Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. i. to be abundantly compensated by p. 300, ed. 1645. — Zurita, Anales, some fine sentiment like that in lom. V. lib. 5, cap. 9. the text. It is amusing to see with what ^ Zurita, Hist, del Rey Hernan- industry certain French writers, as do, torn. i. lib. 5, cap. 10. — Abar- Gaillard and Varillas, are perpetu- ca, Reyes de Aragon, torn. ii. rey ally contrasting the bonne foi of 30, cap. 13, sec. 2. — Mariana, Louis Xn. with the mechanceti of Hist, de Espaila, tom. ii. pp. 690, Ferdinand, whose secret intentions, 691. — et al. VOL. Ill 12