Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/118

92 m INSANITY OF JOANNA. PART II. Joanna's desponden- cy. tial to the validity of a treaty, but that a govern- ment is not bound to ratify the doings of a minister, who has transcended his private instructions.^ But whatever be thought of Ferdinand's good faith in the early stages of this business, there is no doubt that, at a later period, when his position was changed by the success of his arms in Italy, he sought onlv to amuse the French court with a show of negotiation, in order, as we have already inti- mated, to paralyze its operations and gain time for securing his conquests. The French writers inveigh loudly against this crafty and treacherous policy ; and Louis the Twelfth gave vent to his own indig- nation in no very measured terms. But, however we may now regard it, it was in perfect accordance with the trickish spirit of the age ; and the French king resigned all right of rebuking his antagonist on this score, when he condescended to become a party with him to the infamous partition treaty, and still more when he so grossly violated it. He had voluntarily engaged with his Spanish rival in the game, and it afforded no good ground of complaint, that he was the least adroit of the two. While Ferdinand was thus triumphant in his schemes of foreign policy and conquest, his domes- tic life was clouded with the deepest anxiety, in consequence of the declining health of the queen, 9 Bynkershoek, Qusest. Juris Publici, lib. 2, cap. 7. — Mably, Droit Publique, cbap. 1. — Valtel, Droit des Gens, liv. 2, chap. 12. — Martens, Law of Nations, trans., book 2, chap. 1. Bynkersboek, the earliest of these writers, has discussed the question with an amplitude, perspicuity, and fairness, unsurpassed by any who have followed him.