Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/226

200 200 ILLNESS AND DEATH OF ISABELLA. II. PART which is implied by the accomplishment of great objects in the face of great obstacles. But Eliza- beth was desperately selfish ; she was incapable of forgiving, not merelj a real injury, but the slightest affront to her vanity ; and she was merciless in ex- acting retribution. Isabella, on the other hand, lived only for others, — was ready at all times to sacrifice self to considerations of public duty ; and, far from personal resentments, showed the greatest condescension and kindness to those who had most sensibly injured her ; while her benevolent heart sought every means to mitigate the authorized se- verities of the law, even towards the guilty. ^^ Both possessed rare fortitude. Isabella, indeed, was placed in situations, which demanded more frequent and higher displays of it than her rival ; but no one will doubt a full measure of this quality in the daughter of Henry the Eighth. Elizabeth was better educated, and every way more highly accomplished than Isabella. But the latter knew enough to maintain her station with dignity ; and she encouraged learning by a munificent patron- age.^^ The masculine powers and passions of Eliz- abeth seemed to divorce her in a great measure 67 She gave evidence of this, in the barbarities, sometimes prescribed commutation of the sentence she ob- by the law in capital executions, tained for the wretch who slabbed Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., lom. vi. her husband, and whom her fero- Ilust. 13. cious nobles would have put to ^8 Hume admits, that, " unhap- death, without the opportunity of pily for literature, at least for the confession and absolution, that "his learned of this age, Queen Eliza- soul might perish with his body !" beth's vanity lay more in shining (See her letter to Talavera.) She by her own learning, than in en- showed this merciful temper, so couraging men of genius by hei rare in that rough age, by dispens- liberality." ing altogether with the preliminary