Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/238

212 212 THE REGENCY OF FERDINAND. PART chillos, whom he had placed near the person of his daughter, obtained a letter from her, in which she II approved in the fullest manner of her father's re- taining the administration of the kingdom. The letter was betrayed to Philip ; the unfortunate sec- retary was seized and thrown into a dungeon, and Joanna was placed under a rigorous confinement, which much aggravated her malady.'^ ji( tampers With this affront, the king received also the with Goii- ' c^ Cordova. alarming intelligence, that the emperor Maximilian and his son Philip were tampering with the fidelity of the Great Captain ; endeavouring to secure Na- ples in any event to the archduke, who claimed it as the appurtenance of Castile, by whose armies its conquest, in fact, had been achieved. There were not wanting persons of high standing at Ferdi- nand's court, to infuse suspicions, however unwar- rantable, into the royal mind, of the loyalty of his viceroy, a Castilian by birth, and who owed his elevation exclusively to the queen. ^^ The king was still further annoyed, by reports of the intimate relations subsisting between his old enemy, Louis the Twelfth, and Philip, whose chil- dren were affianced to each other. The French monarch, it was said, was prepared to support his ally in an invasion of Castile, for the recovery of 14 Abarca, Reyes de Arajron, 15 Giovio, Vita3 Illust. Viroruni, torn. ii. re y no, cap. 15, sec. 4. — pp. 27r>-i277. — Zurita, Anales, Lanuza, Ilistorias, torn. i. lib. 1, tiiin. vi. lil). f),cap. 5, II. — Uiloa, cap. 18. — Peter Martvr, Opus Vila de Carlo V'., fol. 125. — Abar- Epist., epist. 286. —Zurita, Ana- ca, Reyes de Aragon, torn. ii. rey les, torn. vi. lib. 6, cap. 8. — Ovi- 30, cap. 15, sec. 3. edo, Quincuageiias, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9. — Oviedo had the story from Coiichillos's brother.