Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/244

218 218 THE REGENCY OF FERDINAND. FART complete amnesty should be granted by him to the '. lords of the Angevin or French party in Naples, who should receive full restitution of their confis- cated honors and estates. A mutual treaty of alliance and commerce was to subsist henceforth between France and Spain, and the two monarchs, holding one another, to quote the words of the in- strument, " as two souls, in one and the same body," pledged themselves to the maintenance and defence of their respective rights and kingdoms against every other power whatever. This treaty was signed by the French king at Blois, October 12th, 1505, and ratified by Ferdinand the Catholic, at Segovia, on the 16th of the same month. ^^ Its impolicy. Such wcrc the disgraceful and most impolitic terms of this compact, by which Ferdinand, in order to secure the brief possession of a barren authority, and perhaps to gratify some unworthy feelings of revenge, was content to barter away all those solid advantages, flowing from the union of the Spanish monarchies, which had been the great and wise object of his own and Isabella's policy. For, in the event of male issue, — and that he should have issue was by no means improbable, considering he was not yet fifty-four years of age, — Aragon and its dependencies must be totally severed from Cas- tile. ^^ In the other alternative, the splendid Italian 25 Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, conquis par Fenliiiand <!'loicnt con- tom. iv. no. 40, pp. 72-74. qiielos de comiminaute, dont la 26 Tlicso depeufioncics did not nioitir a))partpiioit an niari, et la embrace, however, the lialf of Gra- moili*!! aiix enfans." (Rivalile, torn, nada and tlio W(>st Imlics, as sup- iv. p. 30(i.) (Such arc the gross posed by Mons. Gaillard, who niiscnnreptions of fact, on which gravely assures us, tliul " Lcs etals tliis writer's spcculalioiis rest !