Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/251

225 HE RESIGNS TO PHILIP. 225 that Martyr, and afterwards Ximenes, were sent to chapter the archduke, to settle the grounds of accommoda-. '^- tion, or at least the place of interview with the king. Philip listened to them with courtesy, but would abate not a jot of his pretensions ; and Manuel did not care to expose his royal master to the influence of Ferdinand's superior address and sagacity in a personal interview.^^ Martyr gives a picture, by no means unfavorable, Hischarac of Philip at this time. He had an agreeable per- son, a generous disposition, free and open manners, with a certain nobleness of soul, although spurred on by a most craving ambition. But he was so ignorant of affairs, that he became the dupe of artful men, who played on him for their own purposes. ^^ Ferdinand, at length, finding that Philip, who had now left Coruna, was advancing by a circu- itous route into the interior, on purpose to avoid him, and that all access to his daughter was abso- lutely refused, could no longer repress his indigna- tion ; and he prepared a circular letter, to be sent to the different parts of the country, calling on it to rise and aid him in rescuing the queen, their sove- reign, from her present shameful captivity.^^ It 37 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., hie juvenis, nescit quo se vertat, episl. 306, 308, 309. — Gomez, De hinc avaris, illiiic ambitiosis, atque Rebus Gestis, fol. 59. — Giovio, utrimque vafris hominibus circutn- Vitee lUust. Virorum, p. 278. septus alienigena, bonae naturae, 38 " Nil benignius Philippo in apertique animi. Trahetur in di- terris, nullus inter orbis principes versa, perturbabitur ipse atque animosior, inter juvenespulchrior," obtundetur. Omnia confundentur. &e. (Opus Epist., epist. 285.) In Utinam vana prasdicem!" Epist. a subsequent letter he thus de- 308. scribes the unhappy predicament 39 Zurita, Anales, torn. vi. lib. 7, of the young prince ; " Nescit cap. 2. VOL. III. 29