Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/335

309 UNIVERSITY OF ALCALA. 309 held in contempt. He was a rude, unlettered sol- chapter XXI dier, and bluntly spoke his rnind to the primate. '- - He told him, " his commission under him termi- nated with the capture of Oran ; that two generals were too many in one army ; that the cardinal should rest contented with the laurels he had al- ready won, and, instead of playing the king, go home to his flock, and leave fighting to those to whom the trade belonged." ^'^ But what troubled the prelate more than this in- nis distrust A of Feidi- solence of his general, was a letter which fell into "^""^ his hands, addressed by the king to Count Navarro, in which he requested him to be sure to find some pretence for detaining the cardinal in Africa, as long as his presence could be made any way ser- viceable. Ximenes had good reason before to feel that the royal favor to him flowed from selfishness, rather than from any personal regard. The king had always wished the archbishopric of Toledo for his favorite, and natural son, Alfonso of Aragon. After his return from Naples, he importuned Xime- nes to resign his see, and exchange it for that of Saragossa, held by Alfonso ; till, at length, the in- dignant prelate replied, " that he would never consent to barter away the dignities of the church ; that if his Highness pressed him any further, he would indeed throw up the primacy, but it should be to bury himself in the friar's cell from which the queen had originally called him." Ferdinand, ^6 Flfechier, Histoire de Xi- Reyes de Aragon, torn. ii. rey men6s, pp. 308, 309. — Abarca, 30, cap. 18.