Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/340

314 314 AFRICAN EXPEDITION OF XIMENES. PART II. in the brilliant career of Count Navarro, put a final stop to the progress of the Castilian arms in Africa under Ferdinand. ^^ The results already obtained, however, were of great importance, whether we consider the value of the acquisitions, being some of the most opulent marts on the Barbarj coast, or the security gained for commerce, by sweeping the Mediterranean of the pestilent hordes of marauders, which had so long infested it. Most of the new conquests es- caped from the Spanish crown in later times, through the imbecility or indolence of Ferdinand's succes- sors. The conquests of Ximenes, however, were placed in so strong a posture of defence, as to resist Italian song, from whom the Cas- tilian bard derived it. "Puso en el diiro suelo la hermosa cara, como la rosa matiitiiia, cuaiido ya el siil decliiia '1 medio dia ; que ]iierde su alejfria, i ninrchitaiido va la color nindaiido ; o en el caiiipo cual qiieda el lirio bianco, qu' el arado criidamenle cortado al passiir dexa ; del cual aim no s' alexa pressuroso aquel color hernioso, o se deslierra ; mas ya la madre lieira descuidada, no r administra nnda de sii alienlo, qn' era el snstcnIaniicnU) i vif;or siiyo ; tal esti el rostro luyo en el arena, fresca rosa, n(nci'nK blnnca i jnira." Garcilasso de la Vega, (jhrns, ed. de Ilcrrera, pp. 507, 508. riosity respecting the fate of coimt Pedro Navarro. He soon after this went to Italy, wiiere he held a high connnand, and maintained his reputation in the wars of that coun- try, until he was taken by the French in tiic great battle of Ra- venna. Tiirough the carelessness or coldness of Ferdinand he was permitted to languish in captivity, till he took ills revenge by enlisting in the service of the French mon- arch. Before doing this, iiowever, he resigned his Neapolitan estates, and formally renounced his allegi- ance to the Catholic king ; of whom, being a Navarese by birth, he was not a native subject. He unfortu- nately fell into the hands of his own countrymen in one of the sub- sequent actions in Italy, and was imprisoned at Naples, in Castel Nuovo, which he had himself for- merly gained from tiie French. Here he soon after died ; if we are to believe Brantome, being pri- vately despatciied by command of Charles A.; or, as other writers intimate, by his own hand. His remains, first deposited in an ob- scure corner of the church of Santa Maria, were afterwards re- moved to the chapel of the great Gonsalvo, and a superb mausoleum was erected over them by the prince of Scssa, grandson of the hero. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 124. — Aleson, Annales de Navarra, torn. v. pp. 220,289, 406. — Brantome, A'ies des Hommes Illustres, disc. i). — Giovio, Hx Illust. Virorum, pp. l'J0-IU3.
 * 22 'X"'i,g reader rnay feci some cu-