Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/391

365 CONQUEST OF NAVARRE. $65 cal existence of their kingdom, was such as nothing chapter but extraordinary aggressions on the part of the — ^- conquered nation, or the self-preservation of the victors, could justify. As neither of these contin- gencies existed in the present case, Ferdinand's conduct must be regarded as a flagrant example of the abuse of the rights of conquest. We have been but too familiar, indeed, with similar acts of political injustice, and on a much larger scale, in the present civilized age. But, although the num- ber and splendor of the precedents may blunt our sensibility to the atrocity of the act, they can never constitute a legitimate warrant for its per- petration. While thus freely condemning Ferdinand's con- duct in this transaction, I cannot go along with those, who, having inspected the subject less minute- ly, are disposed to regard it as the result of a cool, premeditated policy, from the outset. The propo- sitions originally made by him to Navarre appear to have been conceived in perfect good faith. The requisition of the fortresses, impudent as it may seem, was nothing more than had been before made in Isabella's time, when it had been granted, and the security subsequently restored, as soon as the emergency had passed away.^^ The alterna- tive proposed, of entering into the Holy League, presented many points of view so favorable to Navarre, that Ferdinand, ignorant, as he then was, of the precise footing on which she stood with 31 Aleson, Annales de Navarra, torn. v. lib. 35, cap. 1,3. — Garibay, Compendio, torn. iii. lib. 29, cap. 13.