Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/408

380 380 DEATH OF GONSALVO. PART to scholarship; but he honored and noblj recom '- — pensed it in others. His solid sense and liberal taste supplied all deficiencies in himself, and led him to select friends and companions from among the most enlightened and virtuous of the community.*^ His want of On this fair character there remains one foul re- faith. proach. This is his breach of faith in two memora- ble instances ; first, to the joung duke of Calabria, and afterwards to Caesar Borgia, both of whom he betrayed into the hands of King Ferdinand, their personal enemy ; and in violation of his most solemn pledges.^^ True, it was in obedience to his master's commands, and not to serve his own purposes ; and true also, this want of faith was the besetting sin of the age. But history has no warrant to tamper with right and wrong, or to brighten the character of its favorites by diminishing one shade of the abhorrence which attaches to their vices. They should rather be held up in their true deformity, as the more conspicuous from the very greatness with 22 Giovio, Vitfe Illust. Virorum, subverting the authority of the p. 271. Spaniards there; in consequence "Amigodesiisamigos, of which the Great Captain seized Y^parfemesr'""'"'^' his person, and sent him prisoner iCiiie eneniigodeenemigos! to Castile. Such, at least, is the ittiie maestro de esforzados Spanish version of the story, and i Qu' ''e"o para discretos ! ^f course the one most favorable to i Que gracia para donosos ! Gonsalvo. Mariana dismisses it i Que razon ! with coolly remarking, that " the Muy benigno A los sugetos, /-~<. /-~> . • . i Y a los bravos y damTsos ^^eat (.aptain seems to have con- Un leon." Suited the public good, in the alTair, Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique. ^ore than his own fame ; a conduct 23 Borgia, after his father Alex- well worthy to be pondered and em- ander VI. 's death, escaped to Na- ulated by all princes and rulers " ! pies under favor of a safe conduct Hist, de Espaiia, lib. 28, cap. 8.— signed by Gonsalvo. Here, how- Zurita, Anales, torn. v. lib. 5, cap. ever, his intriguing spirit soon en- 72. — Quintana, Espailoles Ccle- gaged him in schemes for troubling bres, pp. 302, 303. the peace of Italy, and, indeed, for