Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/409

381 DEATH AND CHARACTER OF FERDINAND. 381 which tliej are associated. It may be remarked, chapter however, that the reiterated and unsparing oppro- — brium with which foreign writers, who have been little sensible to Gonsalvo's merits have visited these offences, affords tolerable evidence that they are the only ones of any magnitude that can be charged on him. ^* As to the imputation of disloyalty, we have else- Hisioyaity. where had occasion to notice its apparent ground- lessness. It would be strange, indeed, if the ungenerous treatment which he had experienced ever since his return from Naples had not provoked feelings of indignation in his bosom. Nor would it be surprising, under these circumstances, if he had been led to regard the archduke Charles's preten- sions to the regency, as he came of age, with a favorable eye. There is no evidence, however, of this, or of any act unfriendly to Ferdinand's inter- ests. His whole public life, on the contrary, ex- hibited the truest loyalty ; and the only stains that darken his fame were incurred by too unhesitating devotion to the wishes of his master. He is not the first nor the last statesman, who has reaped the royal recompense of ingratitude, for serving his king with greater zeal than he had served his Maker. ^* That but one other troubled the third. " Some historians sup- him, appears from the fact (if it be a pose," says Quintana, "that by this fact) of Gonsalvo's declaring, on his last he meant his omission to pos- deathbed, that " there were three sess himself of the crown of Naples acts of his life which he deeply re- when it was in his power ' ' ! These pented." Two of these were his historians, no doubt, like Fouche, treatmentof Borgia and the duke of considered a blunder in politics as Calabria. He was silent respecting worse than a crime.