Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/412

384 384 DEATH OF GONSALVO. PART II. His last hours. At length the medical attendants ventured to in- form the king of his real situation, conjuring him if he had any affairs of moment to settle, to do it with- out delay. He listened to them with composure, and from that moment seemed to recover all his customary fortitude and equanimity. After receiv- ing the sacrament, and attending to his spiritual concerns, he called his attendants around his bed, to advise with them respecting the disposition of the government. Among those present, at this time, were his faithful followers, the duke of Alva, and the marquis of Denia, his majordomo, with sev- eral bishops and members of his council. ^^ The king, it seems, had made several wills. By one, executed at Burgos, in 1512, he had committed the government of Castile and Aragon to the infante Ferdinand during his brother Charles's absence. This young prince had been educated in Spain un- der the eye of his grandfather, who entertained a strong affection for him. The counsellors remon- strated in the plainest terms against this disposition of the regency. Ferdinand, they said, was too young to take the helm into his own hands. His appointment would be sure to create new factions in Castile ; it would raise him up to be in a man- ner a rival of his brother, and kindle ambitious de- Gestis, ubi supra.— Peter Martyr, ber of the royal council, was pres- Opus Epist., epist. 565. — Sando- ent with him during the whole of val, Hist, del Emp. Carlos v., torn, his last illness; and his circum- i. p. 35, stanlial and spirited narrative of it 29 Carbajal, Anales, MS., aiio forms an exception to the general 151(i, cap. 2. character of his itinerary. Dr. Carbajal, who was a mem-