Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/456

428 428 REGENCY OF XIMENES. II PART he betrayed more than once a want of true courage in their execution. Though violent and impetuous, he could stoop to be a dissembler. Though arro- gant in the extreme, he courted the soft incense of flattery. In his manners he had the advantage over the Spanish prelate. He could be a courtier in courts, and had a more refined and cultivated taste. In one respect, he had the advantage over Ximenes in morals. He w^as not, like him, a bigot. He had not the religious basis in his composition, which is the foundation of bigotry. — Their deaths were typical of their characters. Richelieu died, as he had lived, so deeply execrated, that the en- raged populace would scarcely allow his remains to be laid quietly in the grave. Ximenes, on the con- trary, was buried amid the tears and lamentations of the people ; his memory was honored even by his enemies, and his name is reverenced by his countrymen, to this day, as that of a Saint. without ambition of rhetorical show and an actor, and it may be added, or refinement. The early part is a man of sagacity and sound prin- Httle better than memoranda of the ciples. No better commentary on principal events of the period, with the merit of his work need be re- particular notice of all the migra- quired, than the brief tribute of lions of the court. In the concluding Alvaro Gomez, the accomplished portion of the work, however, com- biographer of Cardinal Ximenes. prehending Ferdinand's death, and " Porro Annales Laurentii Galendi the regency of Ximenes, the author Caravajali, quibus vir gravissimus is very full and circumstantial. As rerumque iWarum cum primis par- he had a conspicuous place in the ticeps quinquaginta ferme annorum government, and was always with memoriam comple,us est, baud the court, his testimony in regard to vulgariter meam operam juverunt." this important period is of the high- DeRebus Gestis, PrsEfatio. est value as that of an eyewitness