Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/65

39 RESOLUTION OF THE SPANIARDS. 39 ties to the Spanish sovereigns to send thither some chapter competent person, as a resident minister, show his '. own conviction of the critical position in which their affairs stood. '^ The letters of the same intelligent individual, during his journey through the Milanese,^ are filled with the most gloomy forebodings of the termina- tion of a contest, for which the Spaniards were so indifferently provided ; while the whole north of Italy was alive with the bustling preparations of the French, who loudly vaunted their intention of driv- ing their enemy not merely out of Naples, but Sicily itself. ' Louis the Twelfth superintended these prepara- 7 Daru, Hist, de Venise, torn. iii. p. 345. — Bembo, Istoria Vini- ziana. torn. i. lib. 6. — Peter Mar- tyr, Opus Epist., epist. 238, 240, 252. — This may appear strange, considering that Lorenzo Suarez de la Vega was there, a person of whom Gonzalo de Oviedo writes, " Fue gentil caballero, e sabio, 6 de gran prudencia ;***** muy enten- dido e de mucho reposo (t honesto e afable 6 de linda conversacion ; ' ' and again, more explicitly, " Embaxa- dor a Venecia, en el qual oficio sirvio muy bien, 6 como prudente varon." (Quincuagenas, MS-, bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 44.) Martyr ad- mits his prudence, but objects his ignorance of Latin, a deficiency, however heinous in the worthy tu- tor's eyes, probably of no rare oc- currence among the elder Castilian nobles. 8 Many of Martyr's letters were addressed to both Ferdinand and Isabella. The former, however, was ignorant of the Latin language, in which they were written. Mar- tyr playfully alludes to this in one of his epistles, reminding the queen of her promise to interpret them faithfully to her husband. The unconstrained and familiar tone of his correspondence affords a pleas- ing example of the personal inti- macy to which the sovereigns, so contrary to the usual stiffness of Spanish etiquette, admitted men of learning and probity at their court, without distinction of rank. Opus Epist., epist. 230. 9 " Galli," says Martyr, in a let- ter more remarkable for strength of expression, than elegance of La- tinity, " furunt, sceviunt, interne- cionem nostris minantur, putantque id sibi fore facillimum. Regein eorum esse in ilinere, inquiunt, ut ipse cum duplicato exercitu Alpes trajiciat in Italiam. Vestro nomini insurgunt. Cristas erigunt in vos superbissime. Provinciam banc, veluti rem humilem, parvique mo- menti, ss aggressuros prsconantur. Nihil esse negotii eradicare exter- minareque vestra praesidia ex utra- que Sicilia blaclerant. Insolenter nimis exspuendo insultant." Opus Epist., epist. 241.