Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/42

 Readings in European History Aragon (i.e of Naples). Now this they believed a very discreet answer, and truly so it was ; and I am of opinion that their affairs are man- aged with more prudence and discretion at this day than the affairs of any other prince or state in the world ; — but God will still have us know that the wisdom and policy of man is of no avail where he pleases to interpose, for he ordered the affair quite otherwise than they were anticipating. The Vene- The Venetians did not imagine that the king would come tians' grudge j n p ersori) an d (whatever they pretended) they had no appre- houseof hension of the Turk; for the Turk [Bajazet II] who then reigned was a man of no courage or activity. But their design was to be revenged upon the house of Aragon, both father and son, 1 for whom they had a mortal hatred, because (as they said) it was at their instigation that the Turk fell upon them at Scutari. I mean the father of this present Turk, called Mahomet Ottoman, who conquered Constan- tinople, and did abundance of mischief besides to the Venetians. They had several other complaints also against Alphonso, duke of Calabria, and, among the rest, they said that he had been the occasion of the war which the duke of Ferrara had made upon them, which was very expensive, and had liked to have proved their ruin. They complained also that he had sent a man to Venice, expressly to poison their cisterns, at least such as he could come at ; for some were kept under lock and key. In that city they use no other water, for they are wholly surrounded by the sea; but that water is very good, and I drank of it eight months together during my first embassy thither (for I have been there once since). These were not, however, the chief grounds of the Vene- tian animosity toward the house of Aragon ; the real reason was, that the father and son had restrained them, and kept them from extending their conquests in both Italy and Greece — for their eyes were turned in both directions, and, moreover, without any title or excuse, they had lately sub- dued the kingdom of Cyprus. 1 Namely, the above-mentioned Ferrante of Naples and his son Alphonso, who belonged to a branch of the reigning house of Aragon.