[247] One evidence of this is afforded by the frankness of his friend, Ruy Gomez de Silva. "La primera," he writes to Don John, "que por cuanto V. Ex.ª está reputado de atrevido y de hombre que quiere mas ganar crédito de soldado que de general, que mude este estilo y se deje gobernar."—(Carta de 4 de Marzo, 1570, MS.) It is to Don John's credit that, in his reply, he thanks Ruy Gomez warmly for his admonition, and begs his monitor to reprove him without hesitation, whenever he deems it necessary, since, now that his guardian is gone, there is no other who can take this liberty.—Carta de D. Juan de Austria á Ruy Gomez de Silva, MS.
[248] According to Villafañe, Doña Magdalena left Madrid on learning her husband's illness, and travelled with such despatch that she arrived in time to receive his last sighs. Hita also speaks of her presence at his bedside. But as seven days only elapsed between the date of the knight's wound and that of his death, one finds it difficult to believe that this could have allowed time for the courier who brought the tidings, and for the lady afterwards, whether in the saddle or litter, to have travelled a distance of over four hundred and fifty miles, along execrable roads, with much of the way lying through the wild passes of the Alpujarras.
[249] "Creemos piadosamente que el alma de D. Luis subiria al ciclo con el oloroso incienso que se quemó en los altares de S. Gerónimo, porque siempre habia empleado la vida en pelear contra enemigos de nuestra santa fé, y por último murió batallando con ellos como soldado valeroso."—Hita, Guerras de Granada, tom. ii. p. 487.
[250] Carta del Rey á D. Juan de Austria, 3 de Marzo, 1570, MS.
[251] The letter is translated by Stirling from a manuscript, entitled "Joannis Austriaci Vita, auctore Antonio Ossorio," in the National Library at Madrid.—See Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth (Am. ed.), p. 286.
[252] Tijola is the scene of the story, familiar to every lover of Castilian romance, and better suited to romance than history, of the Moor Tuzani and his unfortunate mistress, the beautiful Maleha. It forms the most pleasing episode in Hita's second volume (pp. 523-540), and is translated with pathos and delicacy by Circourt, Hist. des Arabes d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 345 et seq.
[253] Marmol, Rebelion de Granada, tom. ii. pp. 290-320, 340-346.—Vanderhammen, Don Juan de Austria, fol. 119 et seq.—Ferreras Hist. d'Espagne, tom. x. p. 170 et seq.
[254] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 271 et seq.—Marmol, Rebelion de Granada, tom. ii. pp. 283-289, 303-315, 321 et seq.
In a letter without date, of the duke of Sesa, forming part of a mass of correspondence which I was so fortunate as to obtain from the collection at Holland House, he insists on starvation as a much more effectual means of reducing the enemy than the sword. "Esta guerra parece que no puede acabarse por medio mas cierto que el de la hambre que necesitará á los enemigos á rendirse ó perecer, y esta los acabará primero que el espada."—MS.
[255] "Con estas cosas y otras particulares que El Habaqui pidió para Aben Aboo, y para los amigos, y para sí mismo, que todas se le concedieron."—Marmol, Rebelion de Granada, tom. ii. p. 360.