[22] Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 271.
"Amigo de sus amigos,
¡Qué Señor para criados
Y parientes!
¡Qué enemigo de enemigos!
¡Qué maestro de esforzados
Y valientes!
¡Qué seso para discretos!
¡Qué gracia para donosos!
¡Qué razon!
Muy benigno á los sugetos,
Y á los bravos y dañosos
Un leon."
Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique.
[23] Borgia, after his father Alexander VI.'s death, escaped to Naples under favor of a safe conduct signed by Gonsalvo. Here, however, his intriguing spirit soon engaged him in schemes for troubling the peace of Italy, and, indeed, for subverting the authority of the Spaniards there; in consequence of which the Great Captain seized his person, and sent him prisoner to Castile. Such, at least, is the Spanish version of the story, and of course the one most favorable to Gonsalvo. Mariana dismisses it with coolly remarking, that "the Great Captain seems to have consulted the public good, in the affair, more than his own fame; a conduct well worthy to be pondered and emulated by all princes and rulers!" Hist. de España, lib. 28, cap. 8.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 5, cap. 72.—Quintana, Españoles Célebres, pp. 302, 303.
[24] That but one other troubled him, appears from the fact (if it be a fact) of Gonsalvo's declaring, on his death-bed, that "there were three acts of his life which he deeply repented." Two of these were his treatment of Borgia and the duke of Calabria. He was silent respecting the third. "Some historians suppose," says Quintana, "that by this last he meant his omission to possess himself of the crown of Naples when it was in his power!" These historians, no doubt, like Fouché, considered a blunder in politics as worse than a crime.
[25] The miraculous bell of Velilla, a little village in Aragon, nine leagues from Saragossa, about this time gave one of those prophetic tintinnabulations, which always boded some great calamity to the country. The side on which the blows fell denoted the quarter where the disaster was to happen. Its sound, says Dr. Dormer, caused dismay and contrition, with dismal "fear of change," in the hearts of all who heard it. No arm was strong enough to stop it on these occasions, as those found to their cost who profanely attempted it. Its ill-omened voice was heard for the twentieth and last time, in March, 1679. As no event of importance followed, it probably tolled for its own funeral.—See the edifying history, in Dr. Diego Dormer, of the miraculous powers and performances of this celebrated bell, as duly authenticated by a host of witnesses. Discursos Varios, pp. 198-244.
[26] Carbajal, Anales, MS., años 1513-1516.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 146.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 542, 558, 561, 564. Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 99.
Carbajal states, that the king had been warned, by some soothsayer, to beware of Madrigal, and that he had ever since avoided entering into the town of that name in Old Castile. The name of the place he was now in was not precisely that indicated, but corresponded near enough for a prediction. The event proved, that the witches of Spain, like those of Scotland,
"Could keep the word of promise to the ear,
And break it to the hope."
The story derives little confirmation from the character of Ferdinand. He was not superstitious, at least while his faculties were in vigor.
[27] "A la verdad," says Carbajal, "le tentó mucho el enemigo en aquel paso con incredulidad que le ponia de no morir tan presto, para que ni confesase ni recibiese los Sacramentos." According to the same writer, Ferdinand was buoyed up by the prediction of an old sybil, "la beata del Barco," that "he should not die till he had conquered Jerusalem." (Anales, MS., cap. 2.) We are again reminded of Shakespeare,