[28] See the magnificent inventory presented to her daughter-in-law, Margaret of Austria, and to her daughter Maria, queen of Portugal, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 12.
[29] "Alegre," says the author of "Carro de las Doñas," "de una alegria honesta y mui mesurada." Ibid., p. 558.
[30] Among the retainers of the court, Bernaldez notices "la moltitud de poetas, de trobadores, e músicos de todas partes." Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 201.
[31] "Queria que sus cartas é mandamientos fuesen complidos con diligencia." Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4
[32] See a remarkable instance of this, in her treatment of the faithless Juan de Corral, noticed in Part I. Chapter 10, of this History.
[33] The melancholy tone of Columbus's correspondence after the queen's death, shows too well the color of his fortunes and feelings. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 341 et seq.) The sentiments of the Great Captain were still more unequivocally expressed, according to Giovio. "Nec multis inde diebus Regina fato concessit, incredibili cum dolore atque jacturâ Consalvi; nam ab eâ tanquam alumnus, ac in ejus regiâ educatus, cuncta quae exoptari possent virtutis et dignitatis incrementa ademptum fuisse fatebatur, rege ipso quanquam minus benigno parumque liberali nunquam reginae voluntati reluctari anso. Id vero praeclare tanquam verissimum apparuit elatâ reginâ." Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 275.
[34] The reader may recall a striking example of this, in the early part of her reign, in her great tenderness and forbearance towards the humors of Carillo, archbishop of Toledo, her quondam friend, but then her most implacable foe.
[35] Isabella at her brother's court might well have sat for the whole of Milton's beautiful portraiture.
"So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her.
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And, in clear dream and solemn vision.
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal."
[36] "Era tanto," says L. Marineo, "el ardor y diligencia que tenia cerca el culto divino, que aunque de dia y de noche estava muy ocupada en grandes y arduos negocios de la governacion de muchos reynos y señorios, parescia que su vida era mas contemplativa que activa. Porque siempre se hallava presente a los divinos oficios y a la palabra de Dios. Era tanta su atencion que si alguno de los que celebravan o cantavan los psalmos, o otras cosas de la yglesia errava alguna dicion o syllaba, lo sintia y lo notava, y despues como maestro a discipulo se lo emendava y corregia. Acostumbrava cada dia dezir todas las horas canónicas demas de otras muchas votivas y extraordinarias devociones que tenia." Cosas Memorables, fol. 183.