Volume III Part 25 (2/2)

(Archetypo, pp. 236 et seq. and Apend. p. 103.) It was scarcely to have been expected that so astounding a miracle should escape the notice of all Europe, where it must have been as apparent as at Oran. This universal silence may be thought, indeed, the greater miracle of the two.

[15] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 218.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 113.--Lanuza, Historias, tom. i.

lib. 1, cap. 22.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp.

Carlos V., tom. i. p. 15.

[16] Flechier, Histoire de Ximenes, pp. 308, 309.--Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 18.

[17] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 107.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 117.--Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 16.--”The worthy brother,” says Sandoval of the prelate, ”thought his archbishopric worth more than the good graces of a covetous old monarch.”

[18] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 420.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol.

118.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.

[19] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 119, 120.--Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 30.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.

[20] Zurita, a.n.a.les, tom. vi. lib. 9, cap. 1, 2, 4, 13.--Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 435-437.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.-- Mariana, Hist. de Espana, lib. 29, cap. 22.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol.

122-124.--Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 222.--Zurita gives at length the capitulation with Algiers, lib. 9, cap. 13.

[21] Chenier, Recherches sur les Manures, tom. ii. pp. 355, 356.--It is but just to state, that this disaster was imputable to Don Garcia de Toledo, who had charge of the expedition, and who expiated his temerity with his life. He was eldest son of the old duke of Alva, and father of that n.o.bleman, who subsequently acquired such gloomy celebrity by his conquests and cruelties in the Netherlands. The tender poet, Garcila.s.so de la Vega, offers sweet incense to the house of Toledo, in one of his pastorals, in which he mourns over the disastrous day of Gelves;

”O patria lagrimosa, i como buelves los ojos a los Gelves sospirando!”

The death of the young n.o.bleman is veiled under a beautiful simile, which challenges comparison with the great masters of Latin and Italian song, from whom the Castilian bard derived it.

”Puso en el duro suelo la hermosa cara, como la rosa matutina, cuando ya el sol declina 'l medio dia; que pierde su alegria, i marchitando va la color mudando; o en el campo cual queda el lirio blanco, qu' el arado crudamente cortado al pa.s.sar dexa; del cual aun no s' alexa pressuroso aquel color hermoso, o se destierra; mas ya la madre tierra descuidada, no l' administra nada de su aliento, qu' era el sustentamiento i vigor suyo; tal esta el rostro tuyo en el arena, fresca rosa, acucena blanea i pura.”

Garcila.s.so de la Vega, Obras, ed. de Herrera, pp. 507, 508.

[22] The reader may feel some curiosity respecting the fate of count Pedro Navarro. He soon after this went to Italy, where he held a high command, and maintained his reputation in the wars of that country, until he was taken by the French in the great battle of Ravenna. Through the carelessness or coldness of Ferdinand he was permitted to languish in captivity, till he took his revenge by enlisting in the service of the French monarch. Before doing this, however, he resigned his Neapolitan estates, and formally renounced his allegiance to the Catholic king; of whom, being a Navarese by birth, he was not a native subject. He unfortunately fell into the hands of his own countrymen in one of the subsequent actions in Italy, and was imprisoned at Naples, in Castel Nuovo, which he had himself formerly gained from the French. Here he soon after died; if we are to believe Brantome, being privately despatched by command of Charles V., or, as other writers intimate, by his own hand. His remains, first deposited in an obscure corner of the church of Santa Maria, were afterwards removed to the chapel of the great Gonsalvo, and a superb mausoleum was erected over them by the prince of Sessa, grandson of the hero. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 124.--Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. pp. 226, 289, 406.--Brantome, Vies des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, disc. 9.

--Giovio, Vitae Ill.u.s.t. Virorum, pp. 190-193.

[23] Ximenes continued to watch over the city which he had so valiantly won, long after his death. He never failed to be present in seasons of extraordinary peril. At least the gaunt, gigantic figure of a monk, dressed in the robes of his order, and wearing a cardinal's hat, was seen, sometimes stalking along the battlements at midnight, and, at others, mounted on a white charger and brandis.h.i.+ng a naked sword in the thick of the fight. His last appearance was in 1643, when Oran was closely beleaguered by the Algerines. A sentinel on duty saw a figure moving along the parapet one clear, moonlight night, dressed in a Franciscan frock, with a general's baton in his hand. As soon as it was hailed by the terrified soldier, it called to him to ”tell the garrison to be of good heart, for the enemy should not prevail against them.” Having uttered these words, the apparition vanished without ceremony. It repeated its visit in the same manner on the following night, and, a few days after, its a.s.surance was verified by the total discomfiture of the Algerines, in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle under the walls. See the evidence of these various apparitions, as collected, for the edification of the court of Rome, by that prince of miracle-mongers, Quintanilla. (Archetypo, pp. 317, 335, 338, 340.) Bishop Flechier appears to have no misgivings as to the truth of these old wives' tales. (Histoire de Ximenes, liv. 6.)

Oran, after resisting repeated a.s.saults by the Moors, was at length so much damaged by an earthquake, in 1790, that it was abandoned, and its Spanish garrison and population were transferred to the neighboring city of Mazarquivir.

[24] The custom, familiar at the present day, of depositing coins and other tokens, with inscriptions bearing the names of the architect and founder and date of the building, under the corner-stone was observed on this occasion, where it is noticed as of ancient usage, _more prisco_.

Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 28.

[25] Flechier, Histoire de Ximenes, p. 597.

[26] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.-- Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 178.--Colmenar, Delices de l'Espagne, tom. ii.

pp. 308-310.--Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 7,--who notices particularly the library, ”piena di molti libri et Latini et Greci et Hebraici.”

The good people accused the cardinal of too great a pa.s.sion for building; and punningly said, ”The church of Toledo had never had a bishop of greater _edification_, in every, sense than Ximenes.” Flechier, Histoire de Ximenes, p. 597.

[27] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 79.

[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 82-84.

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