mspiration. Quite as probable an explanation may be found in the boldness and impetuous enthusiasm of the cardinal's character."5 The conquest of Oran opened unbounded scope to the ambition of Ximenes; who saw in imagination the banner of the Cross floating triumphant from the walls of every Moslem city on the Mediterranean. He ex perienced, however, serious impediments to his further progress. Navarro, accustomed to an independent command, chafed in his present subordinate situation, especially under a spiritual leader whose military science he justly held in contempt. He was a rude, unlettered soldier, and bluntly spoke his mind to the primate. He told him "his commission under him terminated with the capture of Oran; that two generals were too many in one army; that the cardinal should rest contented with the laurels he had already won, and, instead of playing the king, go home to his flock, and leave fighting to those to whom the trade belonged." 16 But what troubled the prelate more than this insolence of his general was a letter which fell into his hands, addressed by the king to Count Navarro, in which he requested him to be sure to find some pretence for detaining the cardinal in Africa as long as his presence could be made in any way serviceable. Ximenes had before had good reason to feel that the royal favor 15 Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, 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 Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, pp. 308, 309.—Abarca, Reyes do Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 18. to him flowed from selfishness, rather than from any personal regard. The king had always wished the archbishopric of Toledo for his favorite, and natural son, Alfonso of Aragon. After his return from Naples, he importuned Ximenes to resign his see, and exchange it for that of Saragossa, held by Alfonso; till at length the indignant prelate replied "that he would never consent to barter away the dignities of the church; that, if his Highness pressed him any further, he would indeed throw up the primacy, but it should be to bury himself in the friar's cell from which the queen had originally called him." Ferdinand, who, independently of the odium of such a proceeding, could ill afford to part with so able a minister, knew his inflexible temper too well ever to resume the subject." With some reason, therefore, for distrusting the good will of his sovereign, Ximenes put the worst possible construction on the expressions in his letter. He saw himself a mere tool in Ferdinand's hands, to be used so long as occasion might serve, with the utmost indifference to his own interests or conve nience. These humiliating suspicions, together with the arrogant bearing of his general, disgusted him with the further prosecution of the expedition; while he was confirmed in his purpose of returning to Spain, and found an obvious apology for it in the state of his own health, too infirm to encounter with safety the wasting heats of an African summer. 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." Before his departure, he summoned Navarro and his officers about him, and, after giving them much good counsel respecting the government and defence of their new acquisitions, he placed at their disposal an ample supply of funds and stores, for the maintenance of the army several months. He then embarked (May 22d), not with the pompous array and circumstance of a hero returning from his conquests, but with a few domestics only, in an unarmed galley; showing, as it were, by this very act, the good effects of his enterprise, in the security which it brought to the before perilous navigation of these inland seas. 18 Splendid preparations were made for his reception in Spain, and he was invited to visit the court at Valladolid, to receive the homage and public testimonials due to his eminent services. But his ambition was of too noble a kind to be dazzled by the false lights of an ephemeral popularity. He had too much pride of character, indeed, to allow room for the indulgence of vanity. He declined these compliments, and hastened without loss of time to his favorite city of Alcalá. There, too, the citizens, anxious to do him honor, turned out under arms to receive him, and made a breach in the walls, that he might make his entry in a style worthy of a conqueror. But this also he declined, choosing to pass into the town by the regular avenue, with no peculiar circumstance attending his entrance, save only a small train of camels led by African slaves and laden with gold and silver plate from the mosques of Oran, and a precious collection of Arabian manu 18 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 420.-Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 118.-Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20. |