Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/130

104 INSANITY OF JOANNA. PART II. tended only to their hereditary dominions ; Italy — and the circumjacent seas being still left open as a common arena, on which the rival parties might meet, and settle their respective titles by the sword. This truce, first concluded for five months, was subsequently prolonged to three years. It gave Ferdinand, what he most needed, leisure, and means to provide for the security of his Italian pos- sessions, on which the dark storm of war was soon to burst with tenfold fury.^^ The unfortunate Frederic, who had been drawn from his obscurity to take part in these negotia- RetlPCtions nil llig cam- paign. tions, died in the following year. It is singular that the last act of his political life should have been to mediate a peace between the dominions of two monarchs, who had united to strip him of his own. The results of this campaign were as honorable to Spain, as they were disastrous and humiliating 26 Zurita, Anales, torn. v. lib. 5, cap. 55. — Abarca, Reyes de Ara- gon, torn. ii. rey 30, cap. 13, sec. 11. — Peter Martyr, Opus. Epist., epist. 264. — Lanuza, Historias, torn. i. cap. 17. — Garibay, Com- Kendio, torn. ii. lib. 19, cap. 16.— lachiavelli, Legazione Prima a Roma, let. 27. Mons. Varillas notices as the weak side of Louis XII., " una demangeaison de faire la paix a centre temps, dont il fut travaille durant toute sa vie." (Politique de Ferdinand, liv. 1, p. 148.) A statesman shrewder than Varillas, De Retz, furnishes, perhaps, the best key to this policy, in the re- mark, " Les gens foibles ne plient jamais quand lis le doivent " Iinpedi nnents to nistoric ac- curacy. Those, who have not themselves ing outlines, there is such a mass had occasion to pursue historical of inconsistency and contradiction inquiries, will scarcely imagine on in the details, even of contempora- what loose grounds the greater part ries, that it scorns almost as hope- of the narrative is to be built, less to seize the true aspect of any With the exception of a few lead- particular age as it would be to