Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/279

FERDINAND VISITS NAPLES. 255 joined by the Great Captain, who, advised of the ciiaptek king's movements, had come from Naples with a — '- — 1_ small fleet to meet him. This frank conduct of his general, if it did not disarm Ferdinand of his sus- picions, showed him the policy of concealing them ; and he treated Gonsalvo with all the consideration and show of confidence, which might impose, not merely on the public, but on the immediate subject of them.^^ The Italian writers of the time express their {;™^[^.'" astonishment that the Spanish general should have so blindly trusted himself into the hands of his sus- picious master.'^ But he, doubtless, felt strong in the consciousness of his own integrity. There ap- pears to have been no good reason for impeaching this. His most equivocal act, was his delay to obey the royal summons. But much weight is rea- sonably due to his own explanation, that he was deterred by the distracted state of the country, arising from the proposed transfer of property to the Angevin barons, as well as from the precipitate disbanding of the army, which it required all his authority to prevent from breaking into open muti- ny.'^ To these motives may be probably added the natural, though perhaps unconscious reluctance to relinquish the exalted station, little short of absolute 1- Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, na, " se puede decir fue el ultimo ubi supra. — Summonte, Hist, di armamento que salio de aquella Napoli, torn. iv. lib. 6, cap. 5. — capital." L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, '-^ Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. iv. fol. 187. — Buonaccorsij Diario, p. p. 30. — Machiavelli, Legazione 123. — Capmany, Mem. de Barce- Seconda a Roma, let. 23. — Gian- lona, tom. i. p. 152. — " Este," none, Istoria di Napoli, lib. 30, says Capmany of the squadron cap. 1. which bore the king from Barcelo- ^^ Zurita, Anales, lib. 6, cap. 31.