Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/392

366 CONQUEST OF NAVARRE. PART France, might have seen no improbability in her closing with it. Had either alternative been em- braced, there would have been no pretext for the invasion. Even when hostilities had been precip- itated by the impolitic conduct of Navarre, Ferdi- nand (to judge, not from his public manifestoes only, but from his private correspondence) would seem to have at first contemplated holding the country, only till the close of his French expedi- tion. ^^ But the facility of retaining these con- quests, when once acquired, was too strong a temp- tation. It was easy to find some plausible pretext to justify it, and obtain such a sanction from the highest authority, as should veil the injustice of the transaction from the world, — and from his own eyes. And that these were blinded is but too true, if, as an Aragonese historian declares, he could re- mark on his death-bed, " that, independently of the conquest having been undertaken at the in- stance of the sovereign pontiff, for the extirpation of the schism, he felt his conscience as easy in keeping it, as in keeping his crown of Aragon."^' 32 See KiiiCT Ferdinand's letter, ja, De Bello Navariensi, lib. 1, July 20lh, and his manifesto, July cap. 7. SOlh, 1512, apud Bernaldez, Reyes 33 Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, Calolicos, MS., cap. 235. — Lebri- torn. ii. rey 30, cap. 21. Authorities for tlio his- tory of Na- varre. I have made use of three author- 1596. 8vo. This anonymous work, ilies exclusively devoted to Na- from the pen of one of Henry IV. 's varre, in the present History, secretaries, is little else llian a 1. " L'Histoire du Royaume de meagre compij.ition of facts, and Navarre, par un des Secretaires these deeply colored by the nation- Intcrprettes de sa Maiest^." Paris, al prejudices of the writer, ll de-