by a mistake, having fwallowed a quack medicine, given with very different intentions by his second queen, Germaine de Foix, who vainly hoped to make him father to a young prince of Afturias; but these ardent wishes for progeny are almost always disappointed, or end ill some way. His daughter by the first bed, though fomewhat like deranged, and at least what we agree to call exceedingly odd, was destined to produce the famous character Charles V. by her marriage with Philip of Austria, firnamed the Beautiful and Moderate, inheriting the virtues of amiable Maximilian, which best enabled him to endure his queen's tormenting fondness with a degree of tranquillity and decorum, neceffary enough to the husband of Jeannla folle : fo the contemporary hiftorians call the eldest child of Ferdinand and Ifabella. The youngest Catherina was no happier: fhe married our Henry Seventh's two fons, and was repudiated fixteen years after he had reigned at the right hand of the second brother, who turned her off, wedding her maid Anne Boleyn, fpite of the Pope and of her nephew Charles, who had fucceeded to the Spanish crown in 1517, foon as John Albert just expelled Navarre, had newly enriched it with another jewel, by lofs to him of that kingdom; and two years after the fame prince was elected Emperor of Germany on death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian I. fometimes called the Fortunate, fometimes the Pacific. Over this man's fhort minority, that all felicity might feem to unite in Charles V. prefided the illuftrious, the incomparable Ximenes; well known to fame for virtues little practifed then as now, within the tainted atmofphere of courts. A character that would have found itself equal to the fovereignty of a whole earth, had he, like his countrymen Trajan or Theodofius, been called to exercise univerfal dominion as monarch of a world they knew to render happy; and who would have edified all Christendom by his piety, had he been fummoned to the papal chair. As chancellor of a univerfity, he did in effect promote learning in all its branches; and tried to make the holy fcriptures known in every tongue witnefs the vaft twelve years' work, ftill called the Polyglott

young

of

of Ximenes; which when he faw completed he exclaimed, proftrating himself upon the ground-" Oh God! I give thee here my "humblest thanks that thus thy fervant has been fo permitted to pro

66

pagate thy true and facred word." Yet notwithstanding his various accomplishments, his whole defire was retirement, where in his own diocese he might refide in peace, without disturbance from ambition, teaching his poor neighbours their duty to heaven and each other, while he performed towards them not charities alone, but liberal acts of friendship, wishing to be a bishop more beloved than celebrateda parent to his curates, vaffals, tenants, peasantry; who when a tempeft once defolated all their district, were every one indemnified from out of his own purse, and wrote four Spanish lines upon a little pillar, which they all helped to fet up, expreffive of this thought.

66

Safe in our patron and our friend,

Here winds may roar, and rains may fall;

We on Ximenes' care depend,

Our husbandman provides for all. H

His life indeed, is one continued panegyric on human nature, purified by Christianity; nor were his modes of mortifying himself known till one day, when cardinal and regent, he reprimanded his coachman in the street for being behind his time on fome occafion of no little confequence.—" "Your Eminence," replied the fellow, "has nothing "to do but tie your rope about your waist, nor even that, for I am told you fleep in it; but my horfes must be taken other care of, or they "would look as lean as their lord, and that would never be to our "credit." In fact, Ximenes, a Francifcan friar, ftill wore his woollen habit next his fkin, and flept the five hours he allowed himself on a rough pallat, fuch as are ufed in cells; nor was ever known to throw his limbs when weary on the state-bed prepared for his repose. At the great dinners 'twas his place to give, his own mefs of pulfe was ftill prepared for him; nor had he ever tafted fresh meat or wine, or even gravy, or ever allowed himself a tête-à-tête with any man or

This is a real, Blunder; an Author's Blunder; Cardinals were not calle Eminenza before 1525.

woman fince his vow. When fecrecy was neceffary, he stood in a confeffional: permitting no poffibility of scandal, and enjoying, as he expreffed it, only one fenfual gratification, mufick; of which he was most paffionately fond. When the body which contained this pious foul was opened, 'tis faid no future could be difcerned in the cranium ; and that violent cephalalgia which pursued him to the last, was attributed to the unusual paucity of brains in his head. He died not without fufpicion of having been poisoned till these examinations were made; and lived not to fee his beloved master, by a marriage with John of Portugal's fifter, who at the fame time married a fifter of Charles himself, bid fair to unite all Europe under his dominion, and be no longer called Charles V. but Charles quint, as fifth emperor of the name, not merely king of Spain.

These events bring us to the year 1525, when we will quit these Caftilians, fo formidable to both hemifpheres-for a while.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

W

TURKS AND ITALIANS, FRENCH AND ENGLISH,

FROM 1492 TO 1525.

E left the forceful Bajazet driving the king of Caramania to extremities, and our retrospective eye rejoiced to fee such fury happily turned away from Chriftendom, exhausting its violence in old Natolia, and regions ftill more remote: we felt confoled too, that the Turkish power began to be controuled in Europe now a little-counteracted at least by thofe growing arts and refuscitating fciences which always give the mastery to nations deepest skilled in them. Man, as man merely, is a feeble creature, fhuddering at the water where other animals naturally fwim, and fheltering from the wind where some animals naturally fly; but animated by knowledge, quickened by genius, and rendered fkilful in the eye of both by experience, he makes air and sea subservient to his purpose, and bends all elements to his advantage. Europe was now learning how paft mortals had conducted themselves in fimilar fituations to their own: printing polished the master key to knowledge, and ignorance began to feel a sense of fhame till lately unobserved, and scarcely fuffered to disturb the dignity of listlessness, or set aside the cravings of appetite. Such fentiments, when kindled, are contagious: Bajazet, become old and gouty, and finding small relief, and fhortening intervals from pain, which suffered him no more to follow camp as ufual, begun listening himself after philofophical amusements, and having built at Dymotica, in Thrace, not far from Adrianople, a fort of fecondary palace, proposed retiring thither, meaning to dedicate the last years of his life to eafe and study. For

tunately

tunately for mankind his janiffaries and courtiers confidered such conduct as desertion; and though they would have willingly feen their fovereign rioting in debauch, and debilitating himself by general voluptuousness, unfettered by any particular attachment, their terrors took alarm at these proposals: and Selim, the most savage of his dearloved fons, was singled out as fucceffor. Impatient of the moment, he took arms; but Bajazet, not liking to be driven, as it appears from what he was willing and even defirous to quit, oppofed them manfully; and the young prince, efcaping upon his favourite horfe Carabulo, meaning a black cloud, dismissed the lucky animal from future labour, feeing him every day led out richly caparisoned to receive the careffes of a grateful master, who, when he died, buried him with military honours at Grand Cairo, under a fepulchre of coal-black marble. When Bajazet's refentment cooled a little, he fent for Selim to his court, receiving his fubmiffions, and pardoning his offence, adding both tears and kiffes to his kindness. This Emperor feems to have been much more humanized than any of the Turkish fovereigns we have read of:-he suffered Zimzim to elude that fury for many years which other fucceffors to the Ottoman ftate exert at once,strangling their brothers at the hour of acceffion. He forgave Selim, and propofed once more to taste the fweets of literary retirement; but foon heard the report how Achmet and Corcutus, other fons by different fultanas, plotted rebellion, and refolved to reign, while many baffas were obferved flocking to their treacherous standard. "Falfe "and forfworn!" cried the old Emperor from his palace wallsWhat feck you! When the earth fhook for eighteen days together, "did I not treat all my flaves as children, providing for you food and dwellings from my purfe? And did I not rebuild your city in fix "months, setting on fourscore thousand men at once to work! And will

66

ye not now let me die in peace, but help disease, which does the bufi"nefs flowly? Call Selim to the throne; he will defend it bravely: "let me retreat now to my fummer palace; at eighty-one years fure "I think