chapter XVI
most brilliant exemplar of every virtue," and mourn
over the day of her death as " the last of the pros-
perity and happiness of their country."[1] While
those, who had nearer access to her person, are
unbounded in their admiration of those amiable
qualities, whose full power is revealed only in the
unrestrained intimacies of domestic life.[2] The
judgment of posterity has ratified the sentence of
her own age. The most enlightened Spaniards of
the present day, by no means insensible to the errors
of her government, but more capable of appreciating its merits, than those of a less instructed age,
bear honorable testimony to her deserts ; and, while
they pass over the bloated magnificence of succeeding monarchs, who arrest the popular eye, dwell
with enthusiasm on Isabella's character, as the most
truly great in their line of princes.[3]
- ↑ I borrow the words of one con- temporary; " Quo quidem die om- nis Hispaniæ felicitas, omne decus, omnium virtutum pulcherrimum specimen interiit ;" (L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, lib. 21,) — and the sentiments of all.
- ↑ If the reader needs further testimony of this, he will find abun- dance collected by the indefatigable Clemencin, in the 21st Ilust. of the Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., tom. vi.
- ↑ It would be easy to cite the authority over and over again of such writers as Marina, Sempere, Llorente, Navarrete, Quintana, and others, wlio have done such honor to the literature of Spain in chap. 23. — Navagiero, Viaggio, the present century. It will be fol. 27. — et al. auct. sufficient, however, to advert to the remarkable tribute paid to Isabella's character by the Royal Spanish Academy of History ; who in 1805 appointed their late secretary, Cleraencin, to deliver a eulogy on that illustrious theme; and who raised a still nobler monument to her memory, by the publication, in 1821, of the various documents compiled by him for the illustration of her reign, as a separate volume of their valuable Memoirs.
de ceste presente hystoire, que sa vie a esté telle, qu'elle a bien mé- rité couronne de laurier après sa mort." Mémoires de Bayard, chap. 26. — See also Comines, Memoires,
