286 FERDINAND'S RETURN AND REGENCY. PART Ferdinand's deportment, on his first return, was '- — distinguished by a most gracious clemency, evinced General i • i i i amnesty. not SO much, mdeed, by any excessive remuneration of services, as by the politic oblivion of injuries. If he ever alluded to these, it was in a sportive way, implying that there was no rancour or ill-will at heart. " Who would have thought," he ex- claimed one day to a courtier near him, " that you could so easily abandon your old master, for one so young and inexperienced ? " " Who would have thought," replied the other with equal bluntness, " that my old master would have outlived my young one ? " ^® Meestab- With all this complaisance, however, the king lishes a f ' ' E5 guard. jjj ^^^ neglect precautions for placing his authority on a sure basis, and fencing it round so as to screen it effectually from the insults, to which it had been formerly exposed. He retained in pay most of the old Italian levies, with the ostensible purpose of an African expedition. He took good care that the military orders should hold their troops in constant readiness, and that the militia of the kingdom should be in condition for instant service. He formed a body-guard to attend the royal person on all occasions. It consisted at first of only two hundred men, armed and drilled after the fashion of the Swiss ordonnance, and placed under the command of his chronicler, Ayora, an experienced treaty of Blois, with Maximilian, ^6 Giovio, Vitae Illust. Vlrorum, guarantied by Louis XII., the ob- p. 282. — Chr6nica del Gran Cap- ject of which was to secure the sue- itan, lib. 3, cap. 4. cession to the archduke Charles. Zurita, Anales, lib. 8, cap. 47.
