CHAPTER
XXIV.
take command of the papal army in Italy; others,
to join himself with the archduke Charles, and in-
troduce him, if possible, into Castile. Ferdinand,
clinging to power more tenaciously as it was ready
to slip of itself from his grasp, had little doubt that
the latter was his purpose. He sent orders therefore to the south, to prevent the meditated embarkation, and, if necessary, to seize Gonsalvo's person.
But the latter was soon to embark on a voyage,
where no earthly arm could arrest him.[1]
illness and
Gonsalvo's illness and death.
In the autumn of 1515 he was attacked by a
quartan fever. Its approaches at first were mild. death.
His constitution, naturally good, had been invigor-
ated by the severe training of a military life; and
he had been so fortunate, that, notwithstanding the
free exposure of his person to danger, he had never
received a wound. But, although little alarm was
occasioned at first by his illness, he found it impos-
sible to throw it off; and he removed to his resi-
dence in Granada, in hopes of deriving benefit from
its salubrious climate. Every effort to rally the de-
clining powers of nature proved unavailing; and
on the 2d of December, 1515,
1515.
Dec. 2.
he expired in his
own palace at Granada, in the arms of his wife, and
his beloved daughter Elvira.[2]
Public grief The death of this illustrious man diffused universal sorrow throughout the nation. All envy and
- ↑ Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 96.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 23.—Giovio, Vitæ Illust. Virorum, p. 292.
- ↑ Giovio Vitæ Illust. Virorum, pp. 271, 292.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 9.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 560.— Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1515.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 20, cap. 23.—Pulgar, Sum., p. 209.
