the very altar of God, and with the words of worship on his lips.

An immediate inquisition into the circumstances ensued, under the personal direction of the corregidor himself. The weapon was drawn from the wound, and examined; and strange to say, it proved to be the very dagger, which had taken the life of Gil Cano in the Puerta del Sol; and scarce was the fact ascertained, when the identical words, which had proclaimed the vengeance of Garci Perez, and repeated in the same stern voice, seemed to issue from the very lips of Our Lady of the Conception. In vain did the corregidor command the doors to be closed, that Garci Perez, or whoever else was the perpetrator of this daring imposition, for imposition he affirmed it unquestionably was,-might be apprehended and brought to condign punishment. But all within the church had now become a scene of wild tumult and irremediable confusion. Women shrieked, and men uttered incoherent ejaculations of mingled prayer and execration; while some, more thoughtful or more superstitious than the rest, when they glanced upon each others panic-struck faces, felt as if they were witnesses of some awful visitation of divine justice upon crimes too dark, and atrocious for human laws to reach. So far from the orders of the corregidor being observed, the mysterious dagger itself disappeared in the disorder, and thus every clue to the truth seemed irrecoverably lost.

But this time the public curiosity was thoroughly aroused, and every body manifested the greatest anxiety to probe the affair to the bottom. It was no longer the case of an obscure individual, stabbed in his dwelling by a private enemy; but a distinguished ecclesiastic had been struck by the same hand, under circumstances, equally calculated to shock the sensibility of the rationally devout, and to work on the superstitious fears of the unreasoning multitude. All Madrid was in commotion from one end of the city to the other: the ' vengeance of Garci Perez,' and the mysterious power possessed by this bold bad man, constituted the sole topic of conversation. Conjecture was weary with seeking to imagine or discover where he was, and how he was enabled thus to elude, or rather to defy, pursuit and inquiry. But in the midst of the perquisitions of the municipal authorities, and the wondering speculations of the good people of the most noble and loyal city of Madrid, a royal proclamation appeared on the corners of the Puerta del Sol and in other public places, which informed the citizens, that, for sound and sufficient reasons of state, it imported the service of our Lord the King that the deaths of Gil Cano the barber surgeon, and of Fray Joaquin Arteaga, Bishop elect of Jaen, should be forgotten, and that the name of Garci Perez should cease to be mentioned in Madrid. Of course the dutiful subjects of Don Carlos took care to banish the subject forthwith from their memories. But

the hidden motives and mysterious means of those two deaths constitute a curious and instructive trait of Spanish manners and feeling.

Among the Castilian gentlemen, who, attracted by the love of distinction, followed Gonzalo de Cordoba to the wars of Italy, when, in the year 1500, Ferdinand of Aragon commissioned the Great Captain to undertake the second conquest of Naples, none was more preeminent for his skill in all martial exercises, or the reckless bravery of his character, than Don Diego Garcia, the young Conde de Orotava. His bodily strength and stature were in proportion to the vigor of his understanding and the resoluteness of his temper; and it was not doubted that, in whatever field of fame he should exert his military talents, he would speedily acquire high reputution. Ardent and adventurous in spirit, he had contemplated trying his fortunes in some scheme of discovery and conquest in the New World; but was turned towards Italy, partly by the desire to serve under so splendid a chief as Gonzalo Fernandez, and partly by his fondness for the pleasures of refined European society, from which he would necessarily be cut off among the barbarous inhabitants of the Indies.

Gonzalo's first point of attack was the castle of St. George in the island of Cefalonia, which the Turks had wrested from the Venetians, and which, by the terms of compact between the Venetians and Ferdinand, the latter was to aid them in recovering,

before entering upon the Neapolitan campaign. The castle was reduced by the united Spanish and Venetian forces, after an obstinate defence, wherein, among other devices, the Turks employed machines, which, being let down from the walls, seized upon the besiegers, and either crushed them in pieces, or raised them up to be killed or taken prisoners by the garrison. Don Diego had the misfortune to be attacked by one of these machines; but he astonished the whole army by an obstinate attempt, in the exertion of all his amazing muscular force, to withstand the action of the machine; and when at last he was raised to the wall, he defended himself with so much valor, that he won the respect and forbearance of the Turks, and was preserved from injury to be released on the conclusion of the siege.

Although circumstances protracted the war in Naples at the outset, yet opportunities occurred for displaying the characteristic qualities of the Count of Orotava; and especially during the long confinement of the Spaniards in Barletta, so famous for the various passages of chivalry, wherein the gallantry of the French and Spanish officers caused them to be engaged. A dispute arose as to the relative merit of the two nations in arms. The French admitted that the Spaniards were their equals on foot, but denied that they were so in fighting on horseback; averring that the result of the daily rencounters of the besiegers and be13

VOL. I.

sieged in their frequent sallies from the town proved the inferiority of the Spaniards. At length a message came from the French camp, challenging eleven Spaniards to take the field with eleven Frenchmen, and settle the controversy on the spot. This affair was no idle bravado of hot-headed young men :— it was conducted under the direction of the Duc de Nemours and Gonzalo de Cordoba, the two opposing generals, and the Chevalier Bayard was appointed to be one of the combatants on the part of the French. A spot was selected for the battle, half way between Barletta and the French head-quarters of Viselo; hostages were exchanged for the security of the field; and Prospero Colonna, the second person in the army, was appointed to be padrino or second for the Spaniards. Although the Conde de Orotava was suffering from imperfectly healed wounds, he insisted upon taking part in the combat.

When he and his associates were fully equipped and prepared for the lists, the Great Captain summoned them to his presence, and exhorted them to remember that the glory and military reputation, not only of themselves, but of the whole army and of their nation, depended upon this conflict; and that, bearing in mind what practised and skilful cavaliers they were, they must join battle in determination to die rather than leave the lists without gaining the victory. All made oath so to do; and issued forth to the field, each accompanied by two pages; and the lists having been previously pre