nish abundant subject and scope for his aspiring spirit. But his views, on the contrary, expanded with every step of his elevation, and now fell little short of those of an independent monarch. His zeal glowed fiercer than ever for the propagation of the Catholic faith. Had he lived in the age of the crusades, he would indubitably have headed one of those expeditions himself; for the spirit of the soldier burned strong and bright under his monastic weeds.3 Indeed, like Columbus, he had formed plans for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, even at this late day. But his zeal found a better direction in a crusade against the neighboring Moslems of Africa, who had retaliated the wrongs of Granada by repeated descents on the southern coasts of the Peninsula, calling in vain for the interference of government. At the instigation and with the aid of Ximenes, an expedition had been fitted out soon after Isabella's death, which resulted in the capture of Mazarquivir, an important port, and formidable nest of pirates, on the Barbary coast, nearly opposite Car

"Ego tamen dum universas ejus actiones comparo," says Alvaro Gomez, "magis ad bellica exercitia a naturâ effictum esse judico. Erat enim vir animi invicti et sublimis, omniaque in melius asserere conantis." De Rebus gestis, fol. 95.

4 From a letter of king Emanuel of Portugal, it appears that Ximenes had endeavored to interest him, together with the kings of Aragon and England, in a crusade to the Holy Land. There was much method in his madness, if we may judge from the careful survey he had procured of the coast, as well as his plan of operations. The Portugues monarch praises in round terms the edifying zeal of the primate, but wisely confined himself to his own crusades in India, which were likely to make better returns, at least in this world, than those to Palestine. The letter is still preserved in the archives of Alcalá; see a copy in Quintanilla, Archetypo, Apend. no. 16.

thagena. (Sept. 13th, 1505.) He now meditated a more difficult enterprise, the conquest of Oran."

This place, situated about a league from the former, was one of the most considerable of the Moslem possessions in the Mediterranean, being a principal mart for the trade of the Levant. It contained about twenty thousand inhabitants, was strongly fortified, and had acquired a degree of opulence by its extensive commerce which enabled it to maintain a swarm of cruisers, that swept this inland sea and made fearful depredations on its populous borders."

No sooner was Ferdinand quietly established again in the government, than Ximenes urged him to undertake this new conquest. The king saw its importance, but objected the want of funds. The cardinal, who was prepared for this, replied that "he was ready to lend whatever sums were necessary, and to take sole charge of the expedition, leading it, if the king pleased, in person.' ." Ferdinand, who had no objection to this mode of making acquisitions, more especially as it would open a vent for the turbulent spirits of his subjects, readily acquiesced in the proposition.

The enterprise, however disproportionate it might seem to the resources of a private individual, was not beyond those of the cardinal. He had been carefully husbanding his revenues for some time past, with a view to this object; although he had occasionally

5 Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 15.-Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 77.-Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.-Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1507.-Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 15; lib. 29, cap. 9.

6 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., ef ist. 418.

broken in upon his appropriations, to redeem unfortunate Spaniards who had been swept into slavery. He had obtained accurate surveys of the Barbary coast from an Italian engineer named Vianelli. He had advised, as to the best mode of conducting operations, with his friend Gonsalvo de Cordova, to whom, if it had been the king's pleasure, he would gladly have intrusted the conduct of the expedition. At his suggestion, that post was now assigned to the celebrated engineer, Count Pedro Navarro."

No time was lost in completing the requisite preparations. Besides the Italian veterans, levies were drawn from all quarters of the country, especially from the cardinal's own diocese. The chapter of Toledo entered heartily into his views, furnishing liberal supplies, and offering to accompany the expedition in person. An ample train of ordnance was procured, with provisions and military stores for the maintenance of an army four months. Before the close of spring, in 1509, all was in readiness, and a fleet of ten galleys and eighty smaller vessels rode in the harbor of Carthagena, having on board a force amounting in all to four thousand horse and ten thousand foot. Such were the resources, activity, and energy displayed by a man whose life, until within a very few years, had been spent in cloistered solitudes and in the quiet practices of religion, and who now, oppressed with infirmities more than usual, had passed the seventieth year of his age.

7 Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 96-100.-Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.-Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.-Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 413.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7.

In accomplishing all this, the cardinal had expe rienced greater obstacles than those arising from bodily infirmity or age. His plans had been constantly discouraged and thwarted by the nobles, who derided the idea of "a monk fighting the battles of Spain, white the Great Captain was left to stay at home and count his beads like a hermit." The soldiers, especially those of Italy, as well as their commander Navarro, trained under the banners of Gonsalvo, showed little inclination to serve under their spiritual leader. The king himself was cooled by these various manifestations of discontent. But the storm which prostrates the weaker spirit serves only to root the stronger more firmly in its purpose; and the genius of Ximenes, rising with the obstacles it had to encounter, finally succeeded in triumphing over all, in reconciling the king, disappointing the nobles, and restoring obedience and discipline to the army.

8

On the 16th of May, 1509, the fleet weighed anchor, and on the following day reached the African port of Mazarquivir. No time was lost in disembarking; for the fires on the hill-tops showed that the country was already in alarm. It was proposed to direct the main attack against a lofty height, or ridge of land, rising between Mazarquivir and Oran, so near the latter as entirely to command it. At the same time, the fleet was to drop down before the Moorish city, and, by opening a brisk cannonade, divert the attention of the inhabitants from the principal point of assault.

8 Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 100-102.-Robles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra.-Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.

As soon as the Spanish army had landed and formed in order of battle, Ximenes mounted his mule and rode along the ranks. He was dressed in his pontifical robes, with a belted sword at his side. A Franciscan friar rode before him, bearing aloft the massive silver cross, the archiepiscopal standard of Toledo. Around him were other brethren of the order, wearing their monastic frocks, with scimitars hanging from their girdles. As the ghostly cavalcade advanced, they raised the triumphant hymn of Vexilla regis, until at length the cardinal, ascending a rising ground, imposed silence, and made a brief but animated harangue to his soldiers. He reminded them of the wrongs they had suffered from the Moslems, the devastation of their coasts, and their brethren dragged into merciless slavery. When he had sufficiently roused their resentment against the enemies of their country and religion, he stimulated their cupidity by dwelling on the golden spoil which awaited them in the opulent city of Oran; and he concluded his discourse by declaring that he had come to peril his own life in the good cause of the Cross, and to lead them on to battle, as his predecessors had often done before him."

The venerable aspect and heart-stirring eloquence of the primate kindled a deep, reverential enthusiasm in the bosoms of his martial audience, which showed itself by the profoundest silence. The officers, however, closed around him at the conclusion of the address,

, Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.-Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 30.-Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 108.-Oviedo, Quin. cuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximenez.