Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. XIMENEZ IS CHOSEN CONFESSOB TO QUEEN ISAi;i:i,L A, AM) PBOVINCIAL OF HIS ORDEtt. During the ten years of the Moorish war, which had occupied Spain so much, Ximenez had been spending his days in the calm retirement of a monastery: the termination of it was the means of drawing him from his peaceful cell. Indeed, amongst the numberless remarkable consequences of this war, not the least was the fact that Isabella's attention was thereby directed to three illustrious men, destined afterwards to become her greatest and most faithful subjects, and to contribute so much to the undying glory of her reign, as well as to the welfare of Spain itself. The men to whom I allude were,— Columbus, who discovered America; the great warrior Gonsalvo de Cordova, and Cardinal Ximenez. Isabella, rejoicing over the conquest of Granada, and thus encouraged to undertake still greater and nobler enterprises, at last heard the prayers of Columbus, which had remained so long unheeded ; and on the 17th of April, 1492, presented him with that small fleet at Santa Fe", which was destined soon to discover a new world. No less illustrious in history is Gonsalvo de Cordova, truly called " El gran capitano," the great captain. For the first time in the Moorish wars, he it was who displayed those extraordinary talents and that rare genius whereby he performed wonders with such slender resources; and, relying on the strength of his undaunted soul, as well as onthe magic influence he possessed over his troops, he it was too who knew, not only how to conquer Naples, but also how to retain it in possession of Spain. The rise of Ximenez is no less intimately connected with the Moorish wars, though not in such a direct way as those were whom I have already mentioned. An archbishopric had been esta...