Note 202 — CONCLUSION.

This spirit was preserved down to the time of Isabella of Castille. After the conquest of Granada, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova, known by the name of “the great captain,” and to whose valour and military foresight was owing, in a great degree, that glorious conquest, erected in the precinct of the same city a proud palace which was destined for his own use. The queen wished to see it ere it was scarcely finished, and after having examined it minutely, turning to Gonzalo she said,—“Gonzalo, this house is too good for a man; God only ought to live in it.” The hero, yielding to the suggestion, delivered up the edifice to the Hieronimite monks, in order that they might found a convent therein. The monks, grateful for so generous a gift, resolved, on the death of Gonzalo, to inter his body in the church of the establishment; and on the exterior of its tower they wrote in enormous letters the epitaph of its founder in these words:—