Medina, the latter afterwards Bishop of Astorga, accompanied the
embassy.]

To Ascanio Sforza, who spared neither entreaties nor reproaches to
detain him, assuring him that during his lifetime his merits should
not lack recognition, Martyr replied that the disturbed state of
Italy, which he apprehended would grow worse, discouraged him; adding
that he was urged on by an ardent desire to see the world and to make
acquaintance with other lands. To Peter Marsus, he declared he felt
impelled to join in the crusade against the Moors. Spain was the seat
of this holy war, and the Catholic sovereigns, who had accomplished
the unity of the Christian states of the Iberian peninsula, were
liberal in their offers of honours and recompense to foreigners of
distinction whom they sought to draw to their court and camp. Spain
may well have seemed a virgin and promising field, in which his
talents might find a more generous recognition than Rome had awarded
them. Upon his arrival there, he showed himself no mean courtier when
he declared to the Queen that his sole reason for coming was to behold
the most celebrated woman in the world--herself. Perhaps the sincerest
expression of his feelings is that contained in a letter to Carillo.
(Ep. 86. 1490): _Formosum est cuique, quod maxime placet: id si cum
patria minime quis se sperat habiturum, tanta est hujusce rei vis, ut
extra patriam quæritet patria ipsius oblitus. Ego quam vos deservistis
adivi quia quod mihi pulchrum suaveque videbatur in ea invenire
speravi_. The divine restlessness, the _Wanderlust_ had seized him,
and to its fascination he yielded. The opportunity offered by Tendilla
was too tempting to be resisted. Summing up the remonstrances and
reproaches of his various friends, he declared that he held himself to
deserve rather their envy than their commiseration, since amidst
the many learned men in Italy he felt himself obscure and useless,