envoy had displayed in Venice, they betrayed none. Peter Martyr's
reception was not wanting in cordiality, the Queen, especially,
expressing her gratitude for the important service he had rendered
the Christian religion, and he received another appointment[1] which
augmented his income by thirty thousand maravedis yearly. Having taken
holy orders about this time and the dignity of prior of the cathedral
chapter of Granada falling vacant, this benefice was also given to
him, _regis et reginæ beneficentia_.

[Note 1: _Maestro de los cabelleros de su corte en las artes
liberates_. He had long exercised the functions of this office, as
has been described: the formal appointment was doubtless but a means
invented for granting him an increase of revenue.]

On November 26th in the year 1504, the death of Isabella of Castile
plunged the Court and people into mourning and produced a crisis in
the government that threatened the arduously accomplished union of
the peninsula with disruption. None mourned the Queen's death more
sincerely than did her Italian chaplain. He accompanied the funeral
cortège on its long journey to Granada, where the body was laid in the
cathedral of the city her victorious arms had restored to the bosom
of Christendom. During several months, Martyr lingered in Granada,
hesitating before returning uninvited to King Ferdinand's Court. To a
letter from the Secretary of State, Perez Almazen, summoning him to
rejoin the King without delay, he somewhat coyly answered, deprecating
his ability to be of further service to His Majesty, adding, however,
that he asked nothing better than to obey the summons. Elsewhere,
in one of his Epistles, he states that he returned to the court at
Segovia, as representative of his chapter, to secure the continuation
of certain revenues paid from the royal treasury to the clergy of