devoted followers of the Conde de Trastamara.* By offering this explanation to his courtiers, the king did not seek to justify his conduct; he only intended reading them a lesson; moreover, he was anxious to show that his spies were vigilant, and that nothing escaped his notice.

Don Vasco, brother of Gutier Fernandez, was archbishop of Toledo. The king believed him to be an accomplice in the conspiracy which he imagined he had discovered. He sent him a command to go into exile. Such was the terror that Don Pedro then inspired, that not a voice was raised in Toledo to protest against the banishment of a man whose irreproachable morals and sincere piety had rendered him beloved by all his flock. The king's commands were now executed with all the rigour and punctuality of Mohammedan despotism. At the conclusion of mass, it was signified to the archbishop that he must immediately set out for Portugal, and without allowing him time to collect any baggage, or even to change his dress, he was led out of the city, and thence, by forced journeys, to the frontier. Two years afterwards, Don Vasco died in the odour of sanctity at Coimbra, in the monastery of San Domingo,

* Ayala, p. 317.

+ The bearers of the king's orders were Matheos Fernandez, Don Pedro's Private Chancellor, and Pero Lopez de Ayala, the historian, who at that period was Alguazil-Mayor of Toledo. Ayala was desirous of executing his instructions as delicately as possible, but his kind intentions were thwarted by Fernandez, whom the chronicler holds responsible for the harsh treatment the Archbishop received. Ayala, p. 321.-T.

which he had chosen as his retreat, and the king, at the entreaty of the archbishop's relatives, allowed his body to be transported to Toledo, and interred in the cathedral.*

Four days after the departure of its archbishop, the city of Toledo witnessed another reverse of fortune. The king's treasurer, Don Simuel el Levi, formerly the companion of his captivity at Toro, and afterwards his minister and confidant, was suddenly cast into prison. On the same day his relatives and agents, dispersed throughout the kingdom, were arrested. Simuel's crime was his immense wealth, for in an age when the resources of commerce and industry were so little known, a king could not conceive that his treasurer had grown rich except at his expense. Don Pedro, after the example of the eastern despots, had for a long time given full liberty to his minister, which ended however in his afterwards exacting a strict account. All Levi's goods were seized, and unhappily for him, he was thought too cunning not to have concealed the greatest part of his treasures. He was conducted to Seville, and so cruelly tortured that he expired amid the agonies of the rack. The king is said to have found in his coffers 160,000 doubloons, and 4,000 silver marks, which with a large quantity of jewellery he appropriated to his own purposes. The sum of 300,000 doubloons, found in the possession of the treasurer's relatives, who acted under him, was likewise seized; it was the product of taxes the collecting of

* Ayala, p. 320. It is presumed that Don Vasco resigned the Archbishopric as soon as he was banished, for the same year we find him succeeded by Don Gomez Manrique. Mariana.-T.

which was confided to Levi, and which were about to be poured into the coffers of the king. There is reason to believe that Levi, like Jacques Coeur, an age later, fell a victim to the ignorance and cupidity of the master whom he had faithfully served.*

* Ayala, p. 322. According to the interpolator of the chronicle of the Despensero-Mayor, Simuel Levi, whose death he erroneously asserts took place in the year 1366, had been denounced to the king by several Jews, who were jealous of his immense wealth. Simuel Levi, on being put to the torture, died of indignation, 'de puro corage,' according to the anonymous author, whose words I transcribe, as to me they are unintelligible. There was found in a subterraneous cavern under his house, three piles of gold and silver, so high 'that a man standing behind them was not visible.' The king, on beholding this treasure, exclaimed: Had Don Simuel given me but a third of the least of these three piles, I would not have had him tortured. Why would he rather die than speak!' Sumario de los Reyes de España, p. 73. Credat Judæus Apella.

SINCE the victories of Don Alfonso, the kingdom of Granada had been tributary to Castile. One of those palace revolutions, so common in Mohammedan countries, had taken place in Granada, the king, Mohamed-Ben-Yussef, the creature of Don Alfonso, and afterwards of Don Pedro, having been driven from his throne by his brother Ismael. At the end of a few months Ismael was assassinated by his vizier, Abu Said, who immediately took the title of king.* Mohammedt who

* Ayala, p. 323. Conde, Hist. de los Arabes, part IV, c. xxiv. Marmol, Descripcion de la Afri., lib. 11, p. 214, and following. Marmol calls the dethroned king Abil Gualid, and the usurper, Mahamet.

+"Mohammed ben Yussef, ben Ismael ben Farag was twenty years of age when he succeeded his father. The different virtues which adorn the characters of other princes were all combined in him, humanity, probity, presence of mind and candour were imprinted on his countenance. Called to the throne in early youth, he laboured to supply the defect of experience by diligence and application. So compassionate was he, that he was frequently affected to tears by the misfortunes of those who

had always been faithful to Don Pedro, and as we have seen, had furnished him with some vessels in his

appealed to him, and so munificent and generous as to win the love of all who approached him. Luxury and flattery were banished from his alcazar, and in lieu of the idle adulation and pompous retinue, usually found in a court, he was content with a moderate number of servitors, such as became the magnificence of a king's house. His virtues caused him to be abhorred by vicious and evil-minded courtiers, but the chief nobles of his realm obeyed him cheerfully, and the people, refined by his manners, became themselves more gentle. He delighted in books and knightly exercises, such as tourneys and horse racing." Conde, Part IV. and XXIII.

His brother, Ismael Ben-Yussef, on the other hand, was of goodly stature, and so beautiful in countenance, that he might have been taken for one of the loveliest of women; his mind corresponded to his exterior, being effeminate, weak, and wholly given up to pleasure and luxury; thus he was utterly unfitted for the exercise of sovereign power, and the grave cares of empire. As he owed the crown to the infamous intrigues of Abu Said, his relative, and other ambitious schemers, he was absolutely governed by them, Abu Said especially treating him with the utmost con tempt, and as though he were a slave, without any respect for the royal dignity, which was for a time nominally his." Vide Conde, Part IV. cap. xxiv.

Next to Abu Said, Ismael appears to have owed his elevation principally to the intrigues of his mother, the sultana, who had taken advantage of the confusion resulting on the day that her lord, King Yussef, was assassinated, to secrete in the very palace which Mohammed's generosity assigned her as an abode, an immense store of jewels and gold, with which she intended ultimately to pave her son's way to the throne. Nor should Ismael's sister, the wife of Abu Said, be defrauded ofher just share in the unenviable notoriety of this revolution it being recorded that it was through her persuasions that Abu Said, who was himself a