Then Pedro to his chamber went, his cheek was burning red, The bowman to Medina pass'd; when the Queen beheld him near, "Alas!" she said, " my maidens, he brings my death, I fear." Then said the archer, bending low, "The King's commandment take, And see thy soul be order'd well with God that did it make, "For lo! thine hour is come, therefrom no refuge may there be."Then gently spake the Lady Blanche, " My friend, I pardon thee; "Do what thou wilt, so be the King hath his commandment given, Deny me not confession-if so, forgive ye Heaven."— Much grieved the bowman for her tears, and for her beauty's sake, While thus Queen Blanche of Bourbon her last complaint did make ;— "Oh France! my noble country-oh blood of high Bourbon, Not eighteen years have I seen out before my life is gone. "The King hath never known me. A virgin true I die. Whate'er I've done, to proud Castille no treason e'er did I. "The crown they put upon my head was a crown of blood and sighs, God grant me soon another crown more precious in the skies." These words she spake, then down she knelt, and took the bowman's blowHer tender neck was cut in twain, and out her blood did flow. THE DEATH OF DON PEDRO. THE reader may remember, that when Don Pedro had, by his excessive cruelties, quite alienated from himself the hearts of the great majority of his people, Don Henry of Transtamara, his natural brother, who had spent many years in exile, returned suddenly into Spain with a formidable band of French auxiliaries, by whose aid he drove Pedro out of his kingdom. The voice of the nation was on Henry's side, and he took possession of the throne without further opposition. Pedro, after his treatment of Queen Blanche, could have nothing to hope from the crown of France, so he immediately threw himself into the arms of England. And our Edward, the Black Prince, who then commanded in Gascony, had more than one obvious reason for taking up his cause. The Prince of Wales marched with Don Pedro into Spain, at the head of an army of English and Gascon veterans, whose disciplined valour, Mariana very frankly confesses, gave them a decided superiority over the Spanish soldiery of the time. Henry was so unwise as to set his stake upon a battle, and was totally defeated in the field of Nejara. Unable to rally his flying troops, he was compelled to make his escape beyond the Pyrenees; and Don Pedro once more established himself in his kingdom.—The battle of Nejara took place in 1366. But, in 1368, when the Black Prince had retired again into Gascony, Henry, in his turn, came back from exile with a small but gallant army, most of whom M were French, commanded by the celebrated Bertram Du Gleaquin, or, as he is more commonly called, Du Guesclin-and animated, as was natural, by strong thirst of vengeance for the insults, which, in the person of Blanche, Pedro had heaped upon the royal line of their country, and the blood of Saint Lewis. Henry of Transtamara advanced into the heart of La Mancha, and there encountered Don Pedro, at the head of an army six times more numerous than that which he commanded, but composed in a great measure of Jews, Saracens, and Portuguese,-miscellaneous auxiliaries, who gave way before the ardour of the French chivalry, so that Henry remained victorious, and Pedro was compelled to take refuge in the neighbouring castle of Montiel. That fortress was so strictly blockaded by the successful enemy, that the king was compelled to attempt his escape by night, with only twelve persons in his retinue,-Ferdinand de Castro being the person of most note among them. As they wandered in the dark, they were encountered by a body of French cavalry making the rounds, commanded by an adventurous knight, called Le Begue de Villaines. Compelled to surrender, Don Pedro put himself under the safeguard of this officer, promising him a rich ransom if he would conceal him from the knowledge of his brother Henry. The knight, according to Froissart, promised him concealment, and conveyed him to his own quarters. But in the course of an hour, Henry was apprized that he was taken, and came with some of his followers, to the tent of Allan de la Houssaye, where his unfortunate brother had been placed. In entering the chamber, he exclaimed, "Where is that whore-son and Jew, who calls himself King of Castille?"— Pedro, as proud and fearless as he was cruel, stepped instantly forward and replied, "Here I stand, the lawful son and heir of Don Alphonso, and it is thou that art but a false bastard." The rival brethren instantly grappled like lions, the French knights and Du Guesclin himself looking on. Henry drew his poniard and wounded Pedro in the face, but his body was defended by a coat-ofmail;-a violent struggle ensued:-Henry fell across a bench, and his brother being uppermost, had well nigh mastered him, when one of Henry's followers seizing Don Pedro by the leg, turned him over, and his master, thus at length gaining the upper-hand, instantly stabbed the King to the heart. Froissart calls this man the Vicompte de Roquebetyn, and others the Bastard of Anisse. Menard, in his History of Du Guesclin, says, that while all around gazed like statues on the furious struggle of the brothers, Du Guesclin exclaimed to this attendant of Henry, "What! will you stand by and see your master placed at such a pass by a false renegade?-Make forward and aid him, for well you may." Pedro's head was cut off, and his remains were meanly buried. They were afterwards disinterred by his daughter, the wife of our own John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," and deposited in Seville, with the honours due to his rank. His memory was regarded with a strange mixture of horror and compassion, which recommended him as a subject for legend and for romance. He had caused his innocent wife to be assassinated-had murdered three of his brothers, and committed numberless cruelties upon his subjects. He had, which the age held equally scandalous, held a close intimacy with the Jews and Saracens, and had enriched him at the expence of the church. Yet, in spite of all these crimes, his undaunted bravery and energy of character, together with the strange circumstances of his death, excited milder feelings towards his memory. The following ballad, which describes the death of Don Pedro, was translated by a friend. It is quoted more than once by Cervantes in Don Quixote. THE DEATH OF DON PEDRO. I. HENRY and King Pedro clasping, Hold in straining arms each other; Tugging hard, and closely grasping, Brother proves his strength with brother. II. Harmless pastime, sport fraternal, Blends not thus their limbs in strife; Either aims, with rage infernal, Naked dagger, sharpen'd knife. III. Close Don Henry grapples Pedro, |
