IV. Loud, loud he blew his bugle, sore troubled was his eye, V. A gnarled branch he soon did wrench down from that olive strong, What leech shall cure, what priest shall shrive, if once that weight ye VI. But when Don Alvar saw him thus bruising down the foe, MACHUCA. feel? THE MURDER OF THE MASTER OF SAINT IAGO. THE next four ballads relate to the history of DON PEDRO, King of Castille, called THE CRUEL. An ingenious person not long ago published a work, the avowed purpose of which was to prove that Tiberius was a humane and contemplative prince, who retired to the Island of Capres only that he might the better indulge in the harmless luxury of philosophic meditation :—and, in like manner, Pedro The Cruel has found, in these latter times, his defenders and apologists; above all, Voltaire. There may be found, without doubt, in the circumstances which attended his accession, something to palliate the atrocity of several of his bloody acts. His father had treated his mother with contempt: He had not only entertained, as his mistress, in her lifetime, a lady of the powerful family of Guzman, but actually proclaimed that lady his queen, and brought up her sons as princes in his palace; nay, he had even betrayed some intentions of violating, in their favour, the order of succession, and the rights of Pedro. And, accordingly, no sooner was Alphonso dead, and Pedro acknowleged by the nobility, than Donna Leonora de Guzman, and her sons, whether from consciousness of guilt, or from fear of violence, or from both of these causes, betook themselves to various places of strength, where they endeavoured to defend themselves against the authority of the new King. After a little time, matters were so far accommodated by the interference of friends, and Donna Leonora took up her residence at Seville; but Pedro was suddenly, while in that city, seized with a distemper which his physicians said must, in all probability, have a mortal termination; and during his confinement, (which lasted for several weeks) many intrigues were set a-foot, and the pretensions of various candidates for the throne openly canvassed among the nobility of Castille. Whether the King had, on his recovery, discovered any thing indicative of treasonous intentions in the recent conduct of Leonora and her family, (which, all things considered, seems not improbable,) or whether he merely suffered himself, as was said at the time, to be over-persuaded by the vindictive arguments of his own mother, the queen-dowager, the fact is certain, that in the course of a few days, Donna Leonora was arrested, and put to death by Pedro's command, in the Castle of Talaveyra. Don Fadrique, (or Frederick,) one of her sons, who had obtained the dignity of Master of the order of St Iago, fled upon this into Portugal, and fortified himself in the city of Coimbra; while another of them, Don Enrique, or Henry, Lord of Transtamara, took refuge at the Court of Arragon, openly renouncing his allegiance to the crown of Castille, and professing himself henceforth, in all things, the subject and vassal of the prince who gave him protection. Henry of Transtamara was, from this time, the declared and active enemy of his brother; and in consequence of his influence, and that of his mother's kindred, but most of all, in consequence of Don Pedro's own atrocious proceedings, Castille itself was filled with continual tumults and insurrections. Don Fadrique, however, made his peace with Pedro. After a lapse of many months, he was invited to come to the court at Seville, and take his share in the amusements of an approaching tournament. He accepted the invitation, but was received with terrible coldness, and immediately executed within the palace. The friends of Pedro asserted that the King had that very day detected Don Fadrique in a correspondence with his brother, Henry of Transtamara, and the Arragoneze; while popular belief attributed the slaughter of The Master to the unhappy influence which the too celebrated Maria de Padilla had long ere this begun to exercise over Pedro's mind. Maria was often, in consequence of her close intimacy with Jews, called by the name of their hated race; but she was in reality not only of Christian, but of noble descent in Spain. However that might be, Pedro found her in the family of his minister, Albuquerque, where she had been brought up, loved her with all the violence of his temper, and made her his wife in all things but the name. Although political motives induced him, not long afterwards, to contract an alliance with a princess of the French blood royal,-the unfortunate Blanche of Bourbon,―he lived with his young queen but a few days, and then deserted her for ever, for the sake of this beautiful, jealous, and imperious mistress. The reader will observe, that there is a strange peculiarity in the structure of the ballad which narrates the Murder of the Master of Saint Iago. The unfortunate Fadrique is introduced in the beginning of it as telling his own story, and so he carries it on, in the first person, until the order for his execution is pronounced by Pedro. The sequel is given as if by another voice. I can suppose this singularity to have had a musical origin. The Master was slain in the year 1358. THE MURDER OF THE MASTER OF SAINT IAGO. I. "I SAT alone in Coimbra-the town myself had ta'en,— II. "Come, brother dear, the day draws near," ('twas thus bespoke the King), "For plenar court and knightly sport, within the listed ring." Alas! unhappy Master, I easy credence lent; Alas! for fast and faster I at his bidding went. III. "When I set off from Coimbra, and pass'd the bound of Spain, I had a goodly company of spearmen in my train; A gallant force, a score of horse, and sturdy mules thirteen ; With joyful heart I held my course-my years were young and green. |
