The prediction was verified. Henry no sooner learned the death of the Black Prince than he hastened to concert new measures with Du Guesclin. Once more did the knight muster his tramps. They burst into Castile this time without visiting the pope and getting his blessing: perhaps the former benediction was still of force, though they had doubtless spent the money. Pedro was besieged in one of his towns and taken prisoner. He was brought into the presence of Henry. The two brothers had not met in fifteen years. They drew their swords and flew at each other with desperate fury, and Pedro fell by the hand of Henry. Henry of Trastamara once more mounted the throne of Castile, and this time he transmitted it to his descendants. Through a succession of Henrys and Johns and Isabellas and Joannas which I spare you, the crown of Castile fell to Isabella wife of Ferdinand of Aragon. Their grandson was the great emperor Charles V. From him is descended the present House of Spain and also the House of Bourbon. But I have intimated that the queen of England is descended from the cruel Pedro. Isabella daughter of Peter and Maria de Padilla, married Edmund duke of York fifth son of Edward III. Their son Richard earl of Cambridge married _Anne Mortimer_ a marriage which tied a knot in English pedigree that it took thirty years of civil war to untie, or rather to cut with the sword. And who was Anne Mortimer to set all England together by the ears? In the several lulls in that civil war, when a Lancastrian and a Yorkist met by chance and talked politics, the former would say: John of Gaunt was the fourth son of Edward III. while your Edmund of York was the fifth, and thus Lancaster takes precedence. Softly my good Sir, replies the Yorkist: Richard of Cambridge married Anne Mortimer. The Lancastrian responds with the hyperbole that it is not worth while to go back to king Arthur. They touch their hats and bid each other good morning, or what is quite as likely, draw their swords and fight. But who was Anne Mortimer that no honest Lancastrian could hear her name with patience? In Shakspeare’s Henry IV. when the Percies revolt against Henry of Lancaster, Hotspur says he will find the king asleep and holla _Mortimer_ in his ear; he will have a starling taught to say nothing but Mortimer and give it to the king. What was there in the name of Mortimer to startle so rough a soldier as Henry IV.?