[279] From the phraseology of Carvajal, (p. 20,) we may infer that Fernan Perez de Guzman is chiefly responsible for the style and general character of the Chronicle. “Cogió de cada uno lo que le pareció mas probable, y abrevió algunas cosas, tomando la sustancia dellas; porque así creyó que convenia.” He adds, that this Chronicle was much valued by Isabella, who was the daughter of John II. [280] Anno 1451, Cap. 2, and Anno 1453, Cap. 2. See, also, some remarks on the author of this Chronicle by the editor of the “Crónica de Alvaro de Luna,” (Madrid, 1784, 4to,) Prólogo, pp. xxv.-xxviii. [281] For example, 1406, Cap. 6, etc.; 1430, Cap. 2; 1441, Cap. 30; 1453, Cap. 3. [282] “Es sin duda la mas puntual i la mas segura de quantas se conservan antiguas.” Mondejar, Noticia y Juicio de los mas Principales Historiadores de España, Madrid, 1746, fol., p. 112. In its general air, there is a good deal to mark the manners of the age, such as accounts of the court ceremonies, festivals, and tournaments that were so much loved by John; and its style, though, on the whole, unornamented and unpretending, is not wanting in variety, spirit, and solemnity. Once, on occasion of the fall and ignominious death of the Great Constable Alvaro de Luna, whose commanding spirit had, for many years, impressed itself on the affairs of the kingdom, the honest chronicler, though little favorable to that haughty minister, seems unable to repress his feelings, and, recollecting the treatise on the “Fall of Princes,” which Ayala had made known in Spain, breaks out, saying: “O John Boccaccio, if thou wert now alive, thy pen surely would not fail to record the fall of this strenuous and bold gentleman among those of the mighty princes whose fate thou hast set forth. For what greater example could there be to every estate? what greater warning? what greater teaching to show the revolutions and movements of deceitful and changing fortune? O blindness of the whole race of man! O unexpected fall in the affairs of this our world!” And so on through a chapter of some length.[283] But this is the only instance of such an outbreak in the Chronicle. On the contrary, its general tone shows, that historical composition in Spain was about to undergo a permanent change; for, at its very outset, we have regular speeches attributed to the principal personages it records,[284] such as had been introduced by Ayala; and, through the whole, a well-ordered and documentary record of affairs, tinged, no doubt, with some of the prejudices and passions of the troublesome times to which it relates, but still claiming to have the exactness of regular annals, and striving to reach the grave and dignified style suited to the higher purposes of history.[285] [283] Anno 1453, Cap. 4. [284] Anno 1406, Capp. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 15; Anno 1407, Capp. 6, 7, 8, etc.