The other work of the same period to which we have referred gives us, also, a striking view of the spirit of the times; one less picturesque, indeed, but not less instructive. It is called “El Seguro de Tordesillas,” the Pledge or the Truce of Tordesillas, and relates to a series of conferences held in 1439, between John the Second and a body of his nobles, headed by his own son, who, in a seditious and violent manner, interfered in the affairs of the kingdom, in order to break down the influence of the Constable de Luna.[299] It receives its peculiar name from the revolting circumstance, that, even in the days of the Passo Honroso, and with some of the knights who figured in that gorgeous show for the parties, true honor was yet sunk so low in Spain, that none could be found on either side of this great quarrel,--not even the King or the Prince,--whose word would be taken as a pledge for the mere personal safety of those who should be engaged in the discussions at Tordesillas. It was necessary, therefore, to find some one not strictly belonging to either party, who, invested with higher powers and even with supreme military control, should become the depositary of the general faith, and, exercising an authority limited only by his own sense of honor, be obeyed alike by the exasperated sovereign and his rebellious subjects.[300] [299] The “Seguro de Tordesillas” was first printed at Milan, 1611; but the only other edition, that of Madrid, 1784, (4to,) is much better. [300] “Nos desnaturamos,” “We falsify our natures,” is the striking old Castilian phrase used by the principal personages on this occasion, and, among the rest, by the Constable Alvaro de Luna, to signify that they are not, for the time being, bound to obey even the king. Seguro, Cap. 3.