This proud distinction was given to Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, commonly called the Good or Faithful Count Haro; and the “Seguro de Tordesillas,” prepared by him some time afterwards, shows how honorably he executed the extraordinary trust. Few historical works can challenge such absolute authenticity. The documents of the case, constituting the chief part of it, are spread out before the reader; and what does not rest on their foundation rests on that word of the Good Count to which the lives of whatever was most distinguished in the kingdom had just been fearlessly trusted. As might be expected, its characteristics are simplicity and plainness, not elegance or eloquence. It is, in fact, a collection of documents, but it is an interesting and a melancholy record. The compact that was made led to no permanent good. The Count soon withdrew, ill at ease, to his own estates; and in less than two years his unhappy and weak master was assailed anew, and besieged in Medina del Campo, by his rebellious family and their adherents.[301] After this, we hear little of Count Haro, except that he continued to assist the king from time to time, in his increasing troubles, until, worn out with fatigue of body and mind, he retired from the world, and passed the last ten years of his life in a monastery, which he had himself founded, and where he died at the age of threescore and ten.[302] [301] See Crónica de Juan el IIº, 1440-41 and 1444, Cap. 3. Well might Manrique, in his beautiful Coplas on the instability of fortune break forth,-- Que se hizo el Rey Don Juan? Los Infantes de Aragon, Que se hizieron? Que fue de tanto galan, Que fue de tanta invencion, Como truxeron? Luis de Aranda’s commentary on this passage is good, and well illustrates the old Chronicle;--a rare circumstance in such commentaries on Spanish poetry. [302] Pulgar (Claros Varones de Castilla, Madrid, 1775, 4to, Título 3) gives a beautiful character of him. * * * * * _Chronicles of Particular Persons._--But while remarkable _events_, like the Passage of Arms at Orbigo and the Pledge of Tordesillas, were thus appropriately recorded, the remarkable _men_ of the time could hardly fail occasionally to find fit chroniclers.