Pero Niño, Count de Buelna, who flourished between 1379 and 1453, is the first of them. He was a distinguished naval and military commander in the reigns of Henry the Third and John the Second; and his Chronicle is the work of Gutierre Diez de Gamez, who was attached to his person from the time Pero Niño was twenty-three years old, and boasted the distinction of being his standard-bearer in many a rash and bloody fight. A more faithful chronicler, or one more imbued with knightly qualities, can hardly be found. He may be well compared to the “Loyal Serviteur,” the biographer of the Chevalier Bayard; and, like him, not only enjoyed the confidence of his master, but shared his spirit.[303] His accounts of the education of Pero Niño, and of the counsels given him by his tutor;[304] of Pero’s marriage to his first wife, the lady Constance de Guebara;[305] of his cruises against the corsairs and Bey of Tunis;[306] of the part he took in the war against England, after the death of Richard the Second, when he commanded an expedition that made a descent on Cornwall, and, according to his chronicler, burnt the town of Poole and took Jersey and Guernsey;[307] and finally, of his share in the common war against Granada, which happened in the latter part of his life and under the leading of the Constable Alvaro de Luna,[308] are all interesting and curious, and told with simplicity and spirit. But the most characteristic and amusing passages of the Chronicle are, perhaps, those that relate, one to Pero Niño’s gallant visit at Girfontaine, near Rouen, the residence of the old Admiral of France, and his gay young wife,[309] and another to the course of his true love for Beatrice, daughter of the Infante Don John, the lady who, after much opposition and many romantic dangers, became his second wife.[310] Unfortunately, we know nothing about the author of all this entertaining history except what he modestly tells us in the work itself; but we cannot doubt that he was as loyal in his life as he claims to be in his true-hearted account of his master’s adventures and achievements. [303] The “Crónica de Don Pero Niño” was cited early and often, as containing important materials for the history of the reign of Henry III., but was not printed until it was edited by Don Eugenio de Llaguno Amirola (Madrid, 1782, 4to); who, however, has omitted a good deal of what he calls “fábulas caballerescas.” Instances of such omissions occur in Parte I. c. 15, Parte II. c. 18, 40, etc., and I cannot but think Don Eugenio would have done better to print the whole; especially the whole of what he says he found in the part which he calls “La Crónica de los Reyes de Inglaterra.” [304] See Parte I. c. 4. [305] Parte I. c. 14, 15. [306] Parte II. c. 1-14. [307] Parte II. c. 16-40. [308] Parte III. c. 11, etc. [309] Parte II. c. 31, 36.