King Juan threw himself unreservedly into the arms of his merry Minerva-Venus Queen: no doubt she “plucked” him thoroughly! A “Court of Love” was established at Zaragoza. All day long they danced, and all night through they sang, and at all times played their floral games, whilst dour señors scowled and proud dueñas grimaced. The revels of the “_Gaya Ciencia_” shocked their susceptibilities, until a crisis was reached in 1340, when the King sent embassies to all the French Courts to enlist the services of their best troubadours. A solemn session of the Cortes, wherein resided the actual power of the State,--the King was King only by their pleasure,--was called, “_Podemos mas que vos_”--“We are quite as good as you, or even better”--that was the moving spirit of Aragon. A resolution was passed demanding the suppression of “the feast of folly,” as the gay doings at Court were called, and the immediate expulsion of the foreign minstrels and their hilarious company. Here was a fix for the easy-going King,--dubbed by many “_l’Indolente_,” the Indolent,--between the devil and the deep sea. The Queen point-blank refused to say good-bye to her _devotés_, and her wiles prevailed to retain many a merry lover at her Court, for the stoutest will of man yields to the witchery of beauty in every rank of life! If Queen Yolanda was a “gay woman,” as historians have called her,--and no class of men are anything like so mendacious,--she was not the “fast” woman some of them have maliciously styled her. No, she was a loving spouse and a devoted mother. Perhaps, could she have chosen, she would have brought forth a boy; but, still, every mother loves her child regardless of sex or other considerations. She addressed herself zealously to the rearing of the little princess. No sour-visaged _hidalgo_ and no censorious citizen was allowed the entrée to the nursery. Minstrels rejoiced at the nativity, and minstrels shared the rocking of the cradle. She was baptized at the old mosque-like cathedral of Sa Zeo, or San Salvador,--where the Kings her forbears were all anointed and crowned,--with the courtly ceremonial of Holy Church, whilst outside the people sang their well-loved ditties. Quite the favourite was “_Nocte Buena_”-- “La Vergin se fui’ in lavar Sui manos blancas al rio; El Sol sequedó parado, La Mar perdio su ruido,” etc. “To the rivulet the Virgin sped, Her fair white hands to wash; The wandering Sun stood still o’erhead, The Sea cast up no splash,” etc. and many, many other verses. Zaragoza was famous for the splendour of her mystery plays, as many quaint entries in the archives of the archdiocese prove: “Seven _sueldos_ for making up the heads of the ass and the ox for the stable at Bethlehem; six _sueldos_ for wigs for the prophets; ten _sueldos_ for gloves for the angels.”