That this public testimony of sympathy gratified him exceedingly, the smile that lighted up his face plainly showed. He placed his hand on his heart and again saluted the vast assembly. “No manner of death brings shame,” he said, “if supported with courage. Nor can the end of life be deemed premature when it has been passed at the head of the state with probity and wisdom. I wish the King of Castile a happy life, and his people the same prosperity I brought to them.” He then examined the block on which his head was to be laid, loosened the lace ruff about his throat, smoothed back his hair from his neck, and took a black ribbon from his vest, which he handed to the executioner to bind his hands. After praying very fervently before the crucifix, repeating the words of his confessor aloud, he stood up. “I am ready,” he said; “begin!” And with a movement full of grandeur, he knelt, rested his head on the block, and at one stroke it was severed from the body. [Illustration: Photo by J. Laurent, Madrid. QUEEN ISABELLA DICTATING HER WILL. From the painting by E. Rosales in the National Museum, Madrid.] This took place early in June in the year 1453; nor have Spanish historians ever decided whether his condemnation was justified or not. Few instances occur which present an elevation and a fall so extraordinary and sudden. But it must be remembered that few ministers had up to that time displayed such high gifts for government, joined to an arrogance and ostentation that were in themselves a crime. Twelve months after, 1454, Don Juan II. ended his long and feeble reign of forty-eight years. Politically, he was an odious king; the deed he had been brought to commit failed to tranquillise the kingdom and will ever be a blot upon his name. Even in death, she for whose sake he did it--his beloved Isabel, the mother of his son Alfonso and of his daughter Isabel--is beside him. Within the Carthusian Cartuja de Miraflores they lie, two miles from Burgos, on the plain, in one of the most magnificent alabaster monuments of the ornate Gothic style. The variety and richness of the carving are unique; there are nothing like it in florid Spain. The recumbent figures are in robes of state, guarded by sixteen sculptured lions. Doña Isabel wears a high open-worked gown under a coif. In front are the royal arms on an escutcheon elaborately worked, and wonderful niches at the sides are filled with subjects from the Bible. Death more superbly guarded is nowhere else to be seen than in this record of a weak but artistic king. CHAPTER XXII Enrique IV. el Impotente The court is at Segovia, that ancient city perched among the romantic passes of the Guadarramas, north of Madrid, said to have been founded by Hercules. The famous Roman bridge, or aqueduct, one of the wonders of Spain, and borne as the city’s shield, joining into the ancient walls at a length of 937 feet.