During the next few years Pedro waged a desultory war against the king of Aragon, both by sea and land; but the result was decisive to neither of the belligerents. In this war many of the disaffected barons fought in the ranks of the latter--a policy for the condemnation of which no words are sufficiently strong, and which greatly detracts from the commiseration that must be felt at the fate of some who afterwards fell into his hands. It cannot be denied that the Castilian king had many provocations to vengeance: his nobles rebelled for the slightest causes--often without any cause at all; nor is he known to have put to death any of his subjects, whom he did not conceive, at one time or other, either openly or secretly to have aimed at subverting his authority. But the barbarity of his executions; the duplicity with which he planned the destruction of such as submitted under the assurance of pardon; his perfidious disregard of promises, or even oaths, when the openly pardoned objects of his hatred were fully in his power--not even excepting his nearest connections--stamp him at once as a ruthless barbarian, and a bloody tyrant. The execution of his brother Fadrique, grand-master of Santiago, in 1358, is, perhaps, more characteristic of him than any other of his actions. On some suspicion--whether founded or not in justice must remain unknown--that the grand-master maintained an understanding with the king of Aragon, Fadrique was recalled from the Valencian frontier to Seville, where Pedro then was. He found the king apparently in the best of humours, and his reception was very friendly.[b] The account of the horrible and cold-blooded deed which followed may be quoted from the contemporary Ayala. AYALA’S ACCOUNT OF THE MURDER OF FADRIQUE [Sidenote: [1358 A.D.]] The king Don Pedro being in Seville in his Alcazar, on Tuesday the 29th day of May of this year, there came thither Don Fadrique his brother, master of Santiago, who had just recovered the town and fortress of Jumilla which is in the kingdom of Murcia. In the truce of a year established by the cardinal Don Guillen between Castile and Aragon, this town was claimed for Aragon by a nobleman called Don Pero Maza, who said it belonged thereto and not to the dominion of the king of Castile, and that it was not included in the truce. But in this war that town was first for Castile, and as soon as the master Don Fadrique heard of it, he went thither and besieged and recovered it, to do the king service. For the master Don Fadrique was eager to serve the king and do him pleasure. And when the master had recovered the said town and castle of Jumilla, he went to the king, from whom letters came every day requesting his presence.