The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10 : $b Spain and Portugal
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10 : $b Spain and Portugal
World history
The master arrived in Seville on the said Tuesday in the morning, at the
hour of tierce, and coming immediately to pay his duty to the king, he
found him playing draughts in the Alcazar. And as soon as he came in the
master kissed his hand, and the many knights who came with him likewise.
The king received him with a show of good-will, asking him from whence
he came that day, and if he had good lodgings. The master replied that
he had set out that day from Cantillana, which is five leagues from
Seville, and for his lodgings he knew not of them yet, but was full sure
they would be good. The king bade him go and look to his lodging and then
return to him; and the king said this because many companies had come
into the Alcazar with the master.
Then the master left the king and went to see Doña Maria de Padilla and
the king’s daughters, who were in another part of the Alcazar called the
Caracol. Doña Maria de Padilla knew all that was planned against the
master and at the sight of him she assumed a countenance so mournful
that all might read it; for this lady had a very good heart, and sound
judgment, and liked not the deeds of the king, and the death decreed
against the master lay heavy on her.
After the master had visited Doña Maria and his nieces the king’s
daughters, he went down to the courtyard of the Alcazar, where he had
left his mules, intending to seek his lodgings and bestow his companies.
But when he reached the courtyard of the Alcazar he found that his beasts
were gone, for the king’s porters had given orders for everyone to leave
the courtyard, and they turned out all the beasts and closed the gates;
for so they had been commanded, that there might not be many there. When
the master could not find his mules he was at a loss whether he should
return to the king or what he should do; and one of his knights, whose
name was Suer Gutierrez de Navales, an Austrian, perceived that some
mischief was afoot, for he saw a stir in the Alcazar, and he said to the
master, “My lord, the postern of the courtyard stands open; go out and
you shall not lack mules.” This he repeated many times, for he thought
that if the master got outside the Alcazar he might perchance escape, and
there they must needs slay many of his followers ere they could take him.
In the meanwhile there came to the master two knights who were brothers,
and their names were Ferrand Sanchez de Tovar, and Juan Ferrandez de
Tovar, and they knew nothing of this business. By the king’s orders they
said to the master, “My lord, the king calls for you”; and the master
turned back to go to the king, in dread, for he now suspected evil. As he
passed the doors of the palace and of the different apartments the number
of his followers grew less and less, for those who guarded the doors had
ordered the porters not to let them pass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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