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
When the master came to the place where the king was, none was allowed
to enter save only the master Don Fadrique, and the master of Calatrava,
Don Diego Garcia (who that day accompanied Don Fadrique, the master of
Santiago, and knew nothing of all this), and two other knights. The king
was in a hall called “del Fierro” with the door closed. And when the
masters of Santiago and Calatrava came to the door of the hall where the
king was, it was not opened to them, and they stood at the door. And
Pedro Lopez de Padilla, the king’s ballestero mayor, was outside with the
masters, and thereupon a wicket opened in the hall where the king was,
and the king said to Pedro Lopez de Padilla:
“Pedro Lopez, seize the master;” and he replied, “Which of them?” and the
king said, “The master of Santiago.” Then Pedro Lopez de Padilla laid
hold of the master Don Fadrique, and said, “I arrest you,” and the master
stood silent full of dread, and the king said to some ballesteros who
stood by, “Ballesteros, kill the master of Santiago.”
But even so the ballesteros durst not do it. Then one of the king’s
bedchamber, a man named Rui Gonzalez de Atienza who was in the secret,
cried aloud to the ballesteros:
“Traitors! what are you about? Did you not hear the king command you to
kill the master?”
Then the ballesteros, seeing that it was indeed the king’s order, raised
their maces to strike the master Don Fadrique. When the master of
Santiago saw this, he disengaged himself from the grasp of Pedro Lopez
de Padilla, and jumped into the courtyard. He seized his sword but could
not draw it, for it was slung round his neck under the tabard which he
wore, and when he would have drawn it the hilt caught in the strap and
he could not get it free. The ballesteros pursued him to wound him with
their maces but they could not succeed, for he eluded them and fled from
side to side, in the courtyard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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