So a parchment deed was drawn up between the King and the Infant, in
which Dom Pedro undertook to pardon all who had been engaged in the
murder of Ines, and Alfonso promised to forgive those who had taken his
son's side, and borne arms against himself. And for his part Dom Pedro
vowed to perform the duties of a faithful vassal, and to banish from his
presence all turbulent and restless spirits. So peace was made.
Two years had hardly passed after this event before King Alfonso lay on
his death-bed in Lisbon, and then, thinking over what would happen when
he was dead, the feeling gradually came over him that in spite of Dom
Pedro's solemn oath the murderers of Ines would not be safe from his
revenge. Therefore he sent for the three knights, Diogo Lopez Pacheco,
Alvaro Goncalves, and Pedro Coelho, who had counselled him to do the
dreadful deed and had themselves struck the blow, and bade them leave
their property and all they had, and fly while there was yet time to
foreign lands for refuge. The knights saw the wisdom of the advice, and
sought shelter in Castile. Then Alfonso prepared himself to die, the
murder of Ines lying heavy on his soul in his last days (1357).
King Pedro was thirty-seven years old when he ascended the throne, and
his first care was to secure peace to his kingdom. To this end he sent
several embassies to the King of Castile, who made a compact with
Alfonso 'to be the friend of his friends, and the enemy of his enemies.'
The results of this treaty may be easily guessed at. The King of
Portugal engaged to send back to Castile all who had fled to his
dominions from the tyranny of Pedro the Cruel, the ally of the Black
Prince, and was to receive in return the murderers of Ines, two of whom
he put to a horrible death. The third, Pacheco, was more fortunate. A
beggar to whom he had been accustomed to give alms discovered his
danger, and hastened to warn the knight, who was away from the city on a
hunting expedition. By his advice Pacheco changed clothes with the
beggar, and made his way through Aragon to the borders of France, where
he took refuge with Henry of Trastamara, half-brother of the King of
Castile. Here he remained, a poor knight without friends or property,
till the year 1367, when on his death-bed the King of Portugal suddenly
remembered that when dying the other two knights had sworn that Pacheco
was guiltless of the murder of Ines, and ordered his son to recall him
from exile and to restore all his possessions. Which Dom Fernando
joyfully did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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