Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/185

MINORITY OF FERDINAND. 4] deputies of the Aragonese cortes assembled there, chapter had barely time to make their escape on the road 1 to Saragossa, while the insurgents poured into the city from the opposite quarter. The person of Carlos, in the mean time, was secured in the inac- cessible fortress of Morella, situated in a mountain- ous district on the confines of Valencia. John, on halting at Saragossa, endeavoured to assemble an Aragonese force capable of resisting the Catalan rebels. But the flame of insurrection had spread throughout Aragon, Valencia, and Navarre, and was speedily communicated to his transmarine posses- sions of Sardinia and Sicily. The king of Castile supported Carlos at the same time by an irruption into Navarre, and his partisans, the Beaumonts, co- operated with these movements by a descent on _ Aragon. ^^ John, alarmed at the tempest which his precipi- ca.ias r». ' '■ r r leased. tate conduct had roused, at length saw the neces- sity of releasing his prisoner ; and, as the queen had incurred general odium as the chief instigator of his persecution, he affected to do this in conse- quence of her interposition. As Carlos with his mother-in-law traversed the country on their way to Barcelona, he was everywhere greeted, by the inhabitants of the villages thronging out to meet him, with the most touching enthusiasm. The queen, however, having been informed by the magistrates that her presence would not be permit- ted in the capital, deemed it prudent to remain at 23 Zurita, Anales, lib. 17, cap. 6. — L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 111. VOL. 1. 6