Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/233

MARRIAGE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 89 gration. The ancient family feuds, as those be- chapter III. tween the great houses of Guzman and Ponce de '- — Leon in Andalusia, being revived, carried new division into the cities, whose streets literally ran with blood. ^^ In the country, the nobles and gentry, issuing from their castles, captured the de- fenceless traveller, who was obliged to redeem his liberty, by the payment of a heavier ransom than was exacted even by the Mahometans. All com- munication on the high roads was suspended, and no man, says a contemporary, dared move abroad beyond the walls of his city, unless attended by an armed escort. The organization of one of those popular confederacies, known under the name of Hermandad, in 1465, which continued in operation during the remainder of this gloomy period, brought some mitigation to these evils, by the fearlessness, with which it exercised its functions, even against offenders of the highest rank, some of whose castles were razed to the ground by its orders. But this relief was only partial ; and the success- ful opposition, which the Hermandad sometimes encountered on these occasions, served to aggravate the horrors of the scene. Meanwhile, fearful omens, the usual accompaniments of such troubled times, were witnessed ; the heated imagination 31 Zunig-a, Anales de Sevilla, " Mezquina Sevilla en la sangre banada ^„ OC1 OKO r'.,_*„ ^„l T „ i„ de los tus fijos, i tus cavalleros, pp. 351, 352^— Carta del LevanU- ^^^ f^j„ enemigo te tiene minguada," &c miento de ioledo, apud Castillo, rpiu i j -.u „ „ ™ ri . • 1 nn fTM, v, • . ■ I he poem concludes with a sum- Cronica, p. 109. — ine historian / ., «• *i „ „„i,„ ^e i? o 11 u .J • ^ J mons to throw on the yoke or of beville has quoted an animated , • . •' apostrophe addressed to the citi- P" ■7pn<s hu nnp cf thpir niimhpr in " Despierta Sevilla e sacude el imperio, zens Dy one or meir numoer m que faze a tus nobles tanto vituperio." this season or discord : See Anales, p. SS9. VOL. I. 12