Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/250

106 CASTILE UNDER HENRY IV. I. PART insurgent Catalans, headed by the victorious John of Anjou. Although so sorely pressed, his forces were on the eve of disbanding for want of the requisite funds to maintain them. His exhausted treasury did not contain more than three hundred enriqiies.^'^ In this exigency he was agitated by the most distressing doubts. As he could spare neither the funds nor the force necessary for cover- ing his son's entrance into Castile, he must either send him unprotected into a hostile country, already aware of his intended enterprise and in arms to defeat it, or abandon the long-cherished object of his policy, at the moment when his plans were ripe for execution. Unable to extricate himself from this dilemma, he referred the whole matter to Fer- dinand and his council. ^^ fmerrcL ^^ ^^^ ^^ Icugth determined, that the prince should undertake the journey, accompanied by half a dozen attendants only, in the disguise of mer- chants, by the direct route from Saragossa ; while another party, in order to divert the attention of the Castilians, should proceed in a different direc- tion, with all the ostentation of a public embassy from the king of Aragon to Henry the Fourth. The distance was not great, which Ferdinand and his suite were to travel before reaching a place of safety ; but this intervening country was patrolled by squadrons of cavalry for the purpose of inter- cepting their progress ; and the whole extent of 57 Zurita, Anales, lib. 18, cap. 2G. 58 Zurita, Anales, lib. 18, cap. 26. — Tho ciirii/uc was a pold coin, so — Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, torn. denominated Irom Henry II. ii. p. 273. eiiiers Cas tilCc