Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/265

DEATH OF HENRY IV. 121 Burgundy and Brittany. John, therefore, gladly chapter embraced the proposal ; and on a concerted day a '- simultaneous insurrection took place throughout the provinces, when such of the French, in the principal towns, as had not the good fortune to escape into the citadels, were indiscriminately massacred. Of all the country, Salces, Collioure, and the castle of Perpignan alone remained in the hands of the French. John then threw himself into the last- named city with a small body of forces, and in- stantly set about the construction of works to pro- tect the inhabitants against the fire of the French garrison in the castle, as well as from the army which might soon be expected to besiege them from without. ^^ Louis the Eleventh, deeply incensed at the de- fection of his new subjects, ordered the most for- midable preparations for the siege of their capital. John's officers, alarmed at these preparations, be- sought him not to expose his person at his advanced age to the perils of a siege and of captivity. But the lion-hearted monarch saw the necessity of animating the spirits of the besieged by his own presence ; and, assembling the inhabitants in one of the churches of the city, he exhorted them reso- lutely to stand to their defence, and made a solemn oath to abide the issue with them to the last. Louis, in the mean while, had convoked the han 13 Alonso de Palencia, Coronica, rante, Histoire des Dues de Bour- MS., cap. 56. — Mariana, Hist, de gogne, (Paris, 1825,) torn. ix. pp. Espaiia, torn. ii. p. 481. — Zurita, 101 - 106. A.nales, torn. iv. fol. 191. — Ba- VOL. I. 16