Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/278

1.34 TROUBLES IN CASTILE AND ARAGON. I'AUT use the estates of the principal nobility; and after delineating in detail the perfidious policy which they were to pursue, he concluded with the assur- ance, " that, by the blessing of God and our Lady, and Monsieur St. Martin, he would be with them before the winter, in order to aid them in its execu- tion." ^^ Such was the miserable medley of hy- pocrisy and superstition, which characterized the politics of the European courts in this corrupt age, and which dimmed the lustre of names, most con- spicuous on the page of history. Illness of The occupation of Roussillon was followed by a Henry IV., of ^ -^ Castile. truce of six months between the belligerent parties. The regular course of the narrative has been some- what anticipated, in order to conclude that portion of it relating to the war with France, before again re- verting to the affairs of Castile, where Henry the Fourth, pining under an incurable malady, was gradually approaching the termination of his disas- trous reign. Hi. death. This cvcut, whlch, from the momentous conse- quences it involved, was contemplated with the deepest solicitude, not only by those who had an immediate and personal interest at stake, but by the whole nation, took place on the night of the 11th of December, 1474.^^ It was precipitated by the death of the grand master of St. James, on whom 27 See copies of the original let- chronicle : torn. x. pp. 289, 298. ters, as g-iven by M. Barante, ^8 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, in his History of the Dukes MS., cap. 10. — Carbajal, Anales, of Burgundy, in which the author MS., afio 74. — Castillo, Cr6nica, has so happily seized the tone and cap. 148. picturesque coloring of the ancient