Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/296

152 ACCESSION OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. PART I. He challen- ges him to personal rombat. Disorderly retreat of the Caslil- iaus. opposition to the more cautious counsel of his father, who recommended the policy, usually judged most prudent for an invaded country, of acting on the defensive, instead of risking all on the chances of a single action. Ferdinand arrived before Toro on the 19th of July, and immediately drew up his army, before its walls, in order of battle. As the king of Portugal, however, still kept within his defences, Ferdinand sent a herald into his camp, to defy him to a fair field of fight with his whole army, or, if he declined this, to invite him to decide their differences by personal combat. Alfonso accepted the latter alter- native ; but, a dispute arising respecting the guar- anty for the performance of the engagements on either side, the whole affair evaporated, as usual, in an empty vaunt of chivalry. The Castilian army, from the haste with which it had been mustered, was wholly deficient in bat- tering artillery, and in other means for annoying a fortified city ; and, as its communications were cut off, in consequence of the neighbouring fortresses being in possession of the enemy, it soon became straitened for provisions. It was accordingly de- cided in a council of war to retreat without further delay. No sooner was this determination known, than it excited general dissatisfaction throughout the camp. The soldiers loudly complained that the king was betrayed by his nobles ; and a party of over-loyal Biscayans, inflamed by the suspicions of a conspiracy against his person, actually broke into the church where Ferdinand was conferring with