Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/301

WAR OF THE SUCCESSION. 157 ancient allegiance ; and, with the cooperation of chapter the citizens, supported by a large detachment from . his main army, he prepared to invest its citadel. As the possession of this post would effectually in- tercept Alfonso's communications with his own country, he determined to relieve it at every haz- ard, and for this purpose despatched a messenger into Portugal requiring his son, Prince John, to reinforce him with such levies as he could speedily raise. All parties now looked forward with eager- ness to a general battle, as to a termination of the evils of this long-protracted war. The Portuguese prince, having with difficulty as- sembled a corps amounting to two thousand lances and eight thousand infantry, took a northerly cir- cuit round Galicia, and effected a junction with his father in Toro, on the 14th of February, 1476. 1476. Alfonso, thus reinforced, transmitted a pompous circular to the pope, the king of France, his own dominions, and those well affected to him in Cas- tile, proclaiming his immediate intention of taking the usurper, or of driving him from the kingdom. On the night of the. 17th, having first provided for the security of the city by leaving in it a powerful reserve, Alfonso drew off the residue of his army, probably not much exceeding three thousand five hundred horse and five thousand foot, well provided with artillery and with arquebuses, which latter engine was still of so clumsy and unwieldy con- struction, as not to have entirely superseded the ancient weapons of European warfare. The Por- Kingof por. ^ •"■ tiigal ariive.i tuguese army, traversing the bridge of Toro, pur before Z;i- mora.