Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/315

WAR OF THE SUCCESSION. 1 7 I district converted at once into a desert. Isabella, chapter V. supported by a body of regular troops and a detach- '- — ment of the Holy Brotherhood, took her station at Truxillo, as a central position, whence she might operate on the various points with greatest facility. Her counsellors remonstrated against this exposure of her person in the very heart of the disaflected country ; but she replied that " it was not for her to calculate perils or fatigues in her own cause, nor by an unseasonable timidity to dishearten her friends, with whom she was now resolved to remain until she had brought the war to a conclusion." She then gave immediate orders for laying siege at the same time to the fortified towns of Medellin, Merida, and Deleytosa. At this juncture the infanta Dona Beatriz of Treat) of ^ peace with Portugal, sister-in-law of king Alfonso, and mater- ^"■^'"s'^' nal aunt of Isabella, touched with grief at the calamities, in which she saw her country involved by the chimerical ambition of her brother, offered herself as the mediator of peace between the bel- ligerent nations. Agreeably to her proposal, an in- terview took place between her and queen Isabella at the frontier town of Alcantara. As the conferen- ces of the fair negotiators experienced none of the embarrassments usually incident to such delibera- tions, growing out of jealousy, distrust, and a mutual design to overreach, but were conducted in perfect good faith, and a sincere desire, on both sides, of establishing a cordial reconciliation, they resulted, after eight days' discussion, in a treaty of peace, with which the Portuguese infanta returned into