Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/335

ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. 191 which they had usurped both from the municipality chapter and the crown. ^ '■ — One example among others may be mentioned, g^gPutimlof of the rectitude and severe impartiality, with which ^"^ *"' Isabella administered justice, that occurred in the case of a wealthy Galician knight, named Alvaro Yanez de Lugo. This person, being convicted of a capital offence, attended with the most aggra- vating circumstances, sought to obtain a commuta- tion of his punishment, by the payment of forty thousand doblas of gold to the queen, a sum ex- ceeding at that time the annual rents of the crown. Some of Isabella's counsellors would have per- suaded her to accept the donative, and appropriate it to the pious purposes of the Moorish war. But, far from being blinded by their sophistry, she suf- fered the law to take its course, and, in order to place her conduct above every suspicion of a mer- cenary motive, allowed his estates, which might legally have been confiscated to the crown, to de- scend to his natural heirs. Nothing contributed more to reestablish the supremacy of law in this reign, than the certainty of its execution, without respect to wealth or rank ; for the insubordination, prevalent throughout Castile, was chiefly imputable to persons of this description, who, if they failed to defeat justice by force, were sure of doing so by the corruption of its ministers.^ 8 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, Pulgar, " a facer justicia, tanto MS., cap. 30. — Pulgar, Reyes que le era imputado seguir mas la Catolicos, part. 2, cap. 78. ' via de rigor que de la piedad ; y 9 " Era muy inclinada," says esto facia por remediar a la graa