Henry, and defeated Pedro in a great battle near Toledo, notwithstanding
the help afforded the Spanish King by the Moors. The fortunes of Pedro now
rapidly declined, the Black Prince not caring to aid him again, because he
had not kept the promises he made before the battle of Najara.
After a battle fought near Montiel,[11] in the south of Spain, Pedro took
refuge in the Castle of Montiel, in which there was only one way of going
in or coming out, and before this entrance Le Begue de Vilaines, who was
fighting for Henry, stationed himself with his pennon. In this extremity it
was arranged that Pedro should make his escape from the castle at midnight
with twelve of his companions. It was a dark misty night, and when Pedro
crept out of the castle, Le Begue, who stood waiting for him with three
hundred men, could not see him, but fancied he heard the sound of
footsteps.
"Who art thou?" he cried, "Speak, or thou art a dead man." The first one
addressed escaped in the darkness. The next who came, Le Begue believed to
be the king, and asked him who he was with the dagger held close to his
breast. Then Pedro, seeing he had no chance of escape, cried "Begue, Begue,
I am the King, Don Pedro, of Castille;" and surrendering himself to him he
implored him to take him to some place where he should be beyond the reach
of his half-brother.
Le Begue took him to his own quarters, but he had not been there long
before Henry of Trastamare and some of his followers entered the chamber
where he was concealed; and in the furious struggle which ensued Pedro was
slain by the hands of his brother. Thus died this unhappy king, whose many
evil deeds gained for him the surname of "The Cruel;" but Henry was very
wicked and cruel also to take his brother's life, and could not have been
happy when he remembered Montiel, although he had now undisputed possession
of the throne.
Du Guesclin was now at liberty to return to his own country. The King of
Castille parted from him with great regret, and gave him some handsome
presents in token of gratitude for the services he had rendered him. Du
Guesclin on his return, was constantly employed in the war which broke out
again between England and France, and regained many of the places which
the English had taken from the French. The time came when King Charles
thought that the wisest measure he could pursue would be to make Bertrand,
Constable of France, which was the highest office in all the realm.
Bertrand was unwilling to accept so great an honour, saying that there were
many men more worthy of it than himself. Charles declared, however, that
there was neither prince nor noble in the land who would not cheerfully
obey the brave knight, and Du Guesclin was made Constable. From that time
he was surrounded by all the dignity and splendour of the court, and always
sat at the table with the king.
But certain it is when men have reached their highest estate, they are very
often near a fall. Bertrand was again employed in Bretagne, when meeting
with some reverses, he incurred the king's displeasure. Charles, having
listened to some evil reports which were spread against him, did not
scruple to express his discontent, and Bertrand took the matter so much to
heart that he resigned his Constable's sword, and was only induced to
resume his office when the king found out that the reports were untrue, and
tried to atone to him for the mistake he had made. In the year 1380,
Bertrand was sent to drive the English out of the south of France. He was
very glad to go thither, because it always grieved him to make war on the
people of his own province of Bretagne. After reducing some places of
little importance, he went to help his friend Sancerre in the siege of the
Castle of Randan, which was possessed by the English, and some Gascons, who
were unfriendly to France. The Constable pressed the siege with vigour and
vowed that he would never depart from the spot till the castle was taken.
And he never did depart from thence alive, for he was seized with a violent
fever, which in a short time proved fatal. The knowledge of his danger made
the besiegers more anxious than ever to gain the fortress, and the garrison
were obliged at last to agree to surrender on a certain day.
The Sire de Roos, the governor of the castle, having been informed of the
dangerous condition of Du Guesclin, desired to render up the keys into his
own hands; and when the appointed day had arrived, he came out of the
gates, followed by all the garrison. It was summer time, and the rays of
the setting sun shone on their unfurled banners, as they went to the tent,
where the dying Constable lay. His knights were standing sorrowfully around
him; they could not bear to think that he would never rise from his bed
again, that his voice would never more cheer them on to victory. The
English themselves shed tears at the mournful spectacle.
When Du Guesclin had prayed that his sins might be forgiven him, he
entreated the nobles and knights to be faithful to their king, and not make
war, which would cause the blood of peasants, and defenceless old men, and
women and children to be shed; remembering with sorrow how heedlessly he
had himself waged war in the days of his youth. Then dismissing them all
except his friend Du Clisson, he asked for his constable's sword, and
prayed him to deliver it into the hands of the king, and when they had
bidden each other a last farewell, Du Clisson stood by him in tears and in
silence until his spirit passed away.
So died Du Guesclin, the Hero of Chivalry, a man with many failings, but
brave and generous beyond comparison, and ever faithful to his friends.
Although the violence of his temper broke out at intervals all his life
long, he could be kind and gentle. Queens and princesses esteemed him for
his respectful courtesy, and we like to read, how, when the Black Prince
summoned him to his presence, the stern warrior was found playing merrily
with his gaoler's children, inside the dreary walls of his prison.
Some authors assert that the governor of the Castle of Randan only laid the
keys on the coffin of Du Guesclin; but the most probable account is that he
really gave them into his hands before he died.
Charles the Wise grieved sincerely for the loss the country had sustained,
and ordered the remains of the Constable to be interred in the Church of
Saint Denis with almost regal pomp.
Jeanne de Laval, the second wife of Du Guesclin, founded several religious
houses, and instituted services in memory of her illustrious husband.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] The green knight fell in this battle.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
Christopher Columbo, or Columbus, was born in the city of Genoa, about the
year 1436. His father, Domenico Columbo, earned the bread of his family by
combing wool, which, however lowly it may be thought at the present time,
was once a very honourable occupation, and was invented three hundred years
after the birth of our Lord by Blaise, the good martyr-bishop of Armenia,
who to this day is regarded as the patron of woolcombers.
Christopher had two brothers, Bartholomew, and Diego, and one sister; of
the latter there is nothing particular recorded. The three brothers loved
one another dearly. Bartholomew had a brave and ardent spirit, and was fond
of an active life; in the troubles and dangers they shared in after years
Christopher would call him "another self;" and he said not long before he
died that his brothers had always been his best friends. Christopher as a
child was quiet and thoughtful. He loved to stand on the shore of the
beautiful bay spreading out at the feet of Genoa, "the city of marble
palaces," and to watch the waves under their different aspects; now dancing
joyously in the sunshine; then great sea-horses, foaming and dashing with
terrible noise on the sands; now again, loveliest of all, lying at rest as
if tired, in the solemn quiet of night, and giving back myriads of golden
gleams for every star that twinkled in the clear Italian sky. And whilst
Christopher thus watched the sea, he had very strange ideas for a young
child, for he thought that the whole of the world had not been discovered,
and that beyond the great Atlantic Ocean, which he had only heard of, there
were lands that had never yet been trodden by Europeans. At the time he
lived the Portuguese had discovered the Cape Verde Isles in the Atlantic,
much of the western coast of Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope. They wanted
some of the gold, amber, and ivory, the rich silks, and the fragrant woods
and spices of India, and to trade in these things they had to find out a
way to the East by sea, because the Venetians took care to keep the
overland route to India clear for themselves. Venice, on the eastern side
of Italy, and Genoa, on the western side, shared all the commerce of that
country, but they were not on friendly terms; and for years and years the
Genoese were trying to drive the Turks, Venetians, and Spaniards out of the
Mediterranean Sea, that they might carry on their own commerce without
being molested.
When Domenico Colombo found that his son Christopher had a very strong
desire to be a sailor, he did not force him to pass his life in combing
wool, but sent him to a famed school at Pavia, where he might learn such
things as would be useful to him in the career he had chosen. So Columbus
learned diligently about the earth, the sea, and the stars, and something
of drawing and mathematics beside. When he was fourteen he returned to
Genoa, and went to sea for the first time with one of his relations, who
was likewise named Colombo. This man was a corsair, and had many a bold
skirmish with the Turks and Venetians. During several years Christopher
sailed with him from one place to another, and got used to a seafaring
life. It happened in one of the skirmishes which took place between Lisbon
and Cape St. Vincent, that fire broke out in a huge Venetian galley to
which the vessel Christopher commanded for his kinsman had been chained
during the fight; the flames quickly spread to the spot where he stood, and
to save his life he was obliged to jump from the deck into the waves.
Fortunately he had grasped an oar, and with this he was enabled to reach
the shore of Portugal, at the distance of two leagues from the burning
vessels. From thence he went to Lisbon, where he was kindly received by
some Genoese, and he determined to remain in that city, because there were
better means there of studying and of carrying out the plans he was making
for a voyage in search of unknown lands. The Portuguese themselves were
eager to make fresh discoveries: their mariners, sailing westward from the
Azores, had seen floating on the waters corpses belonging to a race of men
unknown in Europe, Africa, or Asia; besides these there were trunks and
branches of strange trees, and huge sugar-canes which had been wafted
through the Atlantic by the Gulf Stream. All these objects made them think
that only a portion of the inhabited world had yet been revealed to them.
Two centuries had passed since Marco Polo, the bold Venetian explorer, had
set out from Constantinople for the land of the Tartars. There he had found
a friend in the great Kublai Khan, who ruled over Tartary and China, and
was sent by him on a mission to China and India, being thus the first
European who visited China Proper. On his return he told such extraordinary
tales of the people he had seen, and their customs, that most men were
afraid to believe in them, and thought they were pure inventions. Years
after, when the countries he had described became known to the Europeans,
it was found that he had spoken a great deal of truth, and his example
caused fresh enterprises to be projected. Men must not despair because they
do not at once see the fruit of their labour: if they only undertake it in
a true and steadfast spirit, it is sure to turn sooner or later to the
benefit of their fellow-creatures. Truly great men do not toil for
themselves but for the good they may do to others; they sow the seed, and
in God's time, not theirs, it will bear fruit.
In Lisbon Columbus married Dona Felippa, the daughter of a poor but noble
Italian named Perestrello, the governor of the island of Porto Santo, one
of the Madeiras, which had only lately been found. Perestrello was a very
famous navigator, and lost his life in the service of Portugal. After his
marriage Columbus went to live in the house of his wife's mother, and she
gave him all the charts her husband had drawn, and the accounts he had
written of his voyages, which proved very useful to him because they made
him familiar with all the parts of the world the Portuguese had hitherto
explored. So he lived on in Lisbon, supporting his wife and his mother by
making and selling maps and globes, besides which he used to send a part of
the money he earned to his aged father at Genoa, and helped his brothers
also by enabling them to go to school. Sometimes he would leave home for a
while, and take part in the expeditions that were directed towards the
coast of Guinea, or he would visit Porto Santo, where he had a friend in
Pietro Correo, who had once been governor of the island, and was married to
his wife's sister. Yet although he was made very happy by the birth of his
son Diego, it was sad to wait year after year without any chance of
starting on his voyage; for, poor as he was, it was quite impossible for
him to buy vessels and man them at his own expense.
Some of the ancient philosophers who flourished centuries before the birth
of our Lord had convinced themselves that the earth was round. That such is
the case is shown by the appearance of a vessel after it has left the
shore. At a certain distance the whole of it is seen; farther off only its
hulk or body; at a greater distance still, the topmast alone is visible.
This proves that something hides the lower part of the ship from the
spectator, and that something, is the roundness of the earth. Again--when
an eclipse of the moon takes place the moon enters the shadow of the earth,
and cannot get the light of the sun, which, reflected on her surface, gives
her the bright silvery glow which makes her so lovely by night, and so we
appear to lose the whole, or part of her face. Now the shadow that is seen
being round, the earth must be round from which it is cast. And when men
found, in the days when very long voyages were undertaken, that by sailing
and journeying in one direction they came back to the point whence they had
started, they wanted indeed no further proof that such was the correct
figure of the earth. Thus it was natural for Columbus to expect to reach
the eastern shore of India, or of Cathay (as China was then called) by
sailing westward across the Atlantic, never dreaming that the earth was so
large as it is, and that the pathway he went would make known to the people
of the Old World the whole vast continent of America, and the Pacific, the
greatest of all Oceans!
Having been refused assistance in his native city, he resolved at last to
lay his plans before John the Second of Portugal. The king referred the
matter to a Council, where it was soon decided that the voyage could not be
carried out, but Columbus was not easily disheartened, as his patience
during one-and-twenty years proved, and he begged the Portuguese monarch so
earnestly to assist him that he had almost been supplied with the vessels
he required, had there not been in Lisbon some persons who were very
jealous of him, and wanted the glory of making the attempt themselves.
These persons gained information of the proposed route, and then set out in
secret to try it, not unknown, as it is said, to the king. But when they
had been out at sea some time, and saw the waves spread out around them as
far as sight could reach, they lost all courage, and put back to Lisbon as
quickly as they could, saying on their return that the voyage could never
be tried.
Columbus was indignant at being treated thus: he had passed fourteen years
of his life in waiting, and had thought and studied so much for the
enterprise on which he had set his heart that he had made no fortune for
himself. His gentle wife Felippa was dead; and one day he bid farewell to
his home in Lisbon and quitted Portugal with the idea of laying his cause
before Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. First of all, however, he went to
Genoa, where he saw his father, and provided out of his own scanty means
for the old man's comfort.
When he arrived in Spain he sought the favour and assistance of two
powerful Spanish nobles, the duke of Medina Sidonia and the Duke of Medina
Coeli. The latter was the kinder of the two; he was just going to give
Columbus three or four caravels, which lay opposite the port of Cadiz, when
he suddenly thought that the enterprise was so vast, that none but a king
should direct it. He spoke so kindly, however, of Columbus to Queen
Isabella, that she desired him to repair to her court at Cordova.
When he arrived he found the city like a camp, and the king and queen
entirely occupied in preparing for a grand campaign against the Moors. One
Moorish city after another had indeed yielded to the Spanish arms, but the
invaders who had held ground in Spain for nearly eight hundred years, were
still in possession of much of the southern part of the country. At such a
moment Isabella had no time to listen to the demands of a needy adventurer
like Columbus, and his humble dress and his poverty made him an object of
contempt in the eyes of the haughty Spanish grandees. At last, through the
efforts of the Grand Cardinal of Spain, he was allowed to enter the
presence of Ferdinand. The king ordered him to plead his cause before a
great council of learned monks at Salamanca. During the time it was held,
Columbus was a guest in the convent of St. Stephen, which was the
foundation of the famous university of Salamanca. The monks of the convent
were kind to him; they entered into his plans, and believed that the voyage
he proposed would lead to great discoveries; and prove the source of
infinite benefit to mankind; but those who came to confer with them were
not of the same opinion, and they tried, by quoting the Holy Scriptures, to
convince Columbus that he was in error. Now Columbus was a very devout man,
and one strong inducement for him to undertake the voyage was, the hope of
spreading the gospel in distant parts of the world, and he must have been
greatly pained when sentence was passed against him, and his views except
by a few, were misunderstood and treated as idle dreams. Nevertheless he
lingered on in Spain, in the hope that his appeal for aid might be heard
one day by Isabella herself, who was of a more noble and generous character
than her husband. So he followed the court from place to place as the seat
of war changed, and in one campaign he bore an honourable part in the
struggle with the Moors; while part of the time he remained in Spain he
lived quietly at Cordova, earning his bread by making charts, and maps, as
he had done before at Lisbon. When he heard that the city of Granada, the
stronghold of the Moors, was to be invested by the Spanish army, he
determined to make one more appeal, for he was sure that the king and queen
would be too busy to listen to him, when the siege had once begun. All they
would do was to promise to hear him when they should be released from the
cares of war, and Columbus, grieving to think that he had wasted so many
years of his life in useless waiting, made up his mind to leave Spain for
ever, and apply for aid at the court of France.
From the time he left Cordova little is known of him until he appeared at
the gate of the Convent of St. Maria de Rabida, which stood in the midst of
a forest of pine trees, near the port of Palos, in Andalusia. His son Diego
was with him; the boy was both tired and hungry, for they had come a long
way without resting. Just as Columbus was asking for some bread and water
for him at the gate, Friar Juan Perez, the guardian of the convent happened
to pass by. The good friar welcomed the strangers kindly; he bade them
enter, and in the course of conversation Columbus opened his heart to him
and told him about his plans, and his firm trust that by the grace of God
he should be able to carry them out. Friar Juan had already thought on the
subject himself, and he was so delighted with the ideas of Columbus that he
sent for two friends to confer with him: one was Fernandez Garcia, a
physician of Palos, who had a great longing to go in search of unknown
lands; the other was Martin Alonzo Pinzon, a merchant who had vessels of
his own, and traded with many foreign ports. These were presently joined by
some mariners of Palos, who had had much experience at sea.
Friar Juan persuaded Columbus to stay a little longer in Spain, and wrote a
letter to Queen Isabella, hoping that his influence might induce her to
sanction the enterprise, since he had once been her confessor, and had
always been held by her in great esteem. The court had removed to Santa Fe,
and an honest pilot, named Sebastian Rodriguez, undertook to convey the
letter thither. At the end of a fortnight he brought back an answer from
the queen which gave hope and joy to Columbus and his friends, and caused
Friar Juan to saddle his mule in haste, and set out at midnight for the
Spanish court. Isabella was indeed beginning to think the voyage worthy of
consideration, and wished to talk on the subject with Juan himself. And
very soon she summoned Columbus to Santa Fe, and sent him some money to
enable him to buy a mule for his journey, and a dress suitable to appear in
at court, so that he might no longer be despised for his needy attire.
Columbus arrived in time to see Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings in
Spain, deliver the keys of the Alhambra into the hands of the Spanish
sovereigns: the hundred thousand Moors, who had shut themselves up within
the massive walls of Granada, had been forced to yield; the Crescent was
thrown down, and the Royal standard of Spain was planted on the red towers
of the most beautiful of Moorish palaces. There were rejoicings and
festivities without end among the Spaniards, but Columbus was sad and
forlorn in the midst of all the gaiety; the courtiers were jealous of the
favour Isabella had shown him on his arrival, and although the king and
queen kept their promise and listened to him once more, they were
persuaded, by a haughty and powerful priest named Talavera, now Bishop of
Granada, to offer him terms which he could not accept. He began to feel
utterly disheartened, and resolving again to leave Spain and ask help from
France, he mounted his mule and quitted Santa Fe. He had reached the pass
of Pinos, two leagues from Granada, when to his surprise a courier overtook
him and recalled him to the Court. Some of his friends had at last
persuaded Isabella to grant him real assistance, and she became all at once
so eager for the voyage to be carried out, that she declared her kingdom of
Castille should defray the cost of it, and offered to pledge her own jewels
to furnish money besides.
The king and queen then signed a decree by which Columbus was to be
supplied with vessels and men; to be named Admiral of the Fleet, and
Viceroy of all the lands he should discover; and to have a right to a tenth
part of all the gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, and spices he might
find within the limits of the land he was to rule over for the Spanish
sovereigns. Besides this the title of Don was to be prefixed to his name
and to the name of his heirs.
All the doubts, the long weary days of waiting, were at an end. In deep
thankfulness and joy Columbus went back to Palos, from which port it was
arranged that the fleet should set sail. And one May morning a Royal decree
was read in the porch of the largest church there which ordered the
authorities of Palos to have two caravels[12] ready for the sea within ten
days, Columbus himself having the right to fit out a third vessel.
But now his troubles broke out afresh, no one would furnish barks, not a
mariner could be pressed into the service; it was believed that all who
engaged in such a voyage must surely perish. After tumults and disputes
which lasted many weeks, Martin Pinzon and his brother came forward with a
vessel of their own, and two other caravels were with the greatest
difficulty procured.