Part 10 (1/2)

Even Enrique felt that in the face of such nu was useless, but he placed his men in the best position and awaited events All the next day the Moorsenvoys left the ranks and proposed ters, they were not hard Ceuta al be released, and the Christian ca it contained abandoned to the captors But the infantes wished to deal directly with the kings of Fez and Morocco, in order to make sure that the terms offered would be loyally carried out They were still expecting the return of the envoys which they had sent when the Moors, who had grownwait so close to their eneuese

In spite of their suese, coht so fiercely that after six hours the Moors were beaten back After a short rest dom Enrique ordered every man to repair the trenches and to throw up earthworks to protect the camp, in case of another assault They worked hard the whole of that night, which was Saturday, and when by sunrise on Sunday everything was finished, the soldiers sank down exhausted where they were, and cried for food and water It was long in co Then a horrible suspicion, which turned the men's faces white, ran, no one knehy, from end to end of the camp Was there _any_ food? and, worse still, any water?

They had guessed truly; they had no provisions left, and the water had been cut off by the Moors For two days they held out, then doive up Ceuta and the Moorish prisoners, would abandon the can a peace with the Barbary States lying along that part of the African coast for a hundred years In return the forovernor of Ceuta, Salat-ben-Salat, should hand over his son as a hostage, in exchange for four Portuguese nobles, but the pledge for the surrender of Ceuta was to be dorief that filled doht hoht be accepted as hostage instead of his brother No doubt the Moors would have agreed to this; it mattered little to them which of the infantes remained captive, but the council of hich Enrique su of war, they said, but Enrique, their coh it is hard to see what Enrique had done except lead theht have foreseen Dom Fernando was present with the rest of the council, and was the first to declare that his brother's proposal was not to be thought of Then, with a heavy heart, Enrique signed the treaty, and a few hours later Fernando and he had parted for the last tiier; and what had it attained? As far as Portugal was concerned, the loss, as stipulated by treaty, of Ceuta, by which the country set such store; the death of five hundred out of the six thousand ier, which held out in spite of the field guns used in war for the first time; the waste of money which had been only raised by the oppression of the people; and the delivery of the king's favourite brother into the hands of a cruel race

Such was the tale which the fugitives had to tell on their arrival at Lisbon And while the king was debating the bestthe captive, let us see how Fernando hi

Accompanied by his chaplain, his doctor, his secretary, and a few friends, ould seeone with him of their oill, doier, and closely imprisoned for several days Perhaps the Moors one to Ceuta, to deliver up the keys of the town; but as nothing was heard of him, the captives were taken next to the little town of Arzilla, further down the coast Here the Portuguese were kindly treated by the governor, and Fernando, though the hardshi+ps he had gone through had told heavily on his health, did all he could to help his friends, who fared no better than hi those who had been for some years in captivity

For seven months Fernando and his co all that tiaoler, Salat-ben-Salat, expected to receive answers to the many letters the captive prince had been suffered to write to Enrique respecting his promise to surrender Ceuta, where he stayed for souese army But after five months the only news that reached Arzilla was that Enrique had returned to Portugal; so Fernando then wrote to the king hie and set hi that a treaty is considered sacred, and Duarte, from every point of vieas ready to fulfil the stipulation; but there was a strong party in the state which held that a Christian city should never be delivered up to the unbelievers, and even Enrique advised hie ransoe for the infante

Always distrustful of his own opinion, and fearful of taking any decided action, Duarte next appealed for counsel to the pope and to the kings of all the countries of Europe They sent the politest and most sympathetic answers to his questions No words could express their ads, and their pity for his hard lot, but--faith with Moslems need never be kept, and at all costs Ceuta must be retained

Thus, after all, it was the Christians, and not the Moslems, who failed to keep their word and were responsible for the death of Fernando

At length news reached Fernando that do with a fleet for his rescue, and then the doom which he dreaded befell him, for he was sent with his fellow-captives at once to Fez, a city far in the interior, and delivered over to Lazuraque, the vizier of the young king, a hout the whole of Barbary On their arrival at Fez, after a journey in which the whole population turned out to howl at and to stone theht The four h, but worse was yet to follow The little money that Fernando had left was taken from him, and heavy chains were fastened to the ankles of the prisoners, while their food was hardly fit for dogs or enough to keep therumbled, and tried to keep up the hearts of his friends

One hly inforo and clean out the vizier's stables, while the others were to dig up the royal garden Of course Fernando had never done such a thing in his life, and now, hardly able to stand fros, it seeet out into the sunshi+ne again was delightful to him, and he worked aith a will However, he could not have done his cleansing very thoroughly, or else the vizier had merely wished to huardens with the rest Here he was almost happy; he loved flowers, and he had the coaolers, satisfied that they could not escape, left them very much to themselves As to food, each man had two loaves a day, but no meat; however, in this respect Fernando fared better than the others, for when the king of Fez and his wives walked through the gardens, as they often did, they would speak to hier, and bid their slaves bring him fruit and wine fro Abdallah did not insist on better treatuese prince, but he was afraid of Lazuraque, who had ruled the kingdom from Abdallah's childhood, and dared not interfere

When darkness fell the captives were taken back to their prison, and here Fernando had a cell all to hih to throw himself on the two sheepskins covered by an old carpet which served him for a bed, and lay his head on the bundle of hay which was his pillow

Matters had gone on in this way for a feeeks, when one day the captives were told that they were to work in the gardens no s, and they were all thrust together into one tiny dungeon Then a ht before the vizier With a beating heart the infante gladly followed his gaoler Surely Lazuraque would not have troubled to send for him unless deliverance had been at hand? But his hopes fell at the sight of Lazuraque's face, which was cruel and stern as usual

'Your brother the king of Portugal is dead,' were the words that fell upon Fernando's ears, and he sank fainting to the ground When he ca chained in his cell, with his friends anxiously bending over hi for Duarte's little son, Alfonso V, and besides the viehich he had always held that the honour of the country demanded the surrender of Ceuta, he felt bound to carry out the late king's will, which directed him to deliver Fernando at any cost

But noas not Ceuta that Lazuraque wanted, but a huge ransoal to raise, and till this was forthco the horrors of the prisoners' captivity were increased

For soether with the stifling air of the cell, made him so ill that his couessed that shame at the result of the expedition, and sorrow for his own fate, had hastened the end of dohts flew back to the day of the procla, five years before, and to the prophecy of , however, did not occur to hi the expedition which had brought about the fulfilment of the prophecy

After a while Lazuraque saw that unless he meant his captives to die, which would not have suited hieon, so they were sent back to the gardens Slowly the years 1439 and 1440 wore away The hearts of the poor prisoners grew sick, but Fernando alone never lost his cheerfulness, and kept up the spirits of the others when they were bowed doith despair

It was in 1441 that hope suddenly sprang into life again, for the news reached theal to treat for their release, and that the governor of Arzilla was using his influence on their behalf Soon after they were removed from Fez near to Ceuta, where they could once more see the blue Mediterranean and feel the came to an end because neither side would trust the other Lazuraque, though he still preferred a ransom, part of which he could have put in his own pocket, dared not refuse openly to exchange the prince for Ceuta, now that the envoys had co up the fortress

Still, he could place many obstacles in the way of the fulfilment of the treaty, and declared that the keys of Ceuta must be in his possession before the infante could be handed over to the envoys They, on their side, insisted on Fernando's release before the surrender of the fortress