ereign. So war followed, and John of
Gaunt fought with his English soldiers on the side of the master of
Aviz, or 'John I.,' against his wife's nephew, Henry III. of Castile,
and during the war he kept his daughters with him in the peninsula.

* * * * *

It was in 1378 that John I. married Philippa, the elder of the two
princesses. According to the notions of those times the bride must have
been 'quite old,' for she was twenty-seven, only a year younger than her
bridegroom, and very happy they were. The queen of Portugal had been
brought up in England amongst clever people, had heard grave questions
discussed from her childhood, and seen her father grow uneasy as fresh
reports of Richard II.'s follies and extravagance came to his ears. From
her stepmother, Constance of Castile, she had learned to speak Spanish,
and knew much of the customs of the kingdoms south of the Pyrenees; so
that it was easy for her to fall into the ways of her new country,
though she never ceased to love her old land, and to teach her children
to love it too. She trained her sons to bear hardships without
complaining, to be true to their word, and to be affectionate and
faithful to each other, while she had them taught something of the
histories of other countries, and saw that they could speak Latin and
English, as well as Spanish and French. As to the art of war, and all
knightly exercises, she left those to her husband.

* * * * *

When the eldest of the princes, dom Duarte, or Edward, was twenty years
old, he came one day to the king, telling him that he and his three next
brothers, Pedro, Enrique, and John, were burning to strike a blow
against the infidel Moors, and besought him to lead an expedition
against the town of Ceuta, on the African coast. In those days it was
considered a good deed to fight against the followers of Mahomet the
prophet, and king John agreed gladly to what his sons proposed; but he
was more prudent than they, and did not intend to raise the standard of
the Cross before he had made sure of defeating the Crescent. Therefore
he took means to find out secretly the exact position of Ceuta, the
extent of the fortifications, and other things it was needful for him to
know, and then he laid his plans before queen Philippa, who always gave
him good counsel. To his surprise and disappointment Philippa prayed him
to give it all up.

The country, she said, was s