cross the sea and
deliver Tangier from the Moslem.

* * * * *

When the king heard of this new project he was nearly beside himself.
After the long wars which seated John on the throne, and the constant
expense of maintaining the fortress of Ceuta, the country was too poor
to be able to undertake a fresh expedition, and then the plague had
carried off so many men that he did not know where the army was to come
from. But the match had been put to the wood, and Enrique secretly went
to the queen and asked for her help to persuade the king, promising that
when he and Fernando should have conquered the north of Africa, they
would go and live there, and leave their possessions in Portugal to her
children.

The bait took; queen Leonor promised to use all her influence, which was
great, with the king, but before she had a chance of doing so the wild
scheme of the two infantes received still stronger support from an
unexpected quarter. Some time earlier the king had asked the pope to
give him a Bull, or papal document, allowing him to raise a crusade
whenever he thought it would have a chance of success. At the moment the
pope was busy with several other affairs nearer home, and returned no
answer. When at last he had leisure to attend to the king of Portugal's
request, and sent over an abbot with the Bull, Duarte seems to have
forgotten all about the matter, and was filled with dismay. Of course
his brothers were delighted and declared that the king could no longer
resist!

In spite, however, of wife, pope, and brothers, the king _did_ resist,
though he went as far as to say that any expedition which _might_ be
undertaken must be directed against Tangier, and that fourteen thousand
men would be the utmost that he could furnish. But when he had yielded
this much, it was difficult for him to refuse his consent, even though
dom John and dom Pedro spoke strongly in a family council of the folly
of beginning a war when the treasury was empty and the people unwilling
to bear the burden of taxation.

Dom Pedro's words found their echo in the heart of Duarte. They said
what his own sense had told him, and he was filled with fears for the
future, though he could not break his promise. One last effort he made,
and this was an appeal to the pope as to whether it was lawful to impose
a tax for the purpose of making war against the infidels. The pope and
his cardinals decided that it was _not_, as the i