he camp, and would undertake that
Portugal should sign a peace with the Barbary States lying along that
part of the African coast for a hundred years. In return the former
Moorish governor 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 dom Fernando himself.

Bitter were the shame and grief that filled dom Enrique when the results
of his folly were brought home to him, and he instantly begged that he
might 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 war which Enrique summoned
would not consent. Fernando knew nothing of war, they said, but Enrique,
their commander, could not be spared, though it is hard to see what
Enrique had done except lead them into traps which a recruit might 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 time.

* * * * *

Thus ended the expedition for the taking of Tangier; 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 men under the walls of Tangier, 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 best means of rescuing the
captive, let us see how Fernando himself was faring.

Accompanied by his chaplain, his doctor, his secretary, and a few
friends, who would seem to have gone with him of their own will, dom
Fernando was sent by his captors to the fortress of Tangier, and closely
imprisoned for several days. Perhaps the Moors may have been waiting
for Enrique, who had gone 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 tr