s death his wife had given great trouble
to dom Pedro by interfering in matters of government, and that civil war
had actually broken out in Portugal, though happily it was soon put an
end to by the flight of the queen. The expenses entailed by all this
would, Fernando understood, have prevented the raising of the large
ransom required; and with the lightening of his despair at his apparent
abandonment came suspicions of Lazuraque. It was so much easier and
happier for him to believe that the vizier, whose cruelty he knew,
should be playing some trick on him than that Pedro should have left him
to die without a word.

* * * * *

We cannot tell how it really happened, and why the money used by dom
Enrique ('the Navigator' as he was called) in fitting out exploring
expeditions was not employed in setting free the brother who had been
made captive through Enrique's own folly. Certain it is that fifty
thousand doubloons were all the Portuguese would offer, and now
Lazuraque demanded four hundred thousand! This Fernando learnt after
fifteen months of waiting, and then his last remnant of hope flickered
out.

When hope was gone he had nothing left to live for, and on June 1, 1443,
he was too weak even to kneel at his prayers. In vain did his companions
implore that he might be moved to a larger, healthier room; the vizier
refused all their petitions, and if he had granted them, most likely it
would have been too late. However, the prince's physician obtained leave
to see him, and his chaplain and secretary watched by him alternately,
so that he was not left alone in his last moments.

Four days passed in this manner, and on the morning of June 5 he awoke
looking happier than he had done since he bade farewell to the shores of
Portugal five years before.

'I have seen in a vision,' he said to his confessor, 'the archangel
Michael and Saint John entreating the Blessed Virgin to have pity on me
and put an end to my sufferings. And she smiled down on me, and told me
that to-day the gates of heaven should be thrown open, and I should
enter.' So saying he begged to confess his sins, and when this was done
he turned on his side and whispered, 'Now let me die in peace,' and with
the last rays of the sun he was free.

* * * * *

'He that is dead pays all his debts,' writes the poet who more than any
man knew the best and the worst of the human heart, but Lazuraque d