d almost deserves
to rank near the more famous and extended chronicle of the "Loyal
Servitor" of Bayard. Without going at any length into a life which
does not concern us, I may say briefly that after his education at the
Court of Castile, which he is said to have owed to his descent from
the royal house of France, Don Pedro was commissioned at twenty-five
years of age to attack the Barbary Corsairs in the Western
Mediterranean. Ever since Du Guesclin had deposed Pedro the Cruel, and
placed Henry of Trastamare upon the throne of Castille, the alliance
between that power and France remained a political tradition; and at
about this time Charles VI. being at war with England, asked for help,
with which Don Pedro was sent. He actually took a town in Cornwall,
laid Portland under contribution, and burnt the town of Poole.
Returning to Harfleur, he was prevented by contrary winds from again
crossing the Channel, and therefore decided to sail up the Seine and
winter at Rouen. The luxury of the French nobles was only one of the
many reasons of the weakness and disaster of the nation, and Don
Pedro's voyage up the river seems to have been made pleasant to him by
every chatelaine upon its banks, until he reached the Clos des Galees
(which is rightly described in the "Victorial"), and met the somewhat
gruff demands of the authorities of Rouen.

[Footnote 38: The "Cronica" begins as follows:--"Este libro ha nombre
el Victorial, e fabla en el de los quatros Principes que fueron
mayores en el mundo...." It was published in Madrid in 1880, 236 pp.
4to, and was translated from the original Spanish by MM. Circourt and
Puymaigre. (Paris, Victor Palme, 1867, 590 pp. 8vo).]

They must have very soon changed their opinions, however; indeed, from
the fact that in July of that same year the welcome and the gifts
offered to Louis, Duke of Orleans, by the sheriffs were entirely
contrary to the wishes of the population, who had just rebelled
against his taxes, we may infer that a friend of that Duke, as Don
Pedro showed himself to be on visiting Paris a little later, was not
likely to have long been treated with hostility or even indifference
by the civic officials.

It is, therefore, hardly surprising that we soon hear of a love-affair
in Rouen, and that too with the daughter of M. de Bellengues, the
captain of the town himself. This lady had but just become a widow,
after her marriage with Renaud de Trie, Admiral of France, which took
plac