rnan Gonzalez, Count of Castile, a veritable
Spanish Warwick, who was held in such high esteem by his countrymen that
they inscribed upon his great carved tomb at Burgos: _A Fernan Gonzalez,
Libertador de Castilla, el mas excelente General de ese tiempo_ [To
Fernan Gonzalez, liberator of Castile, the greatest general of his
time]. His great success, however, in his forays against the Moors made
Dona Teresa fearful lest some harm might befall her sluggish son, King
Sancho. For some time Sancho had been on good terms with the Moors. He
had even journeyed to Cordova to consult a celebrated physician, and had
in many ways been treated with such favor by the kalif, Abd-el-Rhaman,
that people had begun to shake their heads and ask themselves whether
the ruler of Leon was doing all in his power for the good of
Christendom. After the great success of Gonzalez at Pedrahita, where the
Saracen invader Abu Alaxi suffered signal defeat, there was greater
dissatisfaction than ever with this do-nothing policy, and the Count of
Castile was hailed on every hand as the greatest of the Christian
warriors. Her jealousy aroused, Dona Teresa now resolved upon desperate
measures, ready to stop at nothing in her mad desire to overthrow
Gonzalez. On her advice, the count was summoned to Sancho's capital,
Oviedo, for a general conference in regard to matters of Christian
defence, and to Oviedo Gonzalez came, little suspecting the trap which
had been laid for him there. Dona Teresa knew that Gonzalez had lately
lost his wife, and she found opportunity during his stay, after many
words of fulsome flattery, in which she was no novice, to counsel him to
seek the hand of her niece, Dona Sancha, daughter of King Garcia of
Navarre. She even undertook to arrange this marriage for him and
promised to send her messengers on ahead, that the Navarrese court might
be ready to receive him in case he thought best to go at once to press
his suit. Gonzalez, at this moment a living example of Gay's couplet,

"And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place,"

all inflamed by the glowing descriptions of Dona Sancha's beauty, and at
the same time fully aware of the political advantage which might follow
from this alliance with the powerful house of Navarre, was only too
eager to go on the moment, as the cunning Dona Teresa had supposed; and
he set out at once, leaving Oviedo amidst the sound of martial music,
with banners flying, and th