s he grew older, Alfonso could see more clearly the
complications which might ensue if he persisted in this double course;
and so, with a heavy heart, he consented to the separation, but not
without having given to Leonora the well-fortified city of
Medina-Sidonia, while her children were so well provided for that the
royal revenues were sadly depleted. With the death of Alfonso in 1350
came the opportunity which Queen Maria had long since sought in vain,
an opportunity for revenge. Leonora was summoned to Seville, that Maria
might consult with her with regard to the interests of her children; and
when the one-time mistress showed some disinclination to accept this
invitation and gave evident signs of distrust, two noblemen of Maria's
following pledged their honor for her safety. Assured by this show of
good faith, Leonora went to Seville as she had been summoned, but no
sooner had she entered the walls of the city than she was made a
prisoner at Maria's order, dragged about in chains after the court,
which was travelling to Burgos, and finally she was sent to Talavera,
where she met an ignominious death at the hands of a servant, who
cruelly strangled her. Strange to say, this act caused no special
comment at the time, for, in spite of Leonora's general popularity, her
influence had been of such incalculable harm to Maria and her followers
in more ways than one, that their revenge was taken somewhat as a matter
of course. Maria, however, in this display of savagery, had done more
than she had anticipated; for, although she had continually tried to
excite her son to this revenge upon her rival, her desire for bloody
satisfaction had been satisfied at Leonora's death, and she now tried to
have Pedro treat Leonora's sons as his own brothers, but all to no
purpose. Young Pedro was cruel by nature; the early training which he
had received from her hands had in no way softened him, and as a natural
result, when he came to the throne and became his own master, he soon
made himself known and feared by his many terrible and wicked deeds; and
so marked did this fierce trait of character appear, that he was ever
known as Pedro the Cruel, much to his mother's shame.

"If you ever feel disposed, Samivel, to go a-marryin' anybody,--no
matter who,--just you shut yourself up in your own room, if you've got
one, and pison yourself off-hand,"--such was the sententious advice of
the elder Weller, as recorded by Charles Dickens in the immo