rtal pages
of the _Pickwick Papers_; and investigation will show that in all
literatures, from the earliest times, similar warnings have been uttered
to men who contemplated matrimony. A Tuscan proverb says: "in buying
horses and in taking a wife, shut your eyes tight and commend yourself
to God;" and a sage of Araby has remarked: "Before going to war, say a
prayer; before going to sea, say two prayers; before marrying, say three
prayers;" but the majority of men since the world began have been
content to close their eyes tightly or utter their three prayers and
take the goods the gods provide. Pedro the Cruel was no exception to
this rule, and his capricious ventures in search of married bliss would
fill many pages. According to Burke, "he was lawfully married in 1352 to
the lady who passed during her entire life as his mistress, Maria de
Padilla; he was certainly married to Blanche of Bourbon in 1353; and his
seduction, or rather his violation, of Juana de Castro was accomplished
by a third profanation of the sacrament, when the Bishops of Salamanca
and Avila, both accessories to the king's scandalous bigamy, pronounced
the blessing of the Church upon his brutal dishonor of a noble lady."
Whether Pedro was ever married to Maria de Padilla is still an open
question, but, if not his wife, she was his mistress for many years and
had great power over him. The details of all this life of intrigue are
somewhat confused, but enough is known to make it clear that Pedro was
as cruel in love as in war and politics.

The queen-mother, ignorant of her son's marriage to Maria de Padilla, or
deciding to ignore it, prevailed upon Pedro to ask for the hand of
Blanche, the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon, and sister to Jeanne, wife
to Charles, the heir of France. His request was granted, and the king
sent his half-brother, the Master of Santiago, one of Leonora's sons, to
fetch the bride to Spain. While this journey was being made, Pedro fell
in love with one of the noble ladies in waiting of Dona Isabel of
Albuquerque, and so great was his passion for this dark-eyed damsel that
it was with difficulty that he could be prevailed upon to leave her and
go to greet the French princess when she finally arrived in Valladolid.
But he tore himself away, went to Blanche, and was married with great
pomp and ceremony. Some had said before the marriage that Maria de
Padilla must have bewitched Pedro, so great was his infatuation; and
three days a