, that this war
should cease--that the Moors of Granada should be reinstated in the
territory of which they had been dispossessed: otherwise he threatened
to put to death all the Christians beneath his sway, to demolish their
convents and temples, and to destroy the Holy Sepulchre.

This fearful menace had spread consternation among the Christians of
Palestine, and when the intrepid Fray Antonio Millan and his lowly
companion departed on their mission they were accompanied far from the
gates of Jerusalem by an anxious throng of brethren and disciples, who
remained watching them with tearful eyes as long as they were in sight.
These holy ambassadors were received with great distinction by King
Ferdinand, for men of their cloth had ever high honor and consideration
in his court. He had long and frequent conversations with them about
the Holy Land, the state of the Christian Church in the dominions of the
grand soldan, and of the policy and conduct of that arch-infidel toward
it. The portly prior of the Franciscan convent was full and round and
oratorical in his replies, and the king expressed himself much pleased
with the eloquence of his periods; but the politic monarch was observed
to lend a close and attentive ear to the whispering voice of the lowly
companion, "whose discourse," adds Agapida, "though modest and low,
was clear and fluent and full of subtle wisdom." These holy friars had
visited Rome in their journeying, where they had delivered the letter of
the soldan to the sovereign pontiff. His Holiness had written by them
to the Castilian sovereigns, requesting to know what reply they had to
offer to this demand of the Oriental potentate.

The king of Naples also wrote to them on the subject, but in wary terms.
He inquired into the cause of this war with the Moors of Granada, and
expressed great marvel at its events, as if (says Agapida) both were
not notorious throughout all the Christian world. "Nay," adds the worthy
friar with becoming indignation, "he uttered opinions savoring of little
better than damnable heresy; for he observed that, although the Moors
were of a different sect, they ought not to be maltreated without just
cause; and hinted that if the Castilian sovereigns did not suffer any
crying injury from the Moors, it would be improper to do anything which
might draw great damage upon the Christians--as if, when once the sword
of the faith was drawn, it ought ever to be sheathed until this scum
of hea