year
of tournaments, but at the suggestion of the Treasurer of Portugal, John
Affonso de Alemquer, he decided on this African crusade instead. For the
same strength and money might as well be spent in conquests from the
Moslem as in sham-fights between Christians. So after reconnoitring the
place, and lulling the suspicions of Aragon and Granada by a pretence
of declaring war against the Count of Holland, King John gained the
formal consent of his nobles at Torres Vedras, and set sail from Lisbon
on St. James' Day, July 25, 1415, as foretold by the dying Queen
Philippa, twelve days before.

[Illustration: KING JOHN THE GREAT AND QUEEN PHILIPPA.
FROM THEIR TOMB AT BATALHA.]

That splendid woman, who had shared the throne for eight and twenty
years, and who had trained her sons to be fit successors of her husband
as the leaders of Portugal and the "Examples of all Christians," was now
cut off by death from a sight of their first victories. Her last thought
was for their success. She spoke to Edward of a king's true vocation, to
Pedro of his knightly duties in the help of widows and orphans, to Henry
of a general's care for his men. On the 13th, the last day of her
illness, she roused herself to ask "What wind was blowing so strong
against the house?" and hearing it was the north, sank back and died,
exclaiming, "It is the wind for your voyage, that must be about St.
James' Day." It would have been false respect to delay. The spirit of
the Queen, the crusaders felt, was with them, urging them on.

By the night of the 25th of July the fleet had left the Tagus; on the
27th the crusaders anchored in the bay of Lagos and mustered all their
forces: "33 galleys, 27 triremes, 32 biremes, and 120 pinnaces and
transports," carrying 50,000 soldiers and 30,000 mariners. Some nobles
and merchant adventurers from England, France, and Germany took part. It
was something like the conquest of Lisbon over again; a greater Armada
for a much smaller prey.

On the 10th of August they were off Algeziras, still in Moorish hands,
as part of the kingdom of Granada, and on the 12th the lighter craft
were over on the African coast; a strong wind nearly carried the heavier
into Malaga.

Ceuta, the ancient Septa,[34] once repaired by Justinian, was the chief
port of Morocco and a centre of commerce for the trade routes of the
South and East, as well as a centre of piracy for the Barbary corsairs.
It had long been an outpost of Moslem attack on