new that, if he were taken
to the King of Granada, he must either die a cruel death or renounce
Christianity--he resolved to withhold from his enemies the glory
either of his death or capture. So kissing the cross of his sword and
commending his body and soul to God, he dealt himself such a thrust as
to be past all help.

Thus died the unhappy Amadour, lamented as deeply as his virtues
deserved. The news spread through the whole of Spain; and the rumour of
it came to Florida, who was at Barcelona, where her husband had formerly
commanded that he should be buried. She gave him an honourable funeral,
(25) and then, without saying anything to her mother or mother-in-law,
she became a nun in the Convent of Jesus, taking for husband and lover
Him who had delivered her from such a violent love as that of Amadour's,
and from such great affliction as she had endured in the company of her
husband. Thus were all her affections directed to the perfect loving of
God; and, after living for a long time as a nun, she yielded up her soul
with gladness, like that of the bride when she goes forth to meet the
bridegroom.

25 The Franciscan monastery of the little village cf
Bellpuig, near Lerida, contains the tomb of Ramon de
Cardona, termed one of the marvels of Catalonia on account
of the admirable sculptures adorning it. One of the
beautiful white marble bas-reliefs shows a number of galleys
drawn up in line of battle, whilst some smaller boats are
conveying parties of armed men to a river-bank on which the
Moors are awaiting them in hostile array. On the frieze of
an arch the Spaniards and Moors are shown fighting, many of
the former retreating towards the water. An inscription
records that the tomb was raised to the best of husbands by
Isabella, his unhappy spouse.

Margaret gives the name of Florida to the wife of the Duke
whom she mentions, but it should be borne in mind that she
has systematically mingled fact with fiction throughout this
story; and that she was alluding to the Duke buried at
Bellpuig seems evident from an examination of the bas-
reliefs mentioned above. Ramon de Cardona was, however, a
more important personage than she pictures him. He became
Charles V.'s viceroy in Naples, and did not die till 1520,
whereas Margaret's story appears to end in or about 1513.
Possibly she saw the tomb when in Spain.--