a was passing
through his domain, went to meet her, not only for the sake of the
ancient friendship he bore her, but in order to do her honour as a
kinswoman of the King's.

3 This castle is called La Jafferie in Boaistuau's edition
of 1558, and several learned commentators have speculated as
to which is the correct spelling. Not one of them seems to
have been aware that in the immediate vicinity of Saragossa
there still stands an old castle called El Jaferia or
Aljaferia, which, after being the residence of the Moorish
sovereigns, became that of the Spanish kings of Aragon. It
has of modern times been transformed into barracks.--Ed.

4 Henry of Aragon, Duke of Segorbe and Count of Ribagorce,
was Viceroy of Catalonia at this period. He was called the
Infante of Fortune, on account of his father having died
before his birth in 1445.--B. J.

Now he had in his train many honourable gentlemen, who, in the long
waging of war, had gained such great honour and renown that all who saw
them and consorted with them deemed themselves fortunate. Among others
there was one named Amadour, who, although but eighteen or nineteen
years old, was possessed of such well-assured grace and of such
excellent understanding that he would have been chosen from a
thousand to hold a public office. It is true that this excellence of
understanding was accompanied by such rare and winsome beauty that none
could look at him without pleasure. And if his comeliness was of the
choicest, it was so hard pressed by his speech that one knew not whether
to give the greatest honour to his grace, his beauty, or the excellence
of his conversation.

What caused him, however, to be still more highly esteemed was his great
daring, which was no whit diminished by his youth. He had already shown
in many places what he could do, so that not only the Spains, but France
and Italy also made great account of his merits. For in all the wars
in which he had taken part he had never spared himself, and when his
country was at peace he would go in quest of wars in foreign lands,
where he was loved and honoured by both friend and foe.

This gentleman, for the love he bore his commander, had come to the
domain where the Countess of Aranda had arrived, and remarking the
beauty and grace of her daughter Florida, who was then only twelve years
old, he thought to himself that she was the fairest maiden he had ever