No More Learning

He was dreadful to the evil, and
beloved by the good, for he respected no persons, and his inflexible
severity never digressed from the line of strict justice. An anecdote or
two will throw some light on his character. A priest having killed a
mason, the king dissembled his knowledge of the crime, and left the
issue to the ecclesiastical court, where the priest was punished by one
year's suspension from saying mass. The king on this privately ordered
the mason's son to revenge the murder of his father. The young man
obeyed, was apprehended, and condemned to death. When his sentence was
to be confirmed by the king, Pedro enquired, what was the young man's
trade. He was answered, that he followed his father's. "Well then," said
the king, "I shall commute his punishment, and interdict him from
meddling with stone or mortar for a twelve-month. " After this he fully
established the authority of the king's courts over the clergy, whom he
punished with death when their crimes were capital. When solicited to
refer the causes of such criminals to a higher tribunal, he would answer
very calmly, "That is what I intend to do: I will send them to the
highest of all tribunals, to that of their Maker and mine. " Against
adulterers he was particularly severe, often declaring it as his
opinion, that conjugal infidelity was the source of the greatest evils,
and that therefore to restrain it was the interest and duty of the
sovereign. Though the fate of his beloved Inez chagrined and soured his
temper, he was so far from being naturally sullen or passionate, that he
was rather of a gay and sprightly disposition; he was affable and easy
of access; delighted in music and dancing; was a lover of learning, a
man of letters, and an elegant poet. --Vide Le Clede, Mariana, Faria.

[269] This lady, named Leonora de Tellez, was the wife of Don Juan
Lorenzo Acugna, a nobleman of one of the most distinguished families in
Portugal. After a sham process this marriage was dissolved, and the king
privately espoused to her, though, at this time, he was publicly married
by proxy to Donna Leonora of Arragon.
A dangerous insurrection, headed
by one Velasquez, a tailor, drove the king and his adulterous bride from
Lisbon. Soon after, he caused his marriage to be publicly celebrated in
the province of Entre Douro e Minho. Henry, king of Castile, being
informed of the general discontent that reigned in Portugal, marched a
formidable army into that kingdom, to revenge the injury offered to some
of his subjects, whose ships had been unjustly seized at Lisbon. The
desolation hinted at by Camoens ensued. After the subjects of both
kingdoms had severely suffered, the two kings ended the war, much to
their mutual satisfaction, by an intermarriage of their illegitimate
children.

[270] Judges, chap. xix. and xx.

[271] Samuel, chap. xii. 10, "The sword shall never depart from thine
house. "

[272] Hercules.

[273] Love compelled Hercules to spin wool. --OVID.

[274] Hannibal.

[275] Dom John was a natural brother of Fernando, being an illegitimate
son of Pedro.