age until now, she hath obtained from the Highest, that in thirty days
hence thy soul depart from the world and enter purgatory, which is good
hope; and in time, when the Highest shall see fit, it shall enter into
glory everlasting!'

"And these words being said, the angel vanished: and the king was long
afraid. Then he arose quickly, and opened the door of his cabinet, and
he found in the room his four chaplains, who never forsook him; and he
had great comfort with them in his sufferings, and in reckoning his
hours with them: and he made them bring ink and paper, and he made them
write down all which the angel had told him. And during the thirty days
he confessed and communicated every third day; and except on Sundays,
during the whole thirty days, he ate only three mouthfuls of bread in
the week, and drank water only, and that no more than once a day. And he
confirmed his last testament, and promoted his servants. And at the end
of the thirty days, his soul departed according to the angel's warning,
which he knew through the intercession of Our Lady the Virgin St. Mary."

Ortiz thinks it necessary to enter into a formal and lengthened
refutation of the angel's visit, and to prove, from the style, the
anachronisms, and other circumstances, that it must be a forgery.

Don Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo, bishop of Valencia (in his Historia
Hispana, lib. iv. cap. 5.), was the first to publish the apparition, but
with many varying circumstances. He says that the angel appeared in a
dream to one Pedro Martinez of Pampliega, of the household of the
infante don Manuel; and that, by order of the celestial messenger, Pedro
waited on the king at Burgos, who ridiculed the whole matter. Some days
having passed, Alfonso went to Segovia, where he was troubled by another
visit from a holy hermit, who exhorted him to repentance. The king