boundaries peace reigned. This happy condition had followed upon the
relentless suppression of feudal chiefs whose acts of brigandage,
pillage, and general lawlessness had terrorised the people and
enfeebled the State during the preceding reign.

The same nobles who had fought under Isabella's standard against Henry
IV. did not scruple to turn their arms upon their young sovereign,
once she was seated upon the throne. Lucio Marineo Siculo has drawn a
sombre picture of life in Spain prior to the establishment of order
under Ferdinand and Isabella. To accomplish the needed reform, it was
necessary to break the power and humble the pretensions of the feudal
nobles. The Duke of Villahermosa, in command of an army maintained
by contributions from the towns, waged a merciless campaign, burning
castles and administering red-handed but salutary justice to rebels
against the royal authority, and to all disturbers of public order
throughout the realm.

This drastic work of internal pacification was completed before the
arrival of our Lombard scholar at the Spanish Court. Castile and
Aragon united, internal strife overcome, the remaining undertaking
worthiest to engage the attention of the monarchs was the conquest of
the unredeemed southern provinces. Ten years of intermittent warfare
had brought the Christian troops to the very walls of Granada, but
Granada still held out. Almeria and Guadiz were in possession of the
enemy and over the towers of Baza the infidel flag proudly floated.

The reception accorded Tendilla's protégé by the King and Queen in
Saragossa was benign and encouraging. Isabella already caressed the
idea of encouraging the cultivation of the arts and literature amongst
the Spaniards, and her first thought was to confide to the newcomer