year assembled an army for the purpose of expelling her and her
lover from the country. The warlike Theresa resisted until
defeated in the battle of San Mamede and taken prisoner.

* * * * * *

He was little more than a boy, although four years were sped
already since, as a mere lad of fourteen, he had kept vigil
throughout the night over his arms in the Cathedral of Zamora,
preparatory to receiving the honour of knighthood at the hands of
his cousin, Alfonso VII. of Castile. Yet already he was looked
upon as the very pattern of what a Christian knight should be,
worthy son of the father who had devoted his life to doing battle
against the Infidel, wheresoever he might be found. He was
well-grown and tall, and of a bodily strength that is almost a
byword to this day in that Portugal of which he was the real
founder and first king. He was skilled beyond the common wont in
all knightly exercises of arms and horsemanship, and equipped
with far more learning--though much of it was ill-digested, as
this story will serve to show--than the twelfth century
considered useful or even proper in a knight. And he was at least
true to his time in that he combined a fervid piety with a
weakness of the flesh and an impetuous arrogance that was to
bring him under the ban of greater excommunication at the very
outset of his reign.

It happened that his imprisonment of his mother was not at all
pleasing in the sight of Rome. Dona Theresa had powerful friends,
who so used their influence at the Vatican on her behalf that the
Holy Father--conveniently ignoring the provocation she had given