ich his steel-clad hearers would
grasp the hilts of their swords and mutter between their clenched teeth
prayers for another crusade."

The pious friars, having finished their mission to the king and been
treated with all due distinction, took their leave, and wended their way
to Jaen, to visit the most Catholic of queens. Isabella, whose heart was
the seat of piety, received them as sacred men invested with more than
human dignity. During their residence at Jaen they were continually
in the royal presence: the respectable prior of the convent moved and
melted the ladies of the court by his florid rhetoric, but his lowly
companion was observed to have continual access to the royal ear. That
saintly and soft-spoken messenger (says Agapida) received the reward of
his humility; for the queen, moved by his frequent representations,
made in all modesty and lowliness of spirit, granted a yearly sum in
perpetuity of one thousand ducats in gold for the support of the monks
of the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre.*

* "La Reyna dio a los Frayles mil ducados de renta cado ano para
el sustento de los religiosos del santo sepulcro, que es la mejor
limosna y sustento que hasta nuestros dias ha quedado a estos religiosos
de Gerusalem: para donde les dio la Reyna un velo labrado por sus manos,
para poner encima de la santa sepultura del Senor."--Garibay, "Compend
Hist.," lib. 18, cap. 36.

Moreover, on the departure of these holy ambassadors, the excellent and
most Catholic queen delivered to them a veil devoutly embroidered with
her own royal hands, to be placed over the Holy Sepulchre;--a precious
and inestimable present, which called forth a most eloquent tribute of
thanks from the portly prior, but which brought tears into the eyes of
his lowly companion.*

* It is proper to mention the result of this mission of the two friars,
and which the worthy Agapida has neglected to record. At a subsequent
period the Catholic sovereigns sent the distinguished historian, Pietro
Martyr of Angleria, as ambassador to the grand soldan. That able man
made such representations as were perfectly satisfactory to the Oriental
potentate. He also obtained from him the remission of many exactions
and extortions heretofore practised upon Christian pilgrims visiting
the Holy Sepulchre; which, it is presumed, had been gently but cogently
detailed to the monarch by the lowly friar. Pietro Martyr wrote an
account of his embassy to the grand