Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/186

42 42 REIGN OF JOHN II., OF ARAGON. PART I. 14G1. Villa Franca, about twenty miles distant ; while the prince, entering Barcelona, was welcomed with the triumphant acclamations due to a conqueror returning from a campaign of victories. ^^ The conditions, on which the Catalans proposed to resume their allegiance to their sovereign, were sufficiently humiliating. They insisted not only on his public acknowledgment of Carlos as his rightful heir and successor, with the office, conferred on him for life, of lieutenant-general of Catalonia, but on an obligation on his own part, that he would never enter the province without their express per- mission. Such was John's extremity, that he not only accepted these unpalatable conditions, but did it with affected cheerfulness. Fortune seemed now weary of persecution, and Carlos, happy in the attachment of a brave and powerful people, appeared at length to have reach- ed a haven of permanent security. But at this crisis he fell ill of a fever, or, as some historians insinuate, of a disorder occasioned by poison admin- istered during his imprisonment ; a fact, which, although unsupported by positive evidence, seems, notwithstanding its atrocity, to be no wise improb- able, considering the character of the parties impli- cated. He expired on the 23d of September, 1461, in the forty-first year of his age, bequeathing 24 Castillo, Cr6nica, cap. 28. — Tarraca closed their gates upon the Abarca, Reyes de Arapon, fol. 253, queen, and rung the bells on her 254. — L. Marineo, Cosas Memo- approach, the sipnal of alarm on rabies, fol. ill, 112. — Alcson, the appearance of an enemy, or lor Anales de Navarra, torn. iv. pp. the pursuit of a malefactor. 559, 5G0. — The inhabitants of