Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/194

50 50 REIGN OF JOHiS II., OF ARAGON. I Treaty bC' tweeii France and PART In the mean while, John, having in vain attempt- ed to penetrate through Catalonia to the relief of his wife, effected this by the cooperation of his An.gon.' French ally, Louis the Eleventh. That monarch, with his usual insidious policy, had covertly de- spatched an envoy to Barcelona on the death of Carlos, assuring the Catalans of his protection, should they still continue averse to a reconciliation with their own sovereign. These offers were but coldly received ; and Louis found it more for his interest to accept the propositions made to him by the king of Aragon himself, which subsequently led to most important consequences. By three several treaties, of the 3d, 21st, and 23d of May, 1462, it was stipulated, that Louis should furnish his ally with seven hundred lances and a proportionate number of archers and artillery during the war with Barcelona, to be indemnified by the payment of two hundred thousand gold crowns within one year after the reduction of that city ; as security for which the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne were pledged by John, with the cession of their revenues to the French king, until such time as the original debt should be redeemed. In this transac- tion both monarchs manifested their usual policy ; Louis believing that this temporary mortgage would become a permanent alienation, from John's ina- bility to discharge it ; while the latter anticipated, as the event showed, with more justice, that the aversion of the inhabitants to the dismemberment of their country from the Aragonese monarchy