Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/204

60 60 REIGN OF JOHN II., OF ARAGON. PART their cause, the Catalans might be now said to ho — '- again without a leader. But their spirit was un- broken, and with the same resolution in which they refused submission more than two centuries after, in 1714, when the combined forces of France and Spain were at the gates of the capital, they rejected the conciliatory advances made them anew by John. That monarch, however, having succeeded by ex- traordinary efforts in assembling a competent force, was proceeding with his usual alacrity in the re- duction of such places in the eastern quarter of Catalonia as had revolted to the enemy, while at the same time he instituted a rigorous blockade of sieseoiBar- Barccloua bv sea and land. The fortifications were eelona. •' strong, and the king was unwilling to expose so fair a city to the devastating horrors of a storm. The inhabitants made one vigorous effort in a sally against the royal forces ; but the civic militia were soon broken, and the loss of four thousand men, killed and prisoners, admonished them of their inability to cope with the veterans of Aragon.^^ Its"^"' ^t length, reduced to the last extremity, they consented to enter into negotiations, which were concluded by a treaty equally honorable to both parties. It was stipulated, that Barcelona should retain all its ancient privileges and rights of juris- diction, and, with some exceptions, its large terri- torial possessions. A general amnesty was to be granted for offences. The foreign mercenaries 51 Alonso de Paloncia, Cort^nica, — Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey MS., part. 2, cap. 2i), 45. — Ziirita, 29, cap. 29. Anales, torn. iv. fol. 180-183