Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/535

389 MILITARY POLICY OF THE SOVEREIGNS. 389 nations of any age, of poisoning their arrows ; dis- ciurxER tilling for this purpose the juice of aconite, or — U —. wolfsbane, which they found in the Sierra Nevada^ or Snowy Mountains, near Granada. A piece of linen or cotton cloth steeped in this decoction was wrapped round the point of the weapon, and the wound inflicted by it, however trivial in appear- ance, was sure to be mortal. Indeed a Spanish writer, not content with this, imputes such malig- nity to the virus, that a drop of it, as he asserts, mingling with the blood oozing from a wound, would ascend the stream into the vein, and diffuse its fatal influence over the whole system ! ^^ Ferdinand, who appeared at the head of his Terms tnuie ' A i vaiiqmsned. armies throughout the whole of this war, pursued a sagacious policy in reference to the beleaguered cities. He was ever ready to meet the first over- tures to surrender, in the most liberal spirit ; grant- ing protection of person, and such property as the besieged could transport with them, and assigning them a residence, if they preferred it, in his own dominions. Many, in consequence of this, migrat- ed to Seville and other cities of Andalusia, where they were settled on estates which had been confis- cated by the inquisitors ; who looked forward, no doubt, with satisfaction to the time, when they should be permitted to thrust their sickle into the new crop of heresy, whose seeds were thus sown 19 Mendoza,Guerrade Granada, According to Mendoza, a de- (Valencia, 1776,) pp. 73, 74. — coction of the quince furnished Zurita, Anales, torn. iv. Kb. 20, the most effectual antidote known cap. 59. — Mem. de la Acad, de against this poison. Hist., torn. vi. p. 168.