Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/83

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was mingled with the religious enthusiasm, which had been kindled in the long wars with the infidel. The apotheosis of chivalry, in the person of their apostle and patron, St. James, contributed still further to this exaltation of sentiment, which was maintained by the various military orders, who devoted themselves, in the bold language of the age, to the service " of God and the ladies," So that the Spaniard may be said to have put in action what, in other countries, passed for the extravagancies of the minstrel. An example of this occurs in the fifteenth century, when a passage of arms was defended at Orbigo. not far from the shrine of Compostella, by a Castilian knight, named Sueno de Quenones, and his nine companions, against all comers, in the presence of John the Second and his court. Its object was to release the knight from the obligation, imposed on him by his mistress, of publicly wearing an iron collar round his neck every Thursday. The jousts continued for thirty days, and the doughty champions fought without shield or target, with weapons bearing points of Milan steel. Six hundred and twenty-seven encounters took place, and one hundred and sixty-six lances were broken, when the emprise was declared to be fairly achieved. The whole affair is narrated with becoming gravity by an eye-

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