Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/95

 likely to take, fell on their knees before the mon- arch and besought his forgiveness, promising, in requital, complete restitution of the fruits of their rapacity. Henry, content with having so cheaply gained his point, allowed himself to soften at their entreaties, taking care, however, to detain their persons as security for their engagements, until such time as the rents, royal fortresses, and what- ever effects had been filched from the crown, were restored. The story, although repeated by the gravest Castilian writers, wears, it must be owned, a marvellous tinge of romance. But, whether fact, or founded on it, it may serve to show the dilapi- dated condition of the revenues at the begin- ning of the fourteenth century, and its immediate causes.

Another circumstance, which contributed to im- poverish the exchequer, was the occasional political