Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/316

290 tence of death was at the same time pronounced against several cavaliers, and other inferior persons concerned in the affair, and was immediately executed.

The Castilian aristocracy, alarmed and disgusted by the severity of a sentence, which struck down one of the most considerable of their order, were open in their remonstrances to the king, beseeching him, if no other consideration moved him in favor of the young nobleman, to grant something to the distinguished services of his father and his uncle. The latter, as well as the grand constable, Velasco, who enjoyed the highest consideration at court, were equally pressing in their solicitations. Ferdinand, however, was inexorable ; and the sentence was executed. The nobles chafed in vain ; although the constable expostulated with the king in a tone, which no subject in Europe but a Castilian grandee would have ventured to assume. Gonsalvo coolly remarked, " It was crime enough in Don Pedro to be related to me."

This illustrious man had had good reason to feel, before this, that his credit at court was on the wane. On his return to Spain, he was received with unbounded enthusiasm by the nation. He was detained by illness a few days behind the court, and his journey towards Burgos to rejoin it, on his