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42 of power. He very soon quieted the disturbances, united all parties, and acquired the renown of restoring the whole country to peace.

The duke, however, soon afterwards did not deem it pecessary to continue a system of so much rigour, and an authority that would soon have become odious. He erected in the centre of the province a civil tribunal, over which he placed a person who enjoyed the public esteem and confidence, and to this tribunal every city sent a deputy or advocate. He found that the cruelties of Ramiro had drawn upon him a degree of hatred; therefore, to clear himself from all reproach in the minds of the people, and to gain their affection, he resolved to prove to them that the cruelties which had been committed were not attributable to him, but solely to the ferocious disposition of his minister. In pursuance of this plan, he availed himself of the first opportunity favourable to his design; he caused Ramiro to be massacred one morning, and his body to be exposed, stuck upon a stake, in the midst of the market place, with a cutlass near it stained with blood. The horror of this spectacle satisfied the resentment of the people; and petrified them at once with terror and astonishment.

But to return to our subject. The duke now found himself very powerful; he had delivered himself in a great measure from present enemies;