158 RETURN OF COLUMBUS. PART I. Loyalty of (he people. Slow recov- ery of the king. the galleys lying in the port, in order to transport her children from the place, as she feared the con- spiracy might be designed to embrace other vic- tims.^ The populace, in the mean while, assembled in great numbers round the palace where the king lay. All feelings of hostility had long since given way to devoted loyalty towards a government, which had uniformly respected the liberties of its subjects, and whose paternal sway had secured similar bles- sings to Barcelona with the rest of the empire. They thronged round the building, crying out that the king was slain, and demanding that his mur- derers should be delivered up to them. Ferdinand, exhausted as he was, would have presented himself at the window of his apartment, but was prevented from making the effort by his physicians. It was with great difficulty, that the people were at length satisfied that he was still living, and that they final- ly consented to disperse, on the assurance, that the assassin should be brought to condign punishment. The king's wound, which did not appear dan- gerous at first, gradually exhibited more alarming symptoms. One of the bones was found to be fractured, and a part of it was removed by the sur- geons. On the seventh day his situation was con- 3 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 125. — Bernaldez, Reyes Ca- tolicos, MS., cap. 116. — Abarca, Reyes dc Arafjon, ubi supra. The great bell of Velilla, whose miraculous tolling always announ- ced some disaster to the monarchy, was heard to strike at the time of this assault on Ferdinand, being the fifth time since the subversion of the kingdom by the Moors. The fourth was on the assassination of the inquisitor Arbucs. All which is established by a score of good orthodox witnesses, as reported by Dr. Diego Dormer, in his Discur sos Varios, pp. 206, 207.
