ALLIANCES AiSD DEATHS. 355 The marriage of the heir apparent could not have chapter been celebrated at a more auspicious period. It '. was in the midst of negotiations for a general peace, when the nation might reasonably hope to taste the sweets of repose, after so many uninter- rupted years of war. Every bosom swelled with exultation in contemplating the glorious destinies of their country under the beneficent sway of a prince, the first heir of the hitherto divided mon- archies of Spain. Alas ! at the moment when Fer- dinand and Isabella, blessed in the affections of their people, and surrounded by all the trophies of d glorious reign, seemed to have reached the very zenith of human felicity, they were doomed to re- ceive one of those mournful lessons, which admon- ish us that all earthly prosperity is but a dream. ^^ Not lone: after Prince John's marriage, the sover- second mar- O o ' riage of Pnn- eigns had the satisfaction to witness that of their <=essisabeiia daughter Isabella, who, notwithstanding her repug- nance to a second union, had yielded at length to the urgent entreaties of her parents to receive the addresses of her Portuguese lover. She required as the price of this, however, that Emanuel should first banish the Jews from his dominions, where they had bribed a resting-place since their expul- sion from Spain ; a circumstance to which the su- 21 It is precisely this period, or de los Reyes Catolicos Don Fer- rather the whole period from 1493 nando e Doiia Isabel de gloriosa to 1497, which Oviedo selects as memoria, mas alegres tiempos 6 that of the greatest splendor and mas regozijados, vino en su corte, festivity at the court of the Catho- e mas encumbrada andubo la gala e lie sovereigns. " El ailo de 1493, las fiestas d servicios de galanes 6 y uno 6 dos despues,y aun hasta el damas." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. de 1497 aiios fu6 cuando la corte 1, quinc. 4, dial. 44.
