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The separate pictures in this vision are all copied from the real circumstances attendant on the capture and assassination of Pedro. See Johnes's Froissart, vol. i. p. 768.

Le Begue de Villaines seized Pedro in his attempt to escape by night from Montiel: and the Viscount de Rocaberti held him by the legs while he was poniarded in the tent by Henry of Trastamere.

At the battle of Salado in 1340, Alfonzo defeated Alboacen, the King of Morocco, and slew 200,000 of the infidels. Vide Mariana's History of Spain, book xvi. chap. iv.

“Considerable succours came to him (at the siege of Algezira) from England, France, and Navarre. From England the Earls of Derby and Salisbury.” Mariana, book xvi. chap. v.

For the interesting account of the dying injunctions of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, and of the bequest of his heart to the gallant Lord James Douglas, to be embalmed, and deposited by him at the Holy Sepulchre, the reader is referred to Johnes's Froissart, vol. I. chapter xx.

Douglas, on his voyage to Jerusalem, hearing that Alfonzo was waging war against the Saracen King of Granada, landed at Valentia, and joined the Spanish host. The issue of the combat is thus related by Lord Hailes in the Annals of Scotland, anno 1330. “The detached troops fought with equal advantage, and the Moorish cavalry fled. Douglas with his companions, eagerly pursued the Saracens. Taking the casket from his neck, which contained the heart of Bruce, he threw it before him, and cried, ‘Now pass thou onward, as thou was wont, and Douglas will follow thee, or die!’ The fugitives rallied: surrounded and overwhelmed by superior numbers, Douglas fell, while attempting to rescue Sir William St. Clair of Roslin, who shared his fate. Robert, and Walter Logan, both of them knights, were slain with Douglas. His friend, Sir William Keith, having had his arm broke, was detained from the battle. His few surviving companions found his body in the field, together with the casket, and reverently conveyed them to Scotland. The remains of Douglas were interred in the sepulchre of his fathers, in the church of Douglas, and the heart of Bruce was deposited at Melros.”

Leonora de Guzman, called la Richa Donna, was descended from one of the most noble families of Castile. “Alfonzo the XI. totally deserted his Queen, and for the rest of his days devoted himself to the lovely Leonora. Besides Henry Count of Trastamere, and Don Frederic de Castilla, master of the military order of St. James, Leonora bore several other children to King Alfonzo. Such were, at Pedro's accession, the inauspicious prospects of the Castillians, over whom the influence of Leonora de Guzman prevailed, and to whose friends a strong party was attached.” Dillon's History of Peter the Cruel, vol. i. chap. i. passim.

“Near the western entrance of the Alcazar, or royal palace of Seville, was formerly to be seen a stone seat, with its canopy supported by four pillars, where that severe judge, Don Pedro, sat to decide causes. His justice was so very inflexible, that in those days of feudal anarchy, it was deemed cruelty and tyranny: and hence, perhaps, much of the obloquy bestowed on him by historians. In Andalusia, where he fixed his residence, his memory is not held in abhorrence: and the Sevillian writers, instead of the appellation Pedro el Cruel, distinguish him by that of El Justiciero.” Swinburne's travels through Spain, p. 255.

“Don Pédre épouse Blanche de Bourbon; et la première nouvelle qu'il apprend de sa femme quand elle est arrivée à Valladolid, c'est qu'elle est amoureuse du grand-maitre de St. Jâques, l'un de ces mêmes batards qui lui avaient fait la guerre. Il y a encore une famille en Espagne qui se vante d'être issue de ce commerce, c'est celle des Henriques.” Voltaire, Essai sur les Mœurs. Tome III. p. 179.