



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




The Constant Prince
By Christobel Coleridge
Published by Mozley and Smith, London.
This edition dated 1879.

The Constant Prince, by Christobel Coleridge.

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THE CONSTANT PRINCE, BY CHRISTOBEL COLERIDGE.

PREFACE.

It is commonly supposed that the writer of an historical tale idealises
the characters therein represented, heightens the romance of the
situation, and at any rate brings the fairer tints of the scene into
undue prominence.  I wish to make it clearly understood that I have not
done so in this instance.  The high cultivation, the mutual affection,
the deep piety, all the peculiar characteristics of the Princes of Avis,
are matters of history, and I have only found it impossible to do
justice to them.  The personal appearance of the three eldest, and the
special line taken by all of them with regard to the cession of Ceuta,
indeed the whole tragical story, I found ready to hand, the only
imaginary incidents being the meeting of Enrique and Fernando at
Arzella, and the presence of the two boy princes at the siege of Ceuta.

There is a life of the Constant Prince which was written by the priest
to whom I have given the name of Father Jose, which I regret much not
having been able to obtain, though the outline of the story of his
imprisonment is, I believe, taken from it.

The details of the Treaty of Tangier are very obscure; but it appears
that the Moorish king of Granada considered his African brethren as
guilty of a breach of faith in detaining Fernando.

The English characters are of course wholly fictitious.

Lastly, Calderon in his play, "Il Principe Costante," and Archbishop
Trench, in his beautiful poem of the "Steadfast Prince," represent
Fernando as refusing to be ransomed by the cession of Ceuta.  This
refusal he had neither the power nor the right to make.  His real
nobleness lay in his willing acceptance of the suffering brought on him
by the decision of others.

C.R.  Coleridge.

Hanwell Rectory,--

December 2, 1878.

CHAPTER ONE.

FORESHADOWINGS.

  "The child is father of the man."

In a small marble-paved court belonging to the newly-built palace of
King Joao the First of Portugal, on a splendid summer day in the year
1415, five youths were engaged in earnest consultation.  The summer air,
the luscious scent of the orange-trees beneath which they were seated,
might have inclined them to mere lazy enjoyment of their young
existence--the busy sounds from the tilt-yard near have summoned them to
the sports and exercises for which their graceful, well-grown strength
evidently fitted them, or the books, several of which were scattered on
the marble steps of the court, have employed their attention.  But they
were evidently so deeply interested by the subject in hand as to have no
thoughts to spare for anything else--a fact the more remarkable as they
were not engaged in a dispute, but were discussing something on which
they were evidently all agreed, and which they regarded as of the
highest importance.

"When our great uncle, Edward the Black Prince, won his spurs," said the
eldest, a tall, dark-haired young man, with a singularly considerate and
intelligent countenance, "it was at Crecy by hard fighting.  _He_ did
something to deserve knighthood.  His father let him win the field for
himself.  `Is my son unhorsed,' he said, `or mortally wounded?  Nay,
then let him win his spurs.'  And see how he won them!"

"And _he_ was only sixteen!" said the second brother, who resembled the
first speaker, but had a more fiery and vivacious expression.

"Ay, Pedro, we have waited too long for our chance; it suits not with
our honour."

"Oh," broke in the fourth boy vehemently, "why cannot the King find some
pretext for war?  If Castile or Arragon would but insult us!  But my
father says he cannot engage in an unjust war merely to knight his sons.
'Tis very unlucky."

"Nay," said the eldest brother, "I cannot blame him.  He must consider
the country's good."

"Ah!" said Pedro, "there always _were