Chapter Eleven.
Diffusing Minds.
“How often, O my knights,
Your places being vacant at my side,
This chance of noble deeds will come and go.”
The Princes Enrique and Fernando, having matured their ideas by much discussion, decided on proposing to the King to make an expedition for the taking of Tangier, similar to the one that their father had sent out against Ceuta. Should he, however, be unwilling to make a great national expedition, they would obtain from him his consent, and as much aid as he thought proper, and would devote to the cause all their own resources, which were considerable. Their eagerness grew as their ideas developed, and some inkling of their wishes getting abroad, all the younger nobility caught fire at the notion, and the princes soon saw that their cause would be a popular one.
It was therefore with some confidence in the result that they sought their brother in his private apartments, to lay their plans before him.
Duarte’s life was one of unceasing toil for the good of his subjects. He had already worked out a great scheme for improving the legal system of Portugal, and his industry was immense. His difficulties were much increased by the over-liberality with which his father had given away the crown-lands to his nobility, and many an anxious hour was spent by Duarte in trying to find means to fill his empty exchequer. He set an example of economy in his household, closer than his young queen altogether approved of; but the remedy for this great evil was still to seek. Busy as he was, however, he retained the scholarly tastes of his youth, and his book, El Leal Conselheiro; or, The Faithful Counsellor, a collection of moral and political sayings, was in its day of great value. Nor, however hurried, did he ever fail in kindness and consideration, especially to Fernando, whom he regarded with almost the protecting affection of a father.
He rose now from the table at which he was writing, and greeted his brothers warmly.
“Ah! Enrique,” he said, “have you come to tell me how matters go in your new dominions?”
For Duarte had made Enrique a present of his recent discovery, the island of Madeira.
“Not now, sire,” said Enrique, with some formality. “We have a request to make to you.”