Highest hath heard thy curse;—that all who spring from him shall sink lower and lower, with all their lordship, in such wise that some of them may wish the earth to open and swallow them up: and this shall last until the fourth generation from don Sancho thy son, when thy male heirs shall fail, and none shall remain to inherit this lordship; and the people shall be in grief and trouble, not knowing what counsel to follow. And all this dole shall be for thy sins and others, especially for the sin which thy son and those of the realm have committed in rising against thee. But the Highest shall send them salvation from the East,—a right noble king, and a good and a perfect one, and one endued with justice, and with all the great and noble things becoming a king. And he shall be fatherly to the people, in such wise that the living, and those even whose bones lie in the grave, shall bless God for his coming and for his goodness. And he shall be aided by the High God, as he shall well merit; so his people shall forget their past sufferings, how great ones soever may befall them before that joyful day. Moreover, know thou for a surety, that by reason of thy continual prayers to the Glorious Mother of God, from seventeen years of age until now, she hath obtained from the Highest, that in thirty days hence thy soul depart from the world and enter purgatory, which is good hope; and in time, when the Highest shall see fit, it shall enter into glory everlasting!'

"And these words being said, the angel vanished: and the king was long afraid. Then he arose quickly, and opened the door of his cabinet, and he found in the room his four chaplains, who never forsook him; and he had great comfort with them in his sufferings, and in reckoning his hours with them: and he made them bring ink and paper, and he made them write down all which the angel had told him. And during the thirty days he confessed and communicated every third day; and except on Sundays, during the whole thirty days, he ate only three mouthfuls of bread in the week, and drank water only, and that no more than once a day. And he confirmed his last testament, and promoted his servants. And at the end of the thirty days, his soul departed according to the angel's warning, which he knew through the intercession of Our Lady the Virgin St. Mary."

Ortiz thinks it necessary to enter into a formal and lengthened refutation of the angel's visit, and to prove, from the style, the anachronisms, and other circumstances, that it must be a forgery.

Don Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo, bishop of Valencia (in his Historia Hispana, lib. iv. cap. 5.), was the first to publish the apparition, but with many varying circumstances. He says that the angel appeared in a dream to one Pedro Martinez of Pampliega, of the household of the infante don Manuel; and that, by order of the celestial messenger, Pedro waited on the king at Burgos, who ridiculed the whole matter. Some days having passed, Alfonso went to Segovia, where he was troubled by another visit from a holy hermit, who exhorted him to repentance. The king having caused the messenger to be kicked out of the palace, there arose a furious storm, attended with thunder and lightning, which the night season rendered still more awful; the liquid element fell into the royal apartment, and consumed the queen's wardrobe. The terrified king immediately sent in search of the hermit, begged pardon of God, and confessed his impiety.