for their monarch ; and this likewife was heard by don Fernando. He begged the nobles to fup-port him fteadily in his attempts to bring the people to his way of thinking ; but they all left him. As foon as the funeral was ended and the queen had returned to her palace, they called for their horfes, which the majority mounted, and fet out from Lisbon. € Some few attached to the grand master, might remain, but they retired to their houfes, and kept within, expecting the event to happen which I am about to relate. 1 The citizens of Lisbon, Coimbra, Ourique and Oporto, after the funeral, went to the ca-thedral which is dedicated to St. Dominick, in-stead of going to their homes, and the grand mafter with them, where they held a short con-ference. • ' • • *. * My good people/ faid don John, ' if you wish to have me for your king, which I think my just right, and are refolved to perfevere in it, • you must now bestir yourfelves, and begin by acting to show your strength. You have feen how Fer-nando Audere is working on the nobles to send for the king of Castille, to whom he fays the crown of Portugal now belongs in right of my niece ; but I maintain that it shall, if you afsifl me, be mine; for I have a much better claim to it in every way. I am a man, and the fon of the good don Pedro who fo gallantly reigned over you. My niece, the queen of Castille, it is true, is daughter to don Ferdinand, but not in legal marriage/ The Lisboners re-plied, 879