Under pretence, therefore, of shewing
hospitality to the French, he invited the principal officers to a feast,
where he caused them all to be murdered; and he afterwards put the rest
of the garrison to the sword.--Brito records the transaction in the
following lines, which I quote, not only as an historical document,
illustrative of the moral character of one of the worst sovereigns that
ever swayed the British sceptre, but as an honorable testimony to the
memory of his unfortunate brother:--
"Attamen Ebroicam studio majore reformans
Armis et rebus et bellatoribus urbem,
Pluribus instructam donavit amore Johanni,
Ut sibi servet eam: tamen arcem non dedit illi.
Ille dolo plenus, qui patrem, qui modo fratrem
Prodiderat, ne non et Regis proditor esset,
Excedens siculos animi impietate Tyrannos,
Francigenas omnes vocat ad convivia quotquot
Ebroicis reperit, equites simul atque clientes,
Paucis exceptis quos sors servavit in arce.
Quos cum dispositis armis fecisset ut una
Discubuisse domo, tanquam prandere putantes,
Evocat e latebris armatos protinus Anglos,
Interimitque viros sub eadem clade trecentos,
Et palis capita ambustis affixit, et urbem
Circuit affixis, visu mirabile, tali
Regem portento quaerens magis angere luctu:
Talibus obsequiis, tali mercede rependens
Millia marcharum, quas Rex donaverat illi.
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