THE BLACK PRINCE'S RUBY. 153
ures
to the Black Prince if he would come to his aid. Tempted by such bait,
the Black Prince led his troops into Spain, fought for Don Pedro and
conquered Henry for him at the battle of Najera on April 3, 1367.
This
was the first, but unhappily not the last, battle-field on which
English and French slaughtered each other for the sake of a Spanish
tyrant.
Overjoyed
at this success Don Pedro presented to his deliverer then and there
the splendid Ruby in order to get which he had murdered Abu Said.
Immediately afterwards he went off to Seville to collect the rest of
the promised treasure. So he said at least, but the treasure never
came, and the Black Prince, after losing half his army from sickness,
was obliged to quit Spain without other payment than the Ruby. He wore
the gem in his hat, as an original and contemporaneous picture of him
which Walpole saw testifies. It is said that in the fever-stricken
plains of the Peninsula the Black Prince inhaled the germs of the disease which a few years after-
