ABSTRACT
W h e n King Charles knew that the twenty-two galleys of the King of Aragon were sailing after his fleet, he crossed himself in his astonishment and said : " Ah, God, what a mad people that is who go with their eyes open to be killed. True indeed is the saying of the wise man that all the sense of Spain is in the heads of the horses ; for the people have no sense, and the horses are sensible and the best horses in the world.” 1 And on the following day, when he saw so many sails enter Boca de Faro, he and the count of Alen^on (who was at Catona and who saw them first and sent word to King Charles at Reggio) imagined the fleet was returning with twenty-two galleys they had taken, to present them to King Charles. And that was what King Charles and the count of Alengon imagined ; but when they saw them enter Messina and, at night, saw the illuminations made at Messina, they wondered. And when they knew the truth they said: ” Ah, God, what is this ? What are these people who have fallen upon us ? These are not men, but devils from hell. May God, in His mercy, let us escape out of their hands.”
