The internal discords of Castile still continued, as did the war with Portugal: under these circumstances he forbore to insist upon the payment of tribute, and tacitly permitted the truce to continue; but the defiance contained in the reply of Muley Abul Hassan remained rankling in his bosom as a future ground of war; and De Vera's description of Granada as the centre of a system of strongholds and rock-built castles suggested to him his plan of conquest--by taking town after town and fortress after fortress, and gradually plucking away all the supports before he attempted the capital.

He expressed his resolution in a memorable pun or play upon the name of Granada, which signifies a pomegranate.

"I will pick out the seeds of this pomegranate one by one," said the cool and crafty Ferdinand.
NOTE .-- In the first edition of this work the author recounted a characteristic adventure of the stout Juan de Vera as happening on the occasion of this embassy; a further consultation of historical authorities has induced him to transfer it to a second embassy of De Vera's, which the reader will find related in a subsequent chapter..