Siege of Cajeta
: Humanity.The City of Cajeta having rebelled against Alphonsus, was
invested by that monarch with a powerful army. Being sorely distressed for
want of provisions, the citizens put forth all their old men, women, and
children, and shut the gates upon them. The king's ministers advised his
majesty not to permit them to pass, but to force them back into the city;
by which means he would speedily become master of it. Alphonsus, however,
had too humane a disposition to hearken to counsel, the policy of which
rested on driving a helpless multitude into the jaws of famine. He suffered
them to pass unmolested; and when afterwards reproached with the delay
which this produced in the siege, he feelingly said, "I had rather be the
preserver of one innocent person, than be the master of a hundred Cajetas."
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