In 1585 a man appeared who personated the dead king.  He was a native of Alcazova, and a person of low birth and still lower morals.  In his earlier days he had been admitted into the monastic society of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but had been expelled from the fraternity on account of his misconduct.  Even in his later life, when, by pretended penitence, he succeeded in gaining re-admission, his vices were found so far to outweigh his virtues and his piety that it was necessary again to confide him to the tender mercies of a sacrilegious world.  He fled to the hermitage of Albuquerque, and there devotees visited him.  Widows and full-blooded donnas especially frequented his cell; and the results of his exercises were such that the Alcalde threatened to lay hands upon him.  Once more he disappeared, but only to turn up again in the guise of Don Sebastian.  Two of his accomplices who mixed among the people pointed out his resemblance to the lost monarch:  the credulous crowd swallowed the story, and he soon had a respectable following.  Orders from Lisbon, however, checked his prosperous career.  He was arrested and escorted by 100 horsemen to the dungeons of the capital.  There he was tried and condemned to death.  The sentence was not, however, carried into effect; for the imposture was deemed too transparent to merit the infliction of the extreme penalty.  The prisoner was carried to the galleys instead of the scaffold, and exhibited to visitors as a contemptible curiosity rather than as a dangerous criminal.  So ended the first sham Sebastian.

In the same year another pretender appeared.  This was Alvarez, the son of a stone-cutter, and a native of the Azores.  So far from originating the imposture, it seems to have been thrust upon him.  Like the youth of Alcazova, after being a monk, he had become a hermit, and thousands of the devout performed pilgrimages to his cell, which was situated on the sea-coast, about two miles from Ericeira.  The frequency and severity of his penances gained him great celebrity, and at last it began to be rumoured abroad that the recluse was King Sebastian, who, by mortifying his own flesh, was atoning for the calamity he had brought upon his kingdom.  At first he repudiated all claim to such distinction; but after a time his ambition seems to have been aroused; he ceased to protest against the homage of the ignorant, and consented to be treated as a king.  Having made up his mind to the imposture, Alvares resolved to carry it out boldly.  He appointed officers of his household, and despatched letters, sealed with the royal arms, throughout the kingdom, commanding his subjects to rally round his standard and aid him in restoring peace and prosperity to Portugal.  The local peasantry, in answer to the summons, hastened to place themselves at his service, and were honoured by being allowed to kiss his royal hand.  Cardinal Henrique, the regent, being informed of his proceedings, despatched an officer with a small force to arrest