The Story of the Christians and Moors of Spain

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UP

THE

STORY OF THE CHRISTIANS AND MOORS

OF SPAIN.

(^^

THE STORY "

CHRISTIANS AND MOQgS

OF SPAIN. ^'^^

CHARLOTTE M. XONGE,

}

-;••

CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,
CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.

PREFACE.

In the earlier times of the awakening of romance in
modern days, Spanish chivalry was the fashion. Scott
and Southey both did their parts in making it known ;
and the fantastic honour and dauntless bravery of
the Castilian knight were favourite subjects ; so that
Washington Irving in America, and Herder in Ger-
many, were alike inspired v^ith the same enthusiasm.
Modem criticism on the one hand, and modem per-
siflage on the other, have done their part to discredit
these legends. Research has shown the small founda-
tion on which stood some of the favourite stories,
and then they have been parodied and laughed at.*
Perhaps Babieca is more familiar as the horse of
-\ Don Fernando Gomezales than of the Cid ; and even
< Don Quixote has been so far forgotten that there has
been little inclination to seek out either the facts or
the fictions that formed his character.
'^ A*

vi PREFACE.

Thus it has seemed to me that the eight hundred
years* struggle between the Moslem and the Christian
was little recollected at the present day ; nor, indeed,
could I find its history, romance, and poetry anywhere
brought into combination. Viardot has admirably
written the Moorish history, and Dozy has brought
microscopic research to bear upon it ; but they take
history alone, and from the Moorish side. Burden's
is a very good English complete history of Spain, full
of matter, but mahy-volumed and almost forgotten ;
and Lady Callcott's stands nearly alone as a short
papular history of great excellence.

Washington Irving has dealt with the romance of
the Arab conquest, Southey with the Cid, Lockhart
with the ballad lore, Perez de Hyta with the civil
wars of Granada ; but, as far as I have seen, no one
has tried to combine in a general view Spanish and
Moorish history, together with tradition, romance, and
song. It is a presumptuous effort, only properly to be
carried out by one with as much access to original
doctunents and private knowledge as Mr. Ford, to
whose handbook I am much indebted ; but he is
out of sympathy with the spirit of the Spaniards, and
more inclined to dwell on their evil qualities than
their good ones. This^ then, is only a compilation to
give a surface id^a of that strange warfare^ and which

( PREFACE, vii

f may, perhaps, give a hint of unexplored fields of

wondrous interest.

Where it has been possible, I have availed myself
of existing translations of Spanish poetry.

Having no knowledge of Arabic, I am afraid the
names of the Moorish princes may not be always
correctly spelt, as authors vary a good deal in their
mode of expressing them.

C. M. YONGE.

I

May ^isf, 1878.

TABLE OF THE MOORISH, CASTILIAN,
AND ARAGONESE SOVEREIGNS,

Arranged Chronologically.

Kings of the
Asturias and Leon.

718 Pelayo.
737 Favila.
739 Alfonso I.

768 Aurilio.
774 Fruela I.
784 Mauregato.
788 Bermudo I.
791 Alfonso II.

842 Ramiro I.
850 Ordono I.

866 Alfonso III.

909 Garcia.

914 Ordono II.

924 Fruela II.

925 Alfonso IV.
930 Ramiro It.
950 Ordono III.
955 Sancho I.

967 Ramiro III.

982 Bermudo II.
999 Alfonso V.

Khalifs of Cordova.

/ 756 Abd el Rhaman I.

788 Hoschem I.

796 Al Hakhem I.
822 Abd el Rhaman II.

852 Mohanomed I.

O

S

I ( 886 Al Mondhyr.

"< \ 888 Abd AUah.

^ 912 Abd el Rhaman III.

\

961 Al Hakem II.
976 Haschem Ih

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

AsS'aSdton. King, of A«g,a.

1027 Bermudo III.
1027 Fernando I,

1067 Sancho II. •
1073 Alfonso VI.

1 108 Urraca.

1 126 Alfonso VII.

1037 Ramiro I.
1063 Sancho.

1094 Pedro I.
1 104 Alfonso IV.

1 134 Ramiro III.
1137 Petronila.

Khalifs of Cordova.

1008 ^{ohammed II.

1009 Suleiman.

Period of confusion,
during which Emirs
governed in their own
cities.

Almoravid Khalifs.

1091 Yousuf Ebu
Taschfyn.

1 107 AliAbuTaschf}!!.

1:143 Taschfyn.

11^7 Sancho III.
1158 Alfonso VIII.

1 188 Alfonso IX.

1216 Fernando III.

1 162 Alfonso I.

1 196 Pedro II.

1213 Jayme I.

Almohad Khalifs.
1 157 AbdelMoumem.

1 163 Yousuf Abou

Yakoub.
1 184 Yakoub Ebu
' Yousuf.

1 199 Mohammed Ebu

Yakoub.
1213 Yousuf Ebu
' Mouharom.

Confusion.

1252 Alfonso X.

Kings of Granada.
1238 Al Hamar.

1273 Mohammed II.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

X!

AsS^d'Ll.n. Kings of A«gon.

1276 Pedro in.

1284 Sancho IV.

1285 Alfonso III,
1 291 J ay me II.

1295 Fernando IV.

1312 Alfonso XI.

1327 Alfonso IV.
1336 Pedro IV.

1359 Pedro I.

1369 Enrique I.
1379 Juan I.

1390 Enrique II.

1407 Juan II.

1454 Enrique IV.
1474 Isabel.

1387 Juan I.
1395 Martin.

1412 Fernando I.
1416 Alfonso V.

1458 Juan II.
1479 Fernando II.

Kings of Granada.

1305 Al Nassar.

1312 Ismael.

1325 Mohammed IV.

1333 Yousuf.

1354 Mohammed V.
1359 Ismael II.

1361 Abou Said.

1362 Mohammed.

1391 Yousuf II.
1396 Mohammed VI,
1408 Yousuf III.

1425 Mohammed VII.
1431 Yousuf IV.

1466 Aboul Ha:cem.

1482 Abou Abdallah
(Boabdil).

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
The Goth and the Arab z

CHAPTER II.
The Battle of Guadalete 9

CHAPTER III.
The Conquest i . x6

CHAPTER IV>
The Limit to the Moslem • . • • • as

CHAPTER V.
The first Spanish Khalif 99

xiv CONTENTS,

CHAPTER VI.
The Pass of Roncesvalles .

CHAPTER Vn.
Little Christian States . . '

39

49

CHAPTER vnr.

Santiago, the Patron of Spain .... 54

CHAPTER IX.
The Count of the Land of Castles ... 64

CHAPTER X.
The Augustan Age of Cordova • ... 69

CHAPTER XL
The Loss of Compostella ^ 79

CHAPTER XII. '
The invincible Al Mansour 89

CHAPTER XIII.

THEFALI. OF^HE KHALIFATE 11-

* CONTENTS. w

CHAPTER XIV.
The Union of Castille and Leon . . • • zas

CHAPTER XV.
Ruy, MI CiD Campeador • . . . . •129

CHAPTER XVI.
The AlMgravides and their Conquest . • .143

CHAPTER XVII.
Don Alfonso, the Battle-fighter of Aragon . 157

V CHAPTER XVIII.

The broken Chains of Navas de Tolosa . . 166

CHAPTER XIX.

The Conquests of San Fernando and Jayme el
Conquistador 179

CHAPTER XX.
The Cream of the West . . . . , .199

CHAPTER XXI.
The Battle of Salado . . . . , . aio

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.
The Age of Tyrants 226

CHAPTER XXIII.
The tAST '^BRiGttT Days of (Sranada . . . .241

CHAPTER XXIV,
The Abencerrages and Zegris . . . .255

CHAPTER XXV.
The Siege of Malaga 270

CHAPTER XXVI.
The last Sigh of the Moor 2S4

CHAPTER XXVII.
Woe to the Vanquished .►..♦. 295

»^!

THE STORY

OF THE

CHRISTIANS AND MOORS

OF SPAIN,
CHAPTER I.

THE GOTH AND THE ARAB.

Nature has divided the peninsula of Spain into two
great partitions — the mountain land of the north and
west, and the sunshiny borders of the Mediterranean
towards the south-east.- The one portion would
naturally breed stern, grave, resolute patriots, hard to
dislodge from their mountain nests ; the other, a
bright genial race, prone to enjoy the gifts of the soil
and climate so lavishly, bestowed on them.

This distribution of the features of the country
has been the key to much of Spanish history. The
southern portion has always been easy to conquer, the
northern, very difficult; and the inhabitants, though
not always good soldiers in the field of battle, have
ever excelled in that guerilla warfare which is the
most baffling and harassing to the invader, and which
develops the most constancy, and also the most
ferocity, in the invaded.

To go through the various immigrations and con-
quests that brought in the nations which formed the

B

2 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. I.

Spanish people would be in vain. It will be enough
to say that the aboriginal population, the Vascos or
Basques, had been driven up into and over the Pyre-
nees, into districts where their descendants still retain
their native language. The Kelts or Kelt- Iberians,
)vith a fringe of Phoenician and Greek settlements on
the coast, had, after a long and fierce struggle, been
subdued by the Romans, whose civilisation and lan-
guage they entirely adopted. Spain gave to Rome
an epigrammatist in Martial, the best of her emperors
in Theodosius, a Christian poet in Prudentius, and a
great divine in St Isidore; and five centuries had
made the whole country as completely Latin as Italy
itself. In the break-up of the Western empire, Spain
was first overrun by the Vandals, who only ravaged and
made no settlement, though some say that they left
their name to Andalusia. There followed a struggle
between the Suevi (Schwaben) and the Western Goths
or Visigoths, ending in 621 with the final conquest
of the Peninsula by Swintila the Goth,

This people were already half civilised, and held the
Arian doctrine. They were so much less ferocious and
savage than the Suevi and Vandals as to be almost
like deliverers to the Romanised population. They
themselves had a strong feeling for Latin culture, and,
settling down in the old cities, entirely adopted it For
some time there was a straggle between the Catholic
creed which they found prevailing among the inhabi-
tants and the Arianism tiiey had brought with them ;•
but in the «nd of the sixth century, King Recared,
having been brought over to the Catholic faith by
his Frankish wife Ingund, proclaimed himself of the
same faith as the rest of the Church.

ff

1

CHAP. I.] THE GOTH AND THE ARAB. 3

The old diocesan arrangement had never been
broken, and the Goths became devoted sons of the
Church. Latin was the language of religion and cul-
ture, and, as the population of the country likewise
used it, it became universally spoken ; so that the High
German of the Goth can only be traced in the proper
names of persons and places and in a few imported
terms. Many of the Latin inflections of nouns were
dropped, but the accusative was retained as the usual
plural termination, giving that peculiarly dignified
sound which distinguishes the language. The writing
was always in Latin, and all the habits, manners, and
methods of waHare were copied from the Romans,
who, as usual even when conquered, had leavened
and subdaed tlie minds of their victims.

Toledo was the Gothic capital, where the kings led
a life little disturbed by the wars and inroads that
ravaged the lands north of the Pyrenees, and thus
they constantly became more luxurious, and lost
more and more of the original vigour of the first
conquerors.

Like all the Teutonic races, the Goths 4iad a royal
family, deriving its descent from Odin, and from whom
the king must be taken. Theirs was called the Baltir,
and reig^d in Spain for two centuries, falling latterly
into a state of much corruption and lawless violence.
In 708, Wittich, or Witiza, the reigning king, was
deposed for his tyranny, and in his stead was crowned
his cousin Roderich,* while his two sons, Ebba and
Sisebut, took refuge with their uncle Oppas, Arch-
bishop of Seville. His sister was the wife of Julian,

* Gothic, Roderich (famous king) ; Spanish, Rodrigo ;
English, Roderick.

B 2

4 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. r.

count, or commander, of the southern province, which
included part of the opposite coast of Africa.

Meantime a terrible power was advancing from the
East. The sons of Ishmael had been like the sands
of their own desert — wild, scattered, incapable ol
united action, save in tribes or clans — until the wonder-
ful impulse given by the promulgation of the Koran
drew them together under one head, and filled them
with indomitable energy. To restore the original
patriarchal worship of Abraham and proclaim the One
God, overthrowing the gross idolatries of the Arabs,
including their fanatical adoration of the Kaaba or
Black Stone of Mekka, was at first the object of
Mahommed ; and to this end were directed all the mes-
sages that he declared to be divine, and which finally
formed the Koran. Of Christianity he knew nothing
save through the distorted medium of the heresies then
prevailing in the East ; of Judaism he knew much, and
borrowed a great deal, and he would have amalga-
mated with both, if they would have accepted him as the
one last and complete Prophet. He would have made
Jerusalem the centre of religion to the whole world,
but the passion of the Arabs for the Kaaba and for
Mekka was too strong for him. The Black Stone,
purified from the idols that surrounded it, became the
cynosure of every professor of Islam — ue. the Faith ; and
the city of Mekka, supposed to stand where the Angel
revealed the well to the fainting Hagar, is the place to
which the Faithful turn in prayer, and whither they
make their pilgrimage.

The adoption of the Kaaba won enough of the
Arabs to Mahommed to enable him to overcome, assi-
milate, or destroy the recusant tribes. The faith he

CHAP. I.] THE GOTH AND THE ARAB. 5

taught adapted itself to their national character — alike
to their intense pride of birth, their wild poetical imagi-
nation, their fierceness, their lavish generosity and
scrupulous hospitality, their capacity of bearing hard-
ships, and their licentiousness of spirit. It was, in
fact, Judaism without its hopes, with its law cut
down to suit the wild Ishmaelite, and its paradise
made grossly material Moreover it was devoid of all
elements of growth or adaptation. The Koran, which
professed to be dictated by the Angel Gabriel to Ma-
hommed, was the final revelation, binding the Faithful
as the Law of Moses bound the Jews. Of course the
Divine inspiration was lacking, so that no power of ex-
pansiveness was in it ; and it was, at the very best, the
ideal code of a half-civilised Arab, while great part of
it was composed under the impulse of fierce passions
excited against his enemies. Thus the Koran has often
trained savage nations up to a certain point, and the
impulse has carried them beyond it ; but there is sure
to be then a reaction — a recall to the more rude
elements such as the Prophet left them. A kind of
Puritanism arises, and the attempts at a higher tone
of philosophy or civilisation are extinguished, usually
in blood.

The first ardour of new converts to Islam is generally
irresistible, and when Mahommed died in 632 he was
master of the Arabian peninsula. The head of the
Arab faith was then called the Successor, or Khalif
(from khalafa^ to succeed), and was at once the pope ^
and emperor of all the Faithful, absolute and despotic
in government; and also chief imaum, or interpreter of
the will of God. ^

The immediate successors of Mahommed were near

i

6 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. I.

family connections, elected by the will of the Faithful ;
and though bloody dissensions raged at the centre of
their rule, their dominions were extended with the
utmost rapidity over Palestine, Syria, Persia, and
Egypt Saracens, the name by which these Arabs
were known to the terrified world, was derived from
their own word Sarakhein, from Saraky the East ; while
those who lived farther westwards were termed Mah-
grebhyn, or Western Arabs.— or, as we call them^
Moors.

When Othman was Khalif in 647, and his brother
Abdallah, wali, or governor, of Egypt, the dominion of
the Moslem began to extend to the west under the
brilliant general Okba Aben Nafr. The Atlas moun-
tains, lying in parallel chains along the north of Africa,
had many pleasant slopes and rich valleys, inhabited
by the Berbers, a tall, noble-looking race of men, fair-
skinned, active, high-spirited, and indomitable, living
their free life in their date-groves, through all the
changes of dynasty and empire that affected the cities
on the coast, fighting, in the armies of Carthaginian or
Roman, for love of fighting, but never accepting their
civilisation or bending to their yoke. The Arabs
believed them to be of their own race ; and it is
likely that this was true, for they had the same patri-
archal habits, were divided into clans, and had the
same fine Semitic features, with many of the like
tastes'— being splendid horsemen, and unrivalled in the
use of the djerld, or reed-lance. Their name of Berber
seems to have been taken from tlie Greeks, who called
all foreigners Barbaroi, from Ba-ba, in derisive imitation
of the language they could not understand.

The Berbers were reckoned as belonging to the

CHAP. I.] THE GOTH AND THE ARAB. 7

Greek empire ; when provoked by the exactions of

the governors of Carthage, they asked help from the
Aiabs in Egypt. Okba led an expedition, and ad-
vancing between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea,
reached the Atlantic. Riding into the ocean up to the
girths of his camel, he cried aloud : ** Allah ! I call Thee
to witness that if these deep waters did not stop me, I
would bear yet farther the knowledge of Thy great
name 1 '*

He had passed by the great old Roman province of
Africa of which Carthage was the. capital, now a dis-
organised £eeb]e state, unable to resist him ; but on
his way back he insulted a Berber chi^, and thus
roused all the fierce population to oppose him. He
perished in the struggle; but his lieutenant, Zohair,
continued it, stormed Carthage, and defeated both
Greeks and Berbers. However, a Berber woman, called
£1 Kahina, or the Prophetess, roused her whole people,
and persuaded them that it was the rich cities that
attracted their enemies. The Berbers needed only their
pasture-lands and date-groves ; let them destroy the
towns where Christian and Jew heaped up riches, and
their foes would let them alone. They obeyed her.
Every town and village from Tripoli to Tangier was
laid waste. And for five years she reigned ; but then
was defeated and slain in a great battle with the Arabs.
Then peace was made, and the Berbers were forgiven
on condition of their joining the Arab force. Mousa
Aben Nassir, a really great man, succeeded in their
incorporation into the Moslem empire, and they be-
came enthusiastic believers, though without hating the
Arabs less. They even believed themselves the true
descendants of Ishmael, and fought for the spread of

i

8 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. I.

the faith of the Koran ; but never without bitter jealousy
of the Sarakhein of the East.

In 710, Walyd Abou - '1 - Abbas was Khalif at
Damascus, and Mousa, now an old man, wrote to ask
permission to carry the faith of the Prophet into what
he called " the isle of Andalusia,*' saying : " It is Syria
for the beauty of sky and soil; Yemen for climate;
India for flowers and perfumes ; Egypt for fruit ;
China for precious metals." He sketched out a mag-
nificent plan of conquest, beginning with Spain, and
then passing through France, Germany, and Hungary
to Constantinople ; and the Khalif gave ready consent.

On the one side stood the nations freshly stirred
into energy by the attainment of a more systematic
faith, and stronger principle of unity than they had
ever previously known, ardent to spread their doctrine
by the sword, and viewing death in Allah's cause as the
passport to paradise. On the other side were the
broken remnants of the Roman empire, lying about
among the fabric that had been set up on its ruin. The
Juxury of Rome had eaten into the Teuton vigour, and
the Teuton lawlessness had corrupted the Church it
had received from the Romans.

The youth of one people was launched against the
decay of two ; the new-born zeal of one religion against
the stability of another grievously betrayed by its
professors.

CHAPTER II.

THE BATTLE OF GUADALETE.

The fall of Gothic Spain was one of the disasters that
served to justify the saying that all great catastrophes
are caused by women. At least, so says tradition
and romance, though it is probable that the tide of
Arab conquest would have rushed into Europe with-
out any Spanish treachery. Moreover, as Count Julian
was the brother-in-law of the deposed Witiza, there
was every reason to expect him to hate the actual
king, Roderich. So that some modern critics have
doubted whether in truth vengeance for Roderich's
guilty love for his daughter,* Florinda, were the real
cause of Julian's invitation to Mousa.

Long had the crimes of Spain cried out to Heaven ;
At length the measure of offence was full.
Count Julian called the invader. , . .

Mad to wreak

His vengeance for his deeply injured child
On Roderick's head, an evil hour for Spain,
For that unhappy daughter, and himself.
Desperate apostate, on the Moors he called,
And, like a cloud of locusts, whom the wind .
Wafts from the plains of wasted Africa,

I

lo THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [ciiAP. ii.

The Mussulman upon Iberia's shores
Descends. A countless multitude they came :
Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade,
Persian, and Copt, and Latin, in one band
Of erring faith conjoined, strong in the j'outh
And heat of zeal, a dreadful brotherhood.

(" Florinda has ever since been execrated by the

V Spaniards, who call her " La Cava," or the Wicked.

Julian was count, or commander, of the south and
of Ceuta. It would seem as if he had been Roman
rather than Gothic, and in his wrath he turned to ask
the aid of Mousa, who sent his bravest sheik, Th^ryk
Aben Zyad, with a strong force.

He crossed the strait between what had always been
called the Pillars of Hercules, but which the Arabs now
named Bab-el-Z^kab, or the Gate of Defiles. The
great couchant lion of the rock of Calpe afforded them
landing, though it was vainly defended by the Goths,
under Theodomir, and he there built a fortress, which
has ever since borne his name, Jebal Thii7k —
Gibraltar, the Rock of Thiryk.

It was to the Moors the key of Spain. The in-
vaders spread along the shore and advanced to the
river Anas — Wady Ana, as they termed it, after the
Arab ravines, now Guadiana — as far as a city built by
the Phoenicians, and called after Sidon. They gave it
the name of Medina, after the sacred city where
Mahommed lay buried, and its present name of Medina-
Sidonia is a history in itself.

Roderich had been awakened from his luxurious life
at Toledo, by the messages of Theodomir. A wondrous
old Spanish romance, which calls itself his truthful
history, relates his preparation. Near Toledo stood

CHAP, u.] THE BATTLE OF GUADALETE. ix

an ancient tower^ ruinous but splendid^ and beneath it
was a cave, closed up with a strong iron gate, fastened
with many locks, and above it was engraven Greek
letters, which wise men expounded to mean : *' The
king who opens this cave and discovers its wonders
will learn both good and evil." Many kings had gone
as far as the opening, but had been terrified out of life
or senses by the tremendous noise within the cavern.
The gate had been therefore closed up with nine locks,
concluding that though a king was destined to open it,
the fated time was not come. But Roderich, in this
time of danger, resolved to try his fortune, and consult
the oracle of the cavern. The gate was opened, and
by torchlight the king moved on in advance of the
rest till he came to a magnificent hall, where stood a
bronze statue of fierce aspect, holding a battle-axe and
striking the ground with a tremendous noise. The
king on this began to conjure tlie statue to cease and
give him time to examine the cave, promising to do
no harm to it The figure accordingly became still,
and the king began to examine the place, reading the
following inscription on the walls :

Unhappy king, thou hast entered in an evil hour.
By strange nations thou sbalt be dispossessed,
and thy people degraded.

And on Ae shoulders and breast of the statue :

I do my office.
I call upon the Arabs.

The unfortunate king left the cavern in haste, and
closed up the entrance with earth ; but at midnight a
fearful sound was heard, and the whole ancient tower

•jT

\

12 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. ii.

was discovered to have crashed down to its founda-
tions. Thus in after times did the Spaniards describe
the handwriting on the wall, foredooming their Gothic
ancestors, heavily laden with crime ; and as the last
survivor of an effete dynasty, Roderich collected his
forces to meet the terrible nation who had been never
yet defeated nor turned back, but who had spread
from the East as irresistibly as locusts. The two
armies met on the banks of the Lethe, now known by
the Arab addition, Wady Lete, Guadalete, not far
from Xeres. Roderich's army is said to have numbered
eighty thousand men, but only the nobles were well
armed. The lower classes had no defensive armour, and
only used bows and arrows or slings ; while the in-
vaders, though in smaller numbers, were all picked men
— the terrible horsemen of the deserts.
~ The battle took place on the ist of July, 711, and
lasted, the Moors say, three days, the Spaniards, a
week. Roderich is described as appearing in a " gown
of beaten gold,'' with a gold crown on his head, and
covered with precious stones ; seated in a car or waggon
drawn by two horses, with a richly-embroidered canopy
or tent overshadowing it, supported by a pillar of gold.
It was guarded by a thousand men, and seems to
have resembled the caroccio in which the gonfalon, or
sacred banner, of the Italian cities was taken out to
battle. Roderich seems only to have appeared on this
car the first day. Afterwards he mounted his horse,
and wore his helmet adorned with horns of gold (as
seen in old Gothic coins), and dashed into the thickest
of the fray.

It was fought out, day after day ; but on the last the
broken remnant of the Goths found the horse, called

CHAP. II.] THE BATTLE OF GUADALETE. 13

by romance Orelio, and the horned helmet lying on
the banks of the river, and never again did they see
Roderich the last of the Goths.

The Arab historians declare that " Allah slew him
by the hand of Thiryk ;" but Mousa sent to the Khalif
Walyd what was supposed to be his head preserved in
camphor : but Spanish story gives him another fate.
Roderich was one of those princes whom their people
could never believe to have perished. Here is his
lament in one of the beautiful old national ballads,
as translated by J. G. Lockhart :

The hosts of Don Rodrigo were scattered in dismay,
When lost was the eighth battle, nor heart nor hope had they ;
He, when he saw the field was lost, and all his hope was flown.
He turned him from his flying host and took his way alone.

His horse was bleeding, blind, and lame, he could no farther go.
Dismounted, without path or aim, the king stepped to and fro.
It \vas a sight of pity to look on Roderick,
For sore athirst and hungry he staggered faint and sick.

All stained and strewed with dust and blood, like to some smoul-
dering brand

Huck'd from the flame, Rodrigo shew'd. His sword was in his
hand;

But it was hacked into a saw of dark and purple tint ;

His jewell'd mail had many a flaw, his helmet many a dint.

He climbed unto a hill-top, the highest he could see.
Thence all about of that wild route his last long look took he.
He saw his royal banners where they lay drenched and torn,
He heard the cry of victory, the Arabs' shout of scorn.

He look'd for the brave captains that had led the hosts of Spain,
But all were fled except the dead, and who could count the slain?
Where'er his eye could wander, all bloody was the plain ;
And while thus he said the tears he shed ran down his checks
like rain :

14 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. ii.

*' Last night I was the King of Spain, to-day no king am I ;
Last night fair castles held my train, to-night where shall I lie ;
Last night a hundred pages did serve me on the knee.
To-night not one I call my own, not one pertains to me.

' ' O luckless, luckless was the hour, and cursed was the day
When I was bom to have the power of this great seigniory ;
Unhappy me that I should live to see the sun go down this

night,
O Death, why now so slow art thou, whyfearest thou to smite? "

So was Rodericli supposed to bewail himself in a
ballad quoted by Cervantes, and therefore certainly
older than the sixteenth century. A worthless man
himself, the fact of being the last of his race led to his
being pitifully lamented by his people. Long did they
look for him to reappear ; and gradually a belief g^ew
up that he had spent the end of his life in penance.

His chronicle gives a beautiful legend of liow he
wandered to a convent near Merida, where a monk
named Romano, taking pity on his anguish of mind,
went forth with him, carrying with them a little image
of the Blessed Virgin, till they came to the mountain
of Alcobaga, where they found a cave, which they
enlarged with their own hands, and there dwelt to-
gether; the good monk comforting the fallen king
through his bitter penance and the many temptations
from which he suffered in the earlier part of his retire-
ment. After some time Romano died, "and Roderich
found another hermitage near Vis^o, where he died ;
and Spanish chroniclers declared that they had seen a
tomb inscribed

Hie requiescat Rudericus uhirnus Rex Gothorum.

Some even said he had entered the tomb alive with
a serpent who devoured him.

CHAP. II.] THE BATTLE OF GUADALETE. 15

Two English poets have been smitten with the wild
beauty of these legends of Roderich. Scott made his
adventure in the tower of Toledo the occasion of a
vision of all Spanish history down to the Peninsular
War ; and Southey, in a blank-verse poem, beautiful
in parts, but too long for the impatience of modern
readers, has pictured his penitence, and made him,
after Romano's death, return to the defence of his
people as an unknown warrior, become known to them
in the hour of battle, and then — while the cries —

Roderick the Goth ! Roderick and victory I
Roderick and vengeance I

are still pealing on his ear, vanish once more to his

Days, months, and years, and generations past,
And centuries held their coarse, before, far oft,
Within a hermitage near Via9o's walls,
A humble tomb was fonnd, wbidi bore inscribed
In ancient characters King Roderick's name.

CHAPTER III.

THE CONQUEST.

^ The battle of Guadalete was decisive. The Goths
J could make no head without a king. His nearest kins-
men were either traitors or were unwilling to come
forward, in case he should be still alive. Count Julian
advised Thiryk to press forward and give the stricken
foe no time to rally ; and he divided his forces into
three bodies, one of which seized Cordova, another
Malaga, while Thiryk himself, taking Jaen by the way,
marched on to Toledo; and, meeting the other two
parties, laid siege to the capital.

Plunder had been forbidden, and only the com-
batants were attacked. These firs^ Saracen conquerors
were the most merciful invaders the world had yet
seen, and great as was the terror of their name, they
were found to be kindly and generous masters. So
Toledo made small attempt at resistance, and capitu-
lated on the same conditions as the other cities. The
Christians were left unmolested in their houses, con-
vents, and churches, on the payment of a tribute called
tadyl\ they were only forbidden to ring church bells,
have religious processions, or raise new churches with-
out special permission. They were allowed their own

CHAP. III.] THE CONQUEST. 17

laws and judges, but were not permitted to punish any-
one who should become a Mahommedan, while it was
death for a Moslem to become a Christian. -"^

These conditions had been made at Jerusalem,
Alexandria, and everywhere else, and were readily
accepted. Thiryk had pressed on before he could
receive Mousa's orders to wait for him at Guadalete,
and that chief landing with fresh forces, pushed forward
to Merita (so called the colony of the Roman veterans
— emeriti)^ where Egilona, wife to Roderich, had shut
herself up. Merida (as it is now termed) was very
strong; and was so steadily defended that Mousa
sent for reinforcements from Barbary under his son
Abd-el-Asis.

On their arrival the Meridans were discouraged, and rp
sent persons to treat with the besiegers. Thiryk found |
Mousa in his tent, an old, withered, white-bearded
man \ and he promised to consult the sheiks and
answer them the next day. At night he had his beard
clipped and dyed, and in the morning the messengers
were asked how they could hope to resist men who
could make themselves young again. They were
granted the same terms as Toledo, except that the
property of those who had died while fighting against
the invaders was confiscated, and Queen Egilona was
kept captive.

Mousa was jealous of Thiryk, who came to meet
him at Talavera, and treated him ungenerously. A
table had been found at the city, still called, from its
name in Arabic, Al Meida (the table), measuring
three hundred and sixty feet in circumference, and
made, it was said, of emerald — which of course meant
malachite — and further believed to have belonged to

C

i8 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. iir.

Solomon, and have been brought into Spain at the
time of the captivity in Babylon. This marvellous
table was nearly the ruin of Thiryk : Mousa claimed
it for the Khalif, and, when one of its legs was missing,
he had Thiryk thrown into prison and beaten with
rods ; but the Khalif sent commands that they should
be reconciled, and Thdryk was restored.

Theodomir, the nearest kinsman of Roderich, had
retreated with the remnant of the army into the
mountains and hills of eastern Andalusia, where he
harassed the Moors in the narrow defiles, carrying on
the guerillay or little war, familiar to the Pehinsula
in all ages. At last, however, he was shut up in the
little city of Orihuela, with so few troops that he
stationed women on the walls, with helmets on their
heads and their hair crossed on their chins to look
like beards. It was not to fight, only to obtain favour-
able terms from Abd-el-Asis, who had pursued him
thither. He came himself to the leader's lent, and
through him obtained the province of Murcia, with
seven cities, to hold under the Khalif, on condition
that each able Goth should yearly pay a dinar of
gold, or else four measures of wheat, barley, wine,
vinegar, oil, and honey ; each Roman serf, half the
quantity.

In the course of the next two or three years, Mousa,
Abd-el-Asis, and Thiryk, had spread their victories far
and wide. That beautiful city of the south, lUiberis, fell
into the hands of Abd-el-Asis, and changed its name
to Garb Nata, or Karnaltah, the Cream of the West. He
married Egilona, the Gothic queen, his prisoner, assur-
ing her that he would still treat her as a queen, and
never take another wife ; and he kept his word. The

CHAP. III.] THE CONQUEST. 19

lady had so many treasures that the Moors called her
" Mother of Necklaces."

Mousa was disposed to keep the lands and the
spoils as much to themselves as possible, while their
victories extended to the northward ; and is even
said to have brought back silver images from the
churches of Narbonne. Thiryk, whose conquests had
followed the course of the Ebro, was a disinterested and
resolute Arab, and freely divided all the plunder among
his warriors. The rivalry between these two chiefs
continued, and they were summoned to Damascus.

Walyd was dead, and the reigning Khalif was his
brother Suleiman. Thiryk was the first to appear
before him, and pleaded his own cause. " Better than
even the Faithful," said he, *^can the Christians
tell whether I have been cowardly, or cruel, or
covetous."

Mousa arrived, bringing four hundred Gothic hos-
tages and piles of treasure. Suleiman asked him about
the Christians of Spain.

" They are," said he, " lions in their castles, eagles
on their horses, women in the plain, goats in the
mountains."

"And those of Afrank?" (/>. Gaul, the Frank).

" They are quick and bold in the attack, fearful and
cowardly in the retreat."

"And the Berbers?"

" The Berbers are like the Arabs in face, in courage,
in patience, in sobriety, in hospitality, and in ways of
fighting; but they are the falsest of men, keeping
neither their word nor bond."

Mousa produced Solomon's famous malachite table,
and presented it to the Khalif ; but therewith stepped

C 2

20 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chAp. in.

forth ThAryk with the lost foot, which he had kept all
this time to prove to the Khalif that he had been the
winner of it. So entirely did it convince Suleiman
that, with the utter contempt for personal dignity
^ common among Eastern princes, he caused Mousa to
be beaten as cruelly as he had used Thiryk, and
\ banished him to Mekka. The Khalif was in fact afraid
of the house of Mousa becoming independent, and
sent off ten envoys, five to put to death the two sons of
the old general who had been left in charge of Kairwan
and Tangier, and the other five to cut off Abd-el-Asis.
They found him ruling at Seville, so beloved by the
soldiers that they durst not attack him till they had
spread reports that Egilona was making him a Chris-
tian, and intended him to assume a crown like a
Gothic king. Then they followed him to a small
mosque where he was in the habit of praying, cut off
liis head, and showing it in the market-place, read the
Khalif 's order for his death. His head was brought
to the Khalif and shown to his father, who died of
grief for the fate of his sons.

In six years all Spain had been overrun, and had
been divided into four provinces. The cities and plains
mostly retained their former inhabitants. There was
no persecution of them as Christians, and they retained
their clergy and the old liturgy compiled by the Spanish
bishops Leander and Ildefonso, and commonly called
the Mosarabic. Every inducement to follow the faith
of their conquerors was held out to them, and they
were much depressed, while the Moors dwelt in the
palaces of the nobles who had been slain or had
fled.
The Arabs looked Jown on them as wretched slaves,

CHAP. III.] THE CONQUEST. 21

wanting in the brave patient sobriety of the sons of the
desert. These conquerors had the simple patriarchal
manners of their forefathers, and were at the same time
capable of high cultivation, though at picsent they
only showed their high qu^ities by their mercifulness
to Uie subdued nation.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LIMIT TO THE MOSLEM.

The hills that border the extreme west of Europe
towards the Atlantic have always been the refuge of
the remnants of the conquered races. The old Vasco
or Basque nation had preserved their language, and
virtually their independence, in the Pyrenean heights,
through all the successive conquests of Kelt, Roman,
and Goth, and were equally able to hold out against
the Moors. The fugitives from many of the cities
which Thiryk conquered found shelter there, and
often resorted to ask counsel from a hermit who dwelt
on the mountain of XJruela, and had there built a little
chapel to St. John the Baptist.

When he died, no less than six hundred freemen of
high birth attended his funeral, and there they agreed
to form themselves into a band for the protection of
their mountains from the Moor, and to choose a leader.
On the hillside then, beside the hermit's little rude
church, they raised on their shields, and proclaimed
as chief, Garcia Ximenes — that is, Garcia the son of
Ximen. He was not of the royal race, though his name
was Gothic (6^^r— meaning war), but he was probably
half Basque. He became thus chief of the Nava — the

CHAP. IV.] THE LIMIT TO THE MOSLEM. 23

clearing of forest, in the Basque language ; and this
chief of the clearing became the progenitor of the
kings of Navarre.

About the same time, farther to the west, where
the Sierra Penamerella juts out into the Atlantic,
another band of Gothic Christians met round the great
cavern of Covadonga, which opened on the long wind-
ing ravine of Cangas, or the Shell The ravine is five
mile$ long, and ends in a beautiful gpreen meadow,
where, from mountain torrents, collects the pure bright
Deva, and in the mountain that closes it in opens the
huge cave, capable of holding three hundred men.
This cave was the refuge of several of the Baltir, the
royal line of Goths ; in especial of Pelagius— or in the
Spanish tongue Pelayo — whose father, Favila, son of
King Chindaswinth, had been murdered by Witiza. He
is said to have been driven to revolt by the loss of his
sister, who had become the prey of a Moorish chief ;
and he had here made his home with his wife, his two
children, and Alfonso {Adel/tms, noble impetuosity),
another young son of the Baltic line. Other Goths,
who had fled but never submitted, came and shared
his refuge in this meadow ; and they raised Pelayo on
their shields, and proclaimed him as their king. Thus
in 718 began the monarchy which was destined to
include for a time, not only the whole Peninsula, but
the richest lands beyond the Atlantic.

Covadonga's conquering site
Cradle was of Spanish might.

The Arabs sent a troop under a diief called Al
Kama against Belay-el-Room — or the Roman, as they
called Pelayo— and Archbishop Oppas with it, to ofifer

24 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. iv.

such terms as his cousin Theodomir had accepted.

These were, however, disdainfully rejected, and the

Moors, by this time too confident of victory, allowed

themselves to be drawn on to attempt to storm the

cave of Covadonga. When their van was in the

meadow that lay beneath the cave, Pelayo and his

few brave comrades on horseback charged them in

front ; and while their rear was still entangled in the

long winding ravines flanked by precipices, the cry

broke out from the peasants and women hitherto

hidden behind the rocks :

*• In the name
Of God ! For Spain or vengeance ! " And forthwith
On either side along the whole defile.
The Asturians shouting : " In the name of God I"
Set the whole ruin loose ; huge tranks, and stones,
And loosened crags, down, down they rolled with rush,
And bound, and thundering force.

The destruction was terrible ; the torrent Deva
swept away the fugitives, Al Kama was taken, and
Oppas made prisoner, and put to death as a traitor.
Nay, the Asturian peasants believe that the devil
carried him away bodily. They still show carvings
commemorating the fact, as well as the granite boul-
ders rolled from the tops of the hills, and the streams
that ran red with blood. Arab chroniclers do not
mention this defeat, but only say that the Christians
lived in dens and caves in the mountains ; and that
when these wild beasts came out they were chastised.

The passes of the Pyrenees were not in the power
of either of the little knots of Christians, and across
them El Haur ben Abd-el-Rhaman, the emir, led his
hordes, hoping to carry on Mousa's scheme and win

CHAP. IV.] THE LIMIT TO THE MOSLEM. 25

" Frandjas." He took Narbonne and besieged Bor-
deaux ; but Eudes, the duke of Aquitaine, hurried to the
rescue, with all the men whom he could muster from
the Pyrenees to the Loire. .^le had lately received from
Rome three sponges, which had been used to clean
the high altar after the Pope had said mass ; and these
he cut up into small pieces, and distributed to his
troops as precious relics. The Moorish leader, on
his side, exhorted the Arabs in Eastern phrase like
Scripture itself. "Fear not the multitude," he said.
" If Allah be for us, who can be against us ?"

But the Franks were decreed to be the boundary
which the Mussulman power should not pass, and
the army Was defeated with such slaughter that the
Arab writers called the way where they were pursued,
between Toulouse and Carcassonne, the Road of the
Martyrs. Still, in spite of Eudes, an Arab garrison
remained in Narbonne ; and on a Pyrenean mountain,
which the invaders called Al Bab, or the Gate, was a
fastness held by a renowned Berber chief, Othman
ben Abi Nessa. In some foray on Aquitaine, Abi
Nessa captured Lampegia, the beautiful daughter of
Eudes himself ; he married her, and for her love made
alliance with her father. Eudes was glad enough thus
to secure himself on the south, for on the north the
great mayor of the palace and Duke of the Franks,
Karl of the Hammer, or Charles Martel, who ruled for
the \ifA^t%% fainiant Meerwing. king, Hlotar II., was
attacking his northern border on the Loire, and he
had to hasten to the defence.

But in Spain Abi Nessa's friendship with him was
held as treason. Abd-el-Rhaman brought all his forces
against him. He shut himself up in his fortress, but

26 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. iv.

was so closely pursued that he was forced to fly into
the Pyrenean gorge with his wife and a few faithful
followers. They gained a little valley where they
hoped to he safe, and he laid the exhausted Lampegia
on the grass beside a waterfall, and was giving her
drink when the cry of their enemies was heard. The
servants fled, but Abi Nessa, with his wife in his arms,
was overtaken. He perished, either being slain or leap-
ing down a precipice, and Lampegia was deemed too
lovely for any fate but the wretched one of being sent
to the Khalifs harem at Damascus.

Abd-el-Rhaman then traversed the Pass of Ronces-
valles, and, as Eudes hurried back to meet him, routed
the forces of Aquitaine and plundered Bordeaux, which
was full of riches. He promised his men the spoil of
Tours, where the great abbey of St. Martin was one of
the richest shrines of the West Meantime, Eudes had
hurried to inform his late enemy, Karl of the Hammer,
of the danger. It was no time for disputes among Chris-
tians. The question was to be decided whether the Gospel
or the Koran should be the rule of the West Karl saw
the need. He was beyond the Rhine when the call
reached him, but he sent out the ban or summons to
all the dominions of the Meerwings to join him at
Tours, and hurried on, his host gathering as he went
Austrasian Franks from the eastern forests, Burgun-
dians from the Jura, Neustrian Franks from the farms
of the Seine, with their Gaulish vassals, Romanised
Gauls from the cities ; all feeling the peril of the
much-loved shrine of the warrior saint and bishop, if
they did not understand the mightier issues of the
strife.

Abd-el-Rhaman had reached the very gates of Tours

CHAP. IV.] THE LIMIT TO THE KfOSLEM. 27

when he learnt that Karl was approaching. Too pru-
dent to let his men gorge themselves with plunder before
the battle was fought, he marched towards Poitiers, and
encamped between the rivers Vienne and Clain. He
thought of causing his men to destroy all their plunder
and keep only their arms and horses ; but he feared to
offend them, and abstained.

There Karl came up with him and likewise encamped,
with the valley between. The two armies lay face to
face for a week — Karl probably to gfive time for his
troops to join him, Abd-el-Rhaman probably for a lucky
day, for it was he who began the attack with his swarms
of light horsemen. The Franks stood in their close
serried ranks " like solid walls or banks of ice," said
the Spanish historian, and the rush of the Arab and
Moorish horse was all in vain. These men were true
Franks — tall, blue-eyed, strong and massive, not like
the mixed people of the south — and their wall of
strength remained unbroken. A few of their reserves
made their way into the rear, the Arabs turned to
defend their camp, and there was a general confusion ;
night came on, and the Franks returned to their camp.
They would have renewed the battle on the ensuing
day, but they found the Arab camp deserted, with all
the treasure and hosts of corpses, among which that of
Abd-el-Rhaman was found. This battle, one of the
fifteen most decisive battles in the world, was fought
in the October of 732. The Moors retreated to
Narbonne, and it w.is not for seven years more that
Karl succeeded in chasing them beyond the Pyrenees.
Pelayo died in 737, and his rude sepulchre still re-
mains in the little church of St. Eulalia, which he him-
self built not far from the cave. Even to this day no

28 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. iv.

corpse is allowed to be placed where lay that of the
Father of Kings before its final removal to its resting-
place.

He was succeeded by his son Favila, who was soon
killed by a bear when hunting in the mountains, and
the kingdom went to Alfonso, the husband of his
sister. The little kingdom included Gijon and Oviedo,
wonderful old cities, where may still be seen the low-
browed, round-arched, heavily-vaulted churches, built
up out of Roman remains, and looking as stem,
enduring, and resolute as the men who built them«

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST SPANISH KHALI F.

There was a time of decay and feebleness in the
khalifate in the middle of the eighth century. From
the first the old clannish feuds of the Arabs had raged
fiercely round the seat of empire. A tribe, called the
Ommeyads, had always been at war with the Hashimites,
from whom Mahommed had sprung, and they had
been his fiercest opponents till, after their defeat, they
had been driven to accept him as their Prophet.
Othman, the fourth Khalif from Mahommed, was of
this tribe, and under him the animosities of the race
had broken out. Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet,
had rebelled and had died in battle, and his two sons
Hasan and Hosein had been murdered. This had led
to the great, schism of the Moslemah, since all the
Persians have adhered to the cause of Ali.

The Ommeyads had, however, the advantage, and
reigned at Damascus until rivals arose to them in the
family of Abbas, the uncle of Mahommed. In 740, on
the banks of the Zab, the Ommeyads were defeated by
Abou-'l- Abbas, who earned the title oi Al Ssefah, ox
the Bloodshedder, by exterminating the whole family
with hon'ible cruelty. For instance, ninety young men
were beaten till they fell down exhausted, and then a

30 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [giiAP. v.

carpet was spread over them as they lay, while their
executioners seated themselves on it and held a feast,
amusing themselves with their heavings and contor-
tions. One youth of twenty, named Abd-el-Rhaman
(servant of mercy) escaped the massacre, in which his
wife and child perished, and fleeing into Mahgreb,
found shelter and a refuge in the valleys of the Atlas,
where the great pastoral tribe of Berbers, called Zenetes,
received and sheltered him, though he durst not make
himself known to any save the aged chief of the tribe.

Meantime the dissensions of the East had been acting
on the West. The Emir-al-Bahr, or chief of the sea,
as the viceroy of Spain was called, was appointed by
the Khalif, and no sooner did one of these emirs arrive
than the monarch at Damascus was dethroned and a*
new one sent by the Successor. Some walis held with
the first, some with the second ; and by the time the
struggle had been settled, either by open war or secret
assassination, a third emir would arrive on the scene.
Sometimes the walis were chosen by election in the
cities, sometimes appointed by the emir ; and every-
thing was in confusion. At last ninety sheiks and
walis met at Cordova, and agreed to break from their
dependence upon the new Abbassid khalifate, but —
as they heard it reported that the last of the Ommeyads
was in Mahgreb— to offer him the throne, and make
him, as they said, " the sun among the stars."

Two of their number were sent in quest of him to the
Zenetes, and found him in tlieir tents. He accepted the
charge as the message of Allah, and the aged sheik gave
his solemn blessing : " My son, since Allah calls thee,
fear not. Trust to us to help thee, for the honour of thy
house cannot be maintained without the horsemen and

CHAP, v.] THE FIRST SPANISH KHALIF. 31

the spear.*' Moreover he sent seven hundred of the
choicest of the young men of the Zenetes to fight for him ;
and with these and five thousand more Berbers did Abd-
el-Rhaman land at Almunecar, in 755, and was hailed
with delight in Andalusia. He was one of the noblest
types of that fine race, the Saracen Arabs— blue-eyed,
fair, and ruddy-complexioned, and of a tall active form ;
and he had received that high culture which the Omme-
yads had adopted from Syria and Persia before the ruin
of his family had driven him forth to be trained by hard-
ships in strength and endurance, and by misfortunes
in forbearance, gentleness, and courtesy. He bore the
white standard as an Ommeyad, instead of the black
Abbassid colours. It was a long white silk streamer, in
the centre of which was a scarlet hand holding an azure
key, as a symbol of the book which opens the gates of
the world. This had been adopted by the companions
of Thiryk, when, at Gibraltar, their swords opened to
the Koran the gates of the East.

The Emir Yusuf, appointed by the Abbassid Khalif,
opposed him, but was overcome, as was the Successor
sent out from Baghdad to put down what was there
considered as a rebellion and usurpation. After both
these had been reduced, and treated with much
clemency, Toledo revolted ai)d held out for two years ;
and the Moors in Africa, who had likewise set up a
separate kingdom, began to harass the coasts of Anda-
lusia, so that it was necessary to maintain a small fleet
to protect the harbours.

Abd-el-Rhaman I. seems to have called himself
malek^ or king, but he was prayed for in public instead
of the Khalif of Baghdad, and coined money, as only
the head of the Faithful could do. Indeed, in his eyes.

32 THE STORY OF. THE MOORS, [chap. v.

Spain was the fragment rescued from the Abbassid
usurpers. He was a despot, like all Moslem sovereigns,
but he was one of the most merciful of men, and never
shed blood save on the battle-field

In time of peace the only soldiers who retained
their arms were a bodyguard, consisting of a few
hundred Zenetes, who remained an institution almost
as long as the khalifate lasted. There were also a
corps of kascJiffSj a sort of mounted police, who wore
mere breastplates over their linen garments, and car-
ried short reed-lances and basket-work shields, with
white turbans wound round a steel headpiece with a
spike at the top, and the ends of the scarf floating over
their long hair behind. Indeed, all Moorish arms
were light, and their warfare was matter of skill and
dexterity. Their horses were slender and light, but of
marvellous swiftness and endurance, and their breed
was as carefully attended to as that of any racer in
modern times. The warrior, lightly clad, and armed
richly but not heavily, could wheel about with the readi-
ness and grace almost of a bird, on his perfectly trained
steed, and use his slender lance of reed with bewilder-
ing effect. His other weapons were a sword of the
finest steel, generally inlaid in gold with sentences
from the Koran, and a dagger in his sash. Every
able-bodied man was bound to train himself to arms,
and, when called upon, to present himself to the wali,
who chose out the numbers that he needed. War,
according to Mahommed, was sacred, and the man
who died in battle with the unbeliever was sure of
paradise ; so the call to arms was made in the mosques,
and the term for all campaigns against Christians or
schismatic Mussulmans, was al djihed^ or holy war.

CHAP, v.] THE FIRST SPANISH KHALIF. 33

There was pay for the soldiers and a regular allotment
of the booty, the Khalif having the fifth part, and the
rest being equally divided, except that the horseman's
share was double that of the foot-soldier.

From the time of Abd-el-Rhaman, the Arab do-
minion in Spain assumed a regular form, and pro*
gressed in all forms of learning and culture. The
narrow bounds of the Koran were extended by mys-
tical interpretations, and the Ommeyad dynasty, who
had gathered up much of the Greek learning and
thought in the East, became further imbued with the
remnants of Roman civilisation. These, after surviving
the Gothic invasion, again conquered the conquerors,
and were improved on by them, even though over-
thrown again and again by Berber invasions, under the
inevitable reactions towards the rude simplicity and
materialism of the original Book.

The Khalif was the head of all religion as well
as of the state. A minor could not therefore reign,
and fifteen years was the lowest age at which a man
could be elected. Silk, gold, and silver were for-
bidden by the Prophet, except when used in binding
the sacred books ; and the strict observers of the Law
carried out the rule, and wore nothing but woollen and
linen fabrics ; but in Spain, few attended to these
regulations. The Khalif s robe was a very ample one,
generally of green silk intermingled with threads of
gold, with deep borders of embroidery, on which his
own name was always repeated a thousand times. A
purple baldric sustained his two-edged sword, inlaid
with the words, " Aid is from Allah ; victory is near."
He wore no crown, but a turban of white muslin, with
one end over the brow, the other twisted round his

D

34 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. v.

neck and hanging over one shoulder ; an arrangement
that Mahommed was said to have learned from the
angels.

Everybody was really equal under the Khalif, but he
was assisted in state matters by a dyaudn^ or divan,
and the provinces and cities were under waiis, or
governors, whose rule was as absolute as their master's.
The laws were equitable, and were carried out by the
kadij or judge, in each place^ and apparently very
fairly, since no one could transgress the law with im-
punity but the Khalif ; and for more than a century there
was an extraordinarily able and merciful family on the
throne. The prime minister was called the al hajib.

The Khalif was chief imaum, or interpreter, and
thus commenced all religious rites. The place of wor-
ship was called, in Arabic, nusgad, in Spanish, mes-
quita ; whence our word mosque. Though often beauti-
ful in form, richly paved and inlaid, they were bare
within of ever>i;hing save a pulpit for the preacher ;
and there was always an empty niche to show the direc-
tion to Mekka.

Abd-el-Rhaman was a great builder. He went
through his dominions repairing the ravages of war
and neglect : Roman roads and Gothic fortresses were
put into order again, mosques and palaces built ; and
new towns arose at a little distance from the old ones,
which were left to the Jews and Mosarabic Christians.
These paid a fixed tribute, but were allowed to be
governed by their own laws, and suffered no persecu-
tion.

The taste for beautiful gardens, which had always
prevailed in Syria and on the Mediterranean, was
strong in Abd-el-Rhaman, and the grounds around the

CHAP, v.] THE FIRST SPANISH KHALIF. 35

Andalusian palaces were lovely beyond imagination,
with trees, g^'ass, and artificial marble fountains. Many
^'aluable plants were introduced, especially the datec
palm, the banana, the sugar-cane, the cotton-plant ;
and Abd-el-Rhaman himself planted the first palm
brought from his Syrian home in his gardens at Cor-
dova, addressing to it a ballad long popular among
the Arabs, of which the following is a distant imita-
tion :

Thou, too, art here, my noble palm,

In stranger singleness ;
The kisses of the Western world

Thy Eastern pride caress.

Thy root is in a fruitful soil,
Thy head thou rear'st to heaven ;

But bitter tears like me thou'd'st weep
Were feeling to thee given.

But no, thou canst not feel as I

The adverse fate's control.
Ah me ! unceasing floods of grief

O'erwhelm my troubled soul.

I watered with my tears the palm

That by Euphrates rose :
The palms and restless streams are now

Forgetful of my woes.

When driven by unrelenting fate,

And El Abbas, I left
All this torn bosom held most dear.

Of my soul's treasures reft.

To thett of my lov'd native land,

1^0 fond remembrance clings ;
/ cannot cease to think, and still

The tear unbidden springs.

From Lady Callcott's "History."

D 2

16 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. v.

There is something very touching in finding that
the lovely groves of Cordova were but banishment to
the home-sick Ommeyad, in whose song one hears a
distant echo of those of the exiles who once hung their
harps on the willows of his own beloved Euphrates.
Another reminiscence of his old life and the plains
around the great river was the practice of hawking,
which Abderraman (as Christian chroniclers contract
his name) introduced into Europe. There is an Arabic
song of the captive falcon :

In rocky desert was I bom,
Thence by spoilers was I torn.
My eyes the hood close muffles round.
My talons are in fetters bound ;
But let my glance discern my prey.
On soaring wing I speed away.
With my victorious talons cling,
And in their grip my quarry bring ;
Malek or Emir is my slave,
Sheik or warrior so brave.
For what's the use of each strong hand
Save for a perch where I can stand ?

Abd-el-Rhaman's great work was the mosque called
the Aljama, at Cordova. He was himself the architect,
and actually worked at it with his own hands for an
hour every day. Outside it was a huge unshapely
mass, for the Arabs never displayed beauty in the
exterior lest it should attract the evil eye : but
within, came, first, courts and cloisters leading
to the various schools ; then, within a wall six feet
thick, came a great court, paved with mosaic marble,
in compartments. In the centre of each design of

CHAP, v.] THE FIRST SPANISH KHALIF. 37

the pattern was an orange-tree, overshadowing a
marble basin, with jets of water rising from it ready
for the ablutions of the faithful, as types of the
fount of paradise which washed aw9.y all hatred and
jealousy.

The mosque itself had nineteen doors, with beautiful
Moorish latticework over them. From each of these
doors extended an avenue of pillars in the direction
of Mekka, so that there were nineteen large aisles or
avenues, and thirty-eight smaller ones between them.
Each column was of one single stone, and there
were one thousand and ninety-three of them, some
brought from Nismes and Narbonne, others from
Carthage, and different Roman ruins in Spain, of all
kinds of marble and styles of ancient architecture.
Some were sunk into the earth, some sawn off if too
long ; others had to be lengthened by fresh capitals.
But even now, when so many have been destroyed that
only a five-aisled cathedral is left, the effect of the
maze of columns, supporting low-arched vaults, is as
beautiful as it is grand and strange. Above these
was a wonderful edifice of carpentry in odoriferous
woods, supporting a dome crowned by a gold pome-
granate outside. Within hung four thousand six
hundred silver chains supporting lamps of the same
metal, and under the dome was the Khalif s pulpit,
a kind of platform on four marble columns. The
walls were lined with white marble, inlaid with gold
letters with verses of the Koran, the Arabic lettering
so encrusted with crystal that the characters looked
like letters of light

The work was not finished in Abd-el-Rhaman's

38 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. v.

lifetime. It was called Al Kobbat, or the Dome,
and pilgrims came to it as if to another Mekka.
They walked round each column, chanting a verse
of the Koran, and the operation lasted full ten
days.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PASS OF RONCESVALLES.

In 773 an event happened which has made a noise
in the world quite disproportionate to its actiial im-
portance.

The grandson of Karl of the Hammer, Karl the
Great, King of the Franks, though not yet Roman
emperor, was gathering to himself the greater part of
the lands which had once owned the dominion of the
Caesars, and looked on Spain as one of its provinces.
Three invitations took him thither : Itusain-el-Abdari,
who had been wali of Zaragoza, but had been deprived by
Abd-el-Rhaman, and Kasim, a son of Yusuf, both came
to him at his great diet of Paderbom, to entreat his
aid against die Ommeyad, \Hiom they viewed as an
usurper ; and, more honourably, the Gothic King Silo,
who r^gned in right of his wife Adosinda, Alfonso's
daughter, promised to submit the little Gothic kingdom
of Oviedo to the great Frank if he would aid it against
the common enemy.

Karl accepted the invitation, and marched south-
wards. He divided his forces into two bodies. One
entered Spain by the Pass of Roncesvalles, to the
west^ under his own command ; the other, led by his

40 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. vi.

nephew, Duke Bernard, was to surmount the barrier
to the east, receiving the submission of Girona and
Barcelona ; and the two armies were to join at Zara-
goza, which its former wali had promised to deliver up
to him.

On the way Karl had to pass the lands of the
Basques, which, north of the mountains, belonged to
Duke Lupus II., of the Meerwing family, and thus an
enemy to Karl. However, he came to the camp and
swore fidelity to the king, who then pushed on across
the mountains, received the surrender of Pampeluna,
and marched on to Zaragoza, But there is a remark-
able fatality attending invasions of Spain from the
north. The advance of the great Christian put an end
to Arab dissensions. The city held out resolutely, and
offered treasure and hostages if he would draw off.
He heard that the whole force of Spain was rising
against him, and that on the Elbe the Saxons were
revolting ; and wiser than his imitators of later years,
instead of ruining himself by a peninsular war, he
accepted the proposals of the Zaragozans, and marched
back, only stopping to dismantle the fortifications of
Pampeluna, that it might not revolt again.

He had met with neither loss nor disaster, and him-
self with his vanguard safely crossed the Pyrenees ;
but while his rear was slowly threading the mazes of
the defile of Roncesvalles, struggling through the narrow
pass in almost single file, the sight was too much for
the Basques, who were watching in the forests upon
the heights, and they burst upon the troops who were
guarding the baggage. A battle began, in which the
heavily-armed Franks had no chance against the
light-footed mountaineers, who overwhelmed them

CHAP. VI.] THE PASS OF RONCESVALLES. 41

with darts and stones, so that every man perished ;
among them Ruotland, the warden of the marches of
Brittany, Equihard, the king's steward, and Anselm,
the pfalzgraf. The Basques dispersed again imme-
diately, and could not be pursued ; but Karl seized
their Duke Lupus, and had him put to death for his
treachery.

So much for history. The place is a sublime one,
between high mountains, clothed with forests of oak
and chestnut, with a steep winding road between them,
opening on a sweet soft green valley, and every here
and there stones or marks connected with the name of
Roland — a stone which he threw down in his rage
when his horse stumbled ; a gigantic footmark, called
the Tread of Roland ; and even a gap in the mountain-
top, known as the Breach of Roland, and said to have
been cleft by his sword when he threw it away. Above
all, and probably with some foundation, there was a
story that Karl, far in advance in the valley of Fuente
Arabia, heard pealing down the hill the bugle-blast of
Roland, which he wound in vain to call for aid.

Oh for a blast of that dread horn,
On Fontarabian echoes borne,

That to King Charles did come ;
When Roland brave, and Olivier,
And every paladin and peer,

On Roncesvalles died 1

Why Roland became the favourite national hero it
is hard to tell. Nevertheless, it was of him that
Taillefer sang when the Normans marched to victory
at Hastings ; and he was the prime champion in the
chronicle ascribed to Turpin, archbishop of Rheims,

4a THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. vi.

and written probably in the time of the Crusades.
There one Ganelon is the traitor ; and Roland, after
doing wonders in the Pass with his sword Durindana,
dies, not of wounds, but of exhaustion, using almost
his last breath to blow the terrible blast of his horn.
Story and song, more than there is space to mention,
clustered round the name of Roland, alike in Brit-
tany, Germany, France, and Italy, all that had made
common cause under Karl the Great — Carlomagno, or
Charlemagne.

Spain must needs have its share. The traditions
only remembered that el Rey Carlos had crossed
the mountain^ as a victor, and been attacked on his
retreat So the treachery of the Basques of Aqui-
taine was magnified into a national resistance of the
Spaniards to the invasion of the French. The little
kingdom was made to include Leon, as no doubt it
did when the ballad was composed ; and the king,
instead of the obscure Silo, who really was KarFs ally,
became Alfonso, the son of Froila, whom Adosinda
had adopted, he being true hdr and future king. A
national hero was likewise found in Bernardo del
Carpio, the offepring of a stolen marriage between
Sancho Diaz, Count of Saldanha, and Ximena, the
king's sister. Alfonso placed his sister in a convent,
and kept the count in a dungeon in the castle of Luna,
but bred up their son Bernardo at Oviedo. According
to ballad lore, Alfonso invited el Rey Carlos^ pro-
mising to make him his heir ; but Bernardo raised the
spirit of the nation, and attacked the Frankish host at
Roncesvalles. He even was said to have found Roldan
invulnerable to lance or dart, and therefore to have
actually squeezed him to death within his brawny

CHAP. VI.] THE PASS OF RONCESVALLES. 43

anns ; a feat for which he is regarded as the Spanish
Hercules.

There is a spirited ballad, translated by Lockhart,
giving his call to arms, and describing the muster.

The peasant hears upon his field the trumpet of the knight —
He quits his team for spear and shield and garniture of might.
The shepherd hears it 'mid the mist — ^heflingeth down his crook.
And rushes from the mountain like a tempest-troubled brook.

The youth who shows a maiden's chin, whose brows have ne'er

been bound
The helmet's heavy ring within, gains manhood from the sound.
The hoary sire beside the fire forgets his feebleness,
Once more to feel the cap of steel a warrior's ringlets press.

As through die glen his spears did gleam* these soldiers from the

hills

They swelled his host, as mountain stream receives the roaring

rills.
They round his banner flock'd, in scotn of haughty Charlemagne,

And thus upon their swords are sworn the faithful sons of Spain:

" Free were we bom I " — 'tis thus they cry — " though to our old

king we owe
The homage and the fealty behind his crest to go.
By God's behest our aid he shares, but God did ne'er command
That we should leave our children heirs of an enslaved land.

" Om: breasts are not so timorous, nor are our arms so weak.
Nor are our veins so bloodless that we our vow should break,
To sell our freedom for the fear of prince or paladin :
At least we'll sell our birthright free, no bloodless prize they'll
win.

This song was actuelly sung by the Spanish peasants
when the English^'in 18 14, passed through Roncesvalles,
driving the French before them.

44 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. vi.

Another ballad tells how the poor Count of Saldanha
pined in his prison, and bemoaned himself at the neglect
of his son.

They tell me my Bernardo is the doughtiest lance in Spain,
But if he were my loyal heir, there's blood in every vein
Whereof the voice his heart would hear, his hand would not

gainsay —
Though the blood of kings be mixed with mine, it would not

have all the sway.
I hear of many a battle in which thy spear is red,
But help from thee comes noae to me where I am ill bestead.

Bernardo was not, however, so indifferent as his
father supposed. Alfonso II. became sole king on
Silo's death in 783, and Bernardo, after many vain
entreaties to him to release his father, as tlie reward
of his own services, actually made alliance with the
Moors, forayed the country round, and made himself
so terrible from his castle of Carpio that Alfonso at
last bought him over by the promise that his father
should be restored on his delivering up all the castles
he had gained, even Carpio itself. Bernardo gave up
his last castle, and his father, cased in complete armour,
was seen on horseback in the midst of a troop of horse-
men coming to meet him. He sprang forward and
threw his arms round the father he had never seen. A
senseless weight was in his arms. The old man was
dead — strangled in prison it is said.

Here is Lockhart's version of the grand ballad of
his funeral

All in the centre of the choir Bernardo's knees art bent;
Before him for his murder'd sire yawns the old monument.

CHAP. VI.] THE PASS OF RONCESVALLES. 45

His kinsmen of the Carpio blood are kneeling at his back.
With knightly friends and vassals good, all garb'd in weeds of
black.

He comes to make the obsequies of a basely slaughtered man,
And tears are running down from eyes whence ne'er before they
ran.

His head is bow'd upon the stone, his heart, although full sore,
Is strong as when in days bygone he rode o'er Frank and Meor.

And now between his teeth he mutters, that none his words can

hear.
And now the voice of wrath he utters, in curses loud and clear.

He stoops him o'er his father's shroud, his lips salute the bier,
He communes with the corse aloud, as if none else were near.

His right hand doth his sword unsheath, his left doth pluck his

beard,
And while his liegemen hold their breath, these were the words

they heard :

*• Go up, go up, thou blessed ghost, into the arms of God,
And fear not lest revenge be lost, when Carpio's blood hath
flowed.

"The steel that drank the blood of France, the arm thy foe

that shielded.
Still, father, thirsts that burning lance, and still thy son can

wield it ! "

Then followed a defiance to the king, when not a
man would step forward at Alfonso's bidding to seize
Bernardo ; and then, alas ! he made his promise of
vengeance good, went over to the ranks of the Moors,
and is heard of no more.

We have ended Bernardo's story; but we must
return to Roncesvalles to say that there is also a whole

46 THE STORY OK THE MOORS. [CHAP. VL

garland of Spanish ballads about Roldan, Rinaldos,
and all the rest of the twelve peers of France, and
among them are recorded two peculiar to Spanish lore,
namely, Montesinos and Durandarte.

Montesinos and Oliveros had had, it appears, a
desperate single combat about a lady called Aliarda,
and had both been picked up nearly dead near
St. Denys. On their recovery Charlemagne settled
their disputes in the following summary manner, which,
though peculiar, seems to have been efficacious. He

Married each to a sweet damsel

Of his palace the most fair.
On them laid llie heaviest penance

If one word they e'er should dare
But to speak to Aliarda,

In secret or before the court ;
And if they should disobey him,

Then each life should be cut short.
Thus should they remain in friendship

And the empire at rest.
Soon was Aliarda wedded

With of cavaliers the best.
Everyone remained contented

And in his condition blest 1

Nevertheless, this delightful state of things was
broken by the march to Roncesvalles, and the assailants,
instead of, as in the Carpio ballads, being patriotic
Spaniards, were Moors, to whom Carlos's traitorous
kinsman had betrayed them. Montesinos did wonders,
till, having slain various terrible Moors, he found him-
self with only the stump of his lance in his hand, and
set forth to seek among the slain for his cousin Duran-
darte, whom he tracked by his blood and found at

CHAP. VI.] THE PASS OF RONCESVALLES. 47

dawn of day lying at the point of death. And thus he

spake ^

"' Oh my couan Montesinos,
IH with us this battle went ;
Since the life of Alda's husband,
The great Roldan, there was spent.

*• Captive have they made Guarinos —
Captain of our squadron he —
And my life is fast departing ;
Mortal is my miseiy.

*' The £rst kindness that I ask thee—
Breathing it with parting sighs —
Is, that when I have departed.
And my body soulless lies,

" That thou would'st extract my heart
With the little dagger here,
And would'st take it to Belerraa—
To my lady-love so dear.

" And wouldst tell her as my message,
In this battle that I died ;
And a dead man, I have sent her
What, hving, never her denied.

*• Thou wilt give her all the lordships
Over which I have held sway."
And, as these words he uttered,
His brave spirit passed away.

Montesinos faithfully performed his commission, and
the ballad leaves Belerma —

Vencida de tm gran desmayo

(vanquished by her great dismay, or swoon). Monte-
sinos is said to have had a castle in La Mancha, where
he lived with his lady, Florida or Frida ; and he cer-

48 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. VI.

tainly left his name to a cave, apparently to the
opening of a mine, down which the wondrous fancy of
Cervantes caused his hero to be lowered. There Don
Quixote fell into a vision,'in which Montesinos himself,
a venerable old man, in a sad-coloured robe and green
satin tippet, introduced him to the wonders of the
enchanted cavern. There, having particularly in-
quired after the "little dagger" of the ballad, the
knight was conducted into a crystal palace, where he
beheld the unfortunate Durandarte, in flesh and blood,
stretched like an effigy on a marble monument, whence,
in a feeble voice, he inquired after the execution of his
commission; on which Montesinos, kneeling by the
tomb with tears in his eyes, gave a circumstantial
relation of the extraction of the heart (which weighed
two pounds — a sure mark of courage) ; adding that
he wiped it with a laced handkerchief, and at the
first halting-place salted it, and then hastened to
deliver it to Belerma. They had, however, all been
enchanted underground, together with Durandarte's
squire, Guadiana, Belerma's duenna, Ruydera, seven
daughters, two nieces, and their servant, all waiting
till the great and unrivalled knight, Don Quixote de le
Mancha, should deliver them from their thraldom.
" And if it should not be so," replied the long-suffering
Durandarte with a sigh, " patience, cousin, and shuffle
the cards 1 "

CHAPTER VII.

LITTLE CHRISTIAN STATES.

It is Strange that such fiendish cruelty should be
ascribed by the Carpio ballads to Alfonso 1 1., /or he is
in general treated as a saint of the class of Edward the
Confessor. The records of his reign are very scanty
and much confused, and it appears that on the death
of Silo, an illegitimate son of Alfonso I. by a Moorish
woman, known as Mauregato (probably a nickname),
seized the crown and kept it to his death, paying the
Arabs a tribute — ^which some say had begun under
Aurelio— of wheat, wine, olives, and fifty horses, and
according to romance, even fifty maidens, every year.
He died in 788, and then his uncle Bermudo was
chosen as king, though he was a deacon ; but he soon
retired into a convent, leaving the throne and his two
sons to Alfonso II., called El Casto, from the monastic
vow he had taken.

It was that same year, 788, that Abd-el-Rhaman
died, having chosen as his successor his youngest and
favourite son Haschem, the son of a wife he had
taken among the noble Zenetes of Mount Atlas, and
the only one of his children who had been born in
Spain. He had been most carefully educated, and

£

so THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. yii.

was a brave and merciful prince ; but he had to fight
for his throne, for his two brothers, Abd-Allah and
Suleiman, raised Merida and Toledo against him. He
overcame and forgave them both, and during his brief
reign continued to build mosques and palaces, and
imported many choice plants from the East and from
Africa, which spread into all the gardens of Europe.
He still retained the dignified simplicity of the
Ommeyad, and used to work in his garden with his
own hands ; and he was also a poet, writing Arabic
verses which were highly esteemed.

He founded schools, and forbade the use of any lan-
guage but Arabic, so that his Christian subjects used
Arabic gospels. He died in 796, and his son El
Hakem had another war with^ his uncles, Suleiman
and Abd-Allah. The former was killed in battle ; but
the latter, when subdued, 'was treated with the usual
clemency of the Ommeyads.

Al Hakem was, however, beginning to be tainted
with the vices engendered by despotism. The tide of
Khalif was given to him, and he had parted with the
simplicity of his forefathers, and began to live luxu-
riously, and listen to flattery. But conscience was
still awake in him. Of him is told a pretty story — ^that
a poor widow's ground having been forcibly taken from
her for the site of a pavilion, she went to the kadi, who
promised to obtain justice for her. He went to the
place, filled a sack with earth, and then begged the
Khalif, who was sitting before the pavilion, to help him
to place it on the back of his ass. Al Hakem said it
was too heavy. '' Oh Khalif" then said the kadi, ^* if
thou canst not bear this load of earth, how wilt thou
endure the weight of the whole field when the widow

CHAP, vii.] LITTLE CHRISTIAN STATES. 51

comes to demand it of thee at the day of judgment ?"
Al Hakem was struck by conscience, and at once gave
the woman^ not only the field, but the whole splendid
pavilion. Again, he forgave his cousin Estah, son of
Abd- Allah, at the entreaty of his sister. Soon after, there
was some disaffection at Toledo, and the governor,
Amrou, taking the opportunity of one of the young
princes passing through the city, invited four hundred
of the chiefs to a feast, and throwing them into a
dungeon, had them all beheaded, and their heads
placed on stakes outside the palace gates, to the horror
of the people, who of course accused the Khalif.

There was further discontent at a treaty made with
the King of the Asturias, which (^nded the more
zealous Saracens ; and there was a conspiracy for
murdering him in the mosque. The plot was revealed,
and was revenged by terrible executions. Three hun-
dred heads in the forum of Cordova, with the inscrip-
tion, " Traitors to the Khalif," horrified the people.
Their wrath was increased by a new tax, intended to
maintain a guard, consisting of Berbers and of Slavonic
slaves brought from the borders of the Adriatic — men
who might be the instruments of any tyranny. There
was resistance ; ten ringleaders were taken, and con-
demned to be impaled ; and when the Cordovans rose
and rescued them, the enraged Khalif, in spite of the
entreaties of his sons and all his wisest counsellors,
charged them with his troops, made a terrible slaughter,
impaled his prisoners, pulled down the quarter of the
city where the resistance had begun, and banished the
survivors. After some wanderings, they established
themselves in the island of Cret«, and their fortress —
Al Khandak, or the entrenchment — finally gave the

£ 2

$2 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. vii.

island its modem name of Candia. Remorse for this
ferocious action from that time preyed on Al Hakem ;
he ceased to take pleasure in anything, continually
beheld visions of fighting men^ and called to his
attendants to stop the slaughter, and died, full of grief
and horror, in 821.

Meantime the Christians had prospered. Alfonso II.
was gaining ground in Galicia, and had even made a
foray as far south as Lisbon, whence he brought home
a quantity of spoil He sent Karl the Great a splendid
tent, eight richly-caparisoned mules, and eight slaves to
lead them, all captured at Lisbon ; and he gave to the
cathedral at Oviedo a great gold cross, which was its
pride for nearly one thousand years.

The son of Karl — called by the French Louis le
Ddbonnaire— made an expedition into Spain, which
resulted in the foundation of the little county of Bar-
celona, under one Bernardo, among the wild eastern
Pyrenees. While in the stony hills of Sobrarle, the
inhabitants drew together as those of Navarre had
done, and formed a league for mutual defence. They
met in the assembly called the cortes, and had laws,
n^xatA fueros^ which gave them rights that made
their rule almost independent of the king whom they
elected — namely, liiigo Sanches, Count of Bigorro. '
Thus commenced the kingdom of Aragon. A county
among the hills south of the Asturian chain, under
Don Rodrigo Fruelas, and was called Castilla, from
the castles which formed its line of defence ; so that
there were four independent Christian realms in the
hills.

Alfonso II. lived to be eighty-five, and during his
later years, Ramiro, who had been marked out for his

CHAP. VII.] LITTLE CHRISTL\N STATES. 53

successor, ruled for him. It is this R^miro who iSgiires
in the spirited ballad which sings the cessation of the
maiden tribute, which is unmentioned by Arab authors,
and therefore supposed to be a fiction. A damsel
thus calls upon the king :

" I know not if I'm bounden to call thee by the name
Of Christian, Don Ramiro, for though thou dost not claim
A heathen realm's allegiance, a heathen sure thou art —
Beneath a Spaniard's mantle thou hid'st a Moorish heart.

" For he who gives the Moslem king a hundred maids of Spain,
Each year when in its season the day comes round again,
If he be not a heathen, he swells the heathen's train :
'Twere better bum a kingdom than suffer such disdain.

' ' And if 'tie fear of battle that makes ye bow so low,
And suffer such dishonour from God our Saviour's foe,
I pray you, sirs, take warning ye'll have as good a fright
If e'er the Spanish damsels arise themselves to right 1"

It need not be said that this was the last of the
tribute. Another ballad (Portuguese) tells how six
damsels were delivered by one knight, armed only
with a bough of a fig-tree, and how this put an end
to the tribute.

CHAPTER VIII.

SANTIAGO, THE PATRON OF SPAIN.

The great St. James, son of Zebedee and brother of
St. John, was, according to holy Scripture, the first
Apostle who met a martyr's death, being slain by the
sword of Herod Agrippa, about ten years after the
Ascension.

But in the sixth and seventh centuries, when the
Teuton conquerors had been converted, a strong desire
had arisen for connecting the churches with Apostles.
St. Isidore, Bishop of Seville, a considerable author,
who died in 636, was the first to record that there was
a tradition that St James had taught in Spain, but
showing some confusion as to which St James it was.
Very possibly the notion arose from the similar name
of some early teacher in Spain.

But just as Joseph of Arimathea was appropriated
by England, and Mary and Martha by Provence, the
Spanish Goths clung to the notion of St Jacobo, or
Santiago, as they called him, having been their apostle
or patron saint ; and early in the ninth century, when
the search for relics had become a passion, Pelayo, a
hermit who lived near the ruined port of Iria Flava in
Galicia, came to his Bishop, Theodomiro, to tell him

CHAP. VIII.] SANTIAGO. 55

that he saw lights hovering about a certain desolate
place overgrown with grass and bushes. To a
Galician Bishop whose learning was in his breviary
and legendary, and who viewed as unholy the science
of his Arabic neighbours, the presence of the remains
of a saint seemed a much more likely explanation than
any possibility of luminous vapours in the marshes
round a ruin. Search was made, and a great marble
sarcophagus containing a skeleton was brought to
light, which it was decided could belong to nobody but
Santiago, or else why should the lamps of heaven itself
have come to point it out ?

Immense was the rejoicing. The old king, Alfonso II.,
at once granted the spot and all the land for three miles
round to the Bishop ; and a church was built, and came
to be called Padron instead of Iria Flava, from the
patron saint

Moreover, to account for a saint so clearly killed in
Judea being buried in Galicia, it was declared that the
other disciples, not daring to bury the body, took it
to Joppa, and put it on board-ship, when Uie angels
guided it to Iria Flava. Nay, the sarcophagus was
the ship itself, made of marble, which moulded itself
like wax to the body of the saint, and made its way,
without sail or rudder, along the Mediterranean to the
place of its destination.

Probably all this was not so much conscious false-
hood as superstition enhancing the marvellous, and
likewise the endeavour to account for two real facts —
i.e, the lights, the form of the sarcophagus within and
without, and for the one monstrous supposition, taken
for granted, that this skeleton was that of St. James
at all !

56 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. viii.

It was not easy to go on pilgrimage to Rome, and
still harder to go to Jerusalem, so all the Spaniards
and all their Provengal and Gascon neighbours were
glad to make Padron the shrine of their devotion ; and
the place became so rich that it was likely to become
a dangerous attraction to the heathen Northmen and
Danes, whose ships were infesting the coast of Spain.
So in 829, Don Ramiro removed the relics to Campus
Stellarum, or Compostella, a little hollow valley in the
mountains, where the enemy were less likely to pene-
trate; and when pilgrims wondered how the heavy
marble ship, or coffin, was brought up the rugged
ascent. It was answered that wild bulls came and
offered themselves to the yoke, and drew it up the
ascent ! The cross and lizard were the badges of
Compostella, which thenceforth enjoyed a yearly
revenue of a bushel of wheat from every acre of it in
Spain, and a share of the spoil of every battle-field ;
while the Spaniards, his enthusiastic devotees, believed
that Santiago, their glorious patron, fought for them
in all their battles, and had been absolutely seen on a
white horse in the thickest of the fray. Next, the battle
must have a local habitation. Now the valley of Clavijo,
on the banks of the Lera, a tributary of the Ebro near
Calahorra, is full of small fossil cockles or scallops,
such as were brought home by pilgrims — at first, of
course — from Palestine ; but of late they had also
become the badge of pilgrimage to Compostella, and
thus were connected in the popular mind with Santiago.
They were then supposed to mark his presence at
Clavijo, and thus arose the belief that King Ramiro
(who succeeded Alfonso in 842) had there fought a
tremendous battle with the Moors, and that there it

CHAP. VIII.] SANTIAGO. 57

was that Santiago had appeared to succour him at the
decisive moment. Of course the yearly tribute had
been granted in honour of the aid thien given ; and
when, in after times, people grew critical, and asked for
evidence of the grant, a charter of Ramiro was pro-
duced, dated from Calahorra, which it was said fell
into his hands in consequence of the victory. Un-
fortunately Calahorra was in the hands of the Moors
for two centuries longer, and there is no authentic
record of there having been any such battle.

Both kings seem to have been chiefly occupied by
keeping off the Northmen, who, however, soon found
that there was little but hard blows to be had in the
Asturian hills, and chiefly made their descents on the
far richer and more inviting Moorish territories, which
they frequently plundered. At one time a strong body
of them were encamped on the Tablada hills above
Cordova. The strength of the kingdom was mustered
against them, but they evaded a battle and re-embarked
safely.

Abd-el-Rhaman followed the policy of his contem-
porary, Alfred, and set on foot a fleet, whose constant
watchfulness abated their ravages. Otherwise he had
few wars. He was of that type of Eastern monarch
that seems moulded on the character of Solomon —
large-hearted, wise, magnificent, tolerant, and peaceful.
He was as great a contrast to the stem, ascetic, narrow-
minded, but earnest Alfonso and Ramiro, as were his
exquisite horseshoe arches, graceful filigree stonework
lattices, inlaid jewellery of marble pavements, and
slender minarets, to their dark, vault-like, low-browed
churches, and solid castles, built out of hard, un-
manageable granite. He repaired the old Roman

tfi THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. viii.

roads and aqueducts, and fostered handicrafts, so that
Damascus silks and sword-blades were rivalled at
Cordova. A kind of stamped and ornamented leather,
for hangings, was also prepared there ; and it is from
Cordovan leather that shoemakers are called cor-
donniers in French, and cordwainers in English.
Arab and Barbary horses — barbs as they were called
—had of course been brought in with the conquerors,
and their pedigrees were carefully recorded in the
palace archives. They were used not only in war, but
kept in relays along the road to speed intelligence to
the court — the germ of postal communication.

He founded schools, and his alms were liberal —
three hundred orphans being bred up at his cost at the
school attached to the Aljama mosque: So good-
natured was he that when one of his female slaves had
insolently refused to obey his summons, and declared
she would rather die than come, and the chief eunuch
wanted to punish her by walling her up, he replied :
" Let it be with loose bricks of silver, so that when she
changes her mind she may knock them do^vn and
come to me."

Yet Abd-el-Rhaman II. is the first Khalif with whom
any stories of persecution are comiected. And the
decree which led to the translation of the Gothic and
Latin Christian writings into Arabic had acted in
favour rather of the Gospel than the Koran. Hitherto
the Christians had been unmolested, marriages between
them and the Moors were not unfrequent, and the
women of each nation lived much the same outward
life ; not indeed as free as that of their Northern
sisters, but much less secluded than that of the modem
Eastern lady. Gothic or Latin Christians were in

CRAP, viii.] SANTIAGO. 59^

places of trusty and their churches and monasteries
were inviolate.

Near Cordova was one of the great double monas-
teries of the early Middle Ages, called Tabanos ; and
it is from a scholar named Eulogio, who was bred
there and who became a priest at Cordova, that we
have the history — one so simple and veracious as to
be a great contrast to the wild and impossible legends
of the Galician mountaineers.

It would seem that some Mahommedans had been
converted, and that this roused the anger of the " true
believers." The Metropolitan Bishop, Recafredo, sided
with the authorities, being one of those who thought
zeal a dangerous thing; and thus the trial of the
Christians was doubly great.

Perfecto, a priest, was beset by Arabs in the streets
of Cordova, and challenged to explain why he held out
against Islam. He argued the matter out, ending by
saying that he durst not speak his opinion of the
Prophet. They insisted} declaring that no harm should
ensue ; but when they thus had forced a denunciation
from him, they could not restrain their rage, and
dragged him before the kadL For a little while he
yielded and recalled his hot words ; but then repenting,
he cursed Mahommed and all his followers, and, while
still uttering the words, was beheaded for blaspheming
the Prophet. His example was followed by one Isaac,
a monk of Tabanos, who had forsaken a post under
government for the cloister, and was moved to come
before the kadi and denounce the Prophet. He too was
beheaded ; but the prospect of martyrdom had become
so precious in the eyes of the Christians that the
Abbot Walabouso of Tabanas and four more monki

6o THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. vnr.

followed in the same path. The Khalif never per-
secuted Christians, as such, if they refrained either
from attempting conversion or from openly denouncing
the Prophet But there were two poor young girls,
named Munila and Alodia, who were the children of a
Moslem father and a Christian mother, who had reared
them in her own faith, and they grew up so good and
lovely that they were called (like the English Eadgyth)
" roses springing from thorns.'* Their father died, and
their mother married a less tolerant Moslem, who,
finding their faith proof against his threats, brought
them before the kadi. Splendid marriages were offered
them if they would quit the Christian faith ; but they
answered that they knew of no spouse equal to their
Lord, no bliss comparable to what He could bestow ;
and persuasion and torture alike failed with them, until
they sealed their confession with their lives.

A nun of Tabanos next dreamt that the martyred
abbot had appeared to her, teUing her that he had a
message for his sister Maria, a nun in the same con-
vent. MarLi viewed this as a call to follow him, and
went into the city, intending to denounce herself ; but
turning aside into church first to strengthen herself by
prayer, she there met another maiden named Flora.
This girl had had a Christian mother, and held her
faith, though she had been much persecuted by her
brother, who had brought her to the judge and had her
cruelly beaten and imprisoned. She had escaped ; but
the meeting with Maria decided her on going again to
the tribunal to offer herself. Hand-in-hand the two
maidens stood before the kadi, and declared Mahommed
a deceiver and a false prophet They were thrown
into the lowest dungeon ; but there they met Eulogio,

CHAP. VIII.] SANTIAGO. 6i

who had been imprisoned, not by the Arabs, but by
the time-serving Archbishop Recafredo, as a dangerous
person. He comforted and exhorted them, and they
were soon visited by two unexpected persons, Aurelio
and his wife Sabigote, both Moslems outwardly, but
Christians at heart. Shown by the examples before
them how unworthily they were acting, they consulted
Eulogio, telling him that they were chiefly held back
by the thought of their two little children. He replied
by assuring them that their little ones would be safe in
the mercy of the Father of the fatherless. Flora and
Maria were beheaded ; and the next night Sabigote
dreamt of them like the martyrs of old, in white robes,
with palms in their hands, singing among the saints
in paradise, and exhorting her to continue in their steps
and witness a good confession. Six days later Eulogio
was released, and he wrote a poem recounting their
history, which is still preserved.

Aurelio and Sabigote began to live as Christians,
and so did another married pair, Felix and Liliosa,
having first set their affairs in order. Indeed Felix
had long been a Christian at heart, but had in fear
professed himself a Moslem, until he was roused by
the brave constancy of these martyrs to dare the con-
sequences of confessing his faith. Still the pair
doubted whether it was right to follow the fashion
of going voluntarily to provoke vengeance by cursing
Mahommed, and they therefore waited till the accu-
sation was made, when they were brought, not before
th«.kadi, but before the divan, or royal counsel There
persuasions and promises were used against them in
vain, and they too were beheaded, together with a
deacon of Tabanos, who insisted on sharing their fate.

6a THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. viii.

Abd-el-Rhainan, a most unwilling person too, com-
manded Recafredo to summon a synod to forbid the
Christians to give open provocation and to denounce
themselves. The decree was made ; but the zealous
took it as a token of lukewarmness and time-serving
in the higher clergy, and paid no attention to it, so
that fresh executions fdlowed. In lite midst, Abd-el-
Rhaman 11. died of paralysis, in 852, leaving forty-five
sons and forty-one daughters. His son Mahommed was
of a more severe disposition, and martyrdoms became
much more frequent ; the most notable being that of a
beautiful and wealthy maiden named Columba, who
had, in spite of all persuasiiHts oi her relations, taken
the veil at Tabanos. The othw nuns were moved by
the authorities and shut up at Cordova, to prevent
their rushing on destruction ; but Columba escaped,
reviled Mahommed before the kadi, and perished. It
is probable that these voluntary self-sacrifices were
the reaction from the indifference which had set in
under the toleration of the Khalifs, and they certainly
greatly quickened the life of the Mosarabic Church, and
won instead of deteixing the doubtful.

Eulogio went about encouraging and strengthening
waverers, and the clergy of Toledo elected him as
their Bishop ; but he ^v^^s viewed as too zealous and
uncompromising for promotion, and was immediately
after brought before the divan for having hidden a
converted Mahommedan girl in the house of his sister.
He was beheaded, and his corpse thrown into the
river, where a white dove flew over it as it floated
down the stream. The Moskm girl was also put to
death; but the Arabs seem then to have perceived that
the persecution only strengthened the zeal of the

CHAP. VIII.] SANTIAGO. 63

Church, and it was discontinued. Eulogio's history
was written by his fellow scholar Alvaro, and is still
extant, together with his own acts of the martyrs, and
an apology, /. e. defence of them as real martyrs, which
was denied by the wonder-craving Spaniards in the
north because they worked no miracles ; because they
were simply beheaded, not tortured ; because they
offered themselves ; and because their slayers were not
ivorshippers of many gods, but of one.

The feeling is curious which disregarded the verit-
able contemporary martyrs, and went into the wildest
raptures of enthusiasm over such utter impossibilities
as the relics of Santiago and the absurd miracles im-
puted to thenL

CHAPTER IX.

THE COUNT OF THE LANL OF CASTLES.

No very marked progress was made by either Moors
or Christians during the remainder of the ninth century.
The Asturian kingdom extended over Leon and Galicia;
and Alfonso III., called the Great, made inroads as
far as Lisbon and Coimbra. There were family
divisions among the Ommeyads, and though they did
not lose much ground, they did not gain. The
Christians, however, had a brave champion in Fernando
Gonzales, Count of Castille. An Eastern prince, named
Abu Alaxi, had written to the Khalif, entreating per-
mission to make his holy campaign, or al gihed, in
Spain, since all good Moslems understood that fighting
under the commander of the Faithful secured an
entrance into paradise. Abd-el-Rhaman III. received
him most royally. The Moors were then at peace with
Leon ; indeed, the king, Don Sancho the Fat, had
actually come to Cordova to consult the Moorish
physicians, whose skill far exceeded those of any
Gothic mediciner, since, at Seleucia, the Arabs had
obtained and made good use of the writings and tradi-
tions of the Greek men of science. Abd-el-Rhaman
was no covenant breaker, so he did not assist the

aiAP. IX.] THE LAND OF CASTLES. 65

zealous Abu Alaxi, and probably refused to let him
attack Sancho's kingdom, for it was on the indepen-
dent county of Castille that the incursion was made.
Feman Gongales signally defeated him at Pedrahita,
and thus raised CastiUe to such reputation as to excite
the jealousy of King Sancho of Leon. The mother of
this king was Dona Teresa, the daughter of the king
of Navarre, and, by her advice, a strange plot was
arranged, which has furnished subjects for another
whole cycle of ballads. The count was invited to
Oviedo to confer on matters of the Christian defence.
Thither he came with a beautiful hawk and hound,
which Don Sancho desired to purchase from him, and
a bargain was struck that if the price were not paid by
a certain time it should be doubled on each succeeding
day. Meantime the count, having lately lost his wife,
the queen-mother discoursed to him on the charms oif
her niece. Dona Sancha, and undertook to arrange
a marriage with her, at the same time sending word
to her brother. King Garcia of Navarre, to have him
seized and imprisoned as soon as he set foot in those
territories.

Dona Sancha learnt how she had been made the
bait to bring about the shameful imprisonment of the
best warrior in Spain. The ballad, remarkably enough,
makes her informant one of the knights from Normandy,
who came to fight with the Moslem exactly from the
same belief in holy wars as had brought the Arab
champion. It is a testimony how high stood Norman
sense of honour.

The Norman feasts among the guests, but at the evening tide
He speaks to Garci's daughter within her bower aside :
" Now God forgive us, lady, and God His Mother dear,
For on a day of sorrow we have been blithe of cheer.

F

66 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. ix.

•• The Moors may weU be joyful, but great should be our grief.
For Spain has lost her guardian, Castile hath lost her chief ;
The Moorish host is pouring like a river o'er the land ;
Corse on the Christian fetters that bind Gon9ales's hand.

'* Gon9ales loves thee, lady, he lov'd thee long ago.

But little is the kindness that for his love you show ;

The curse that lies on Cava's head, it may be shared by diee.

Arise 1 let love with k)¥e be paid, and set Gon9ales free."

The lady answered Tittle, but at the midst of night,

When an her maids were sleeping, she hath risen and ta'en her

flight ;
She hath tempted the alcayde with her jewels and her g(^d.
And unto her his prisoner that jailer false hath sold.

She took Gon9a]es by the hand at the dawning of the day.
She said : " Upon the heath you stand, before you Hes the way.
But if I to my father go — alas, vtrhaX must I do !
My father will be angry — I fain would go with you." *

And SO she did, and at the old city of Burgos, his
capital, was married to him with great state. He then
made war on the perfidious Navarrese king, took him
prisoner, and kept him at Burgos till his sister's inter-
cession prevailed for his release. But Feman had
not suspected the further treachery of the Leoncse, and
again allowed himself to be entrapped into attending
the cortes, when he was at once made prisoner and
thrown into a dungeon. Dona Sancha on this set out
on pilgrimage to Santiago, and, arriving at Leon, begged
permission to visit her husband. It was granted. She
changed clothes with him, and in the garb of a female
prisoner he again escaped. Xing' Sancho, after his
first anger, allowed the faithful lady to rejoin her
httsband ; but Feman now demanded the long-accu-
mulating debt £or hsatk and hound, and as all the

♦I^ockhart's '^Spanish Ballads.'*

CHAP. iJLl THE LAND OF CASTLES. 67

treasures of Leon and the Asturias would have failed
to pay it, die independence of his country was granted
him in lieu — at least so saith Castilian ballad and
tradition, which assuredly have such a grace that, if not
true, they ought to be. He was a real personage, who
actually gained several great successes. Pope John XL
sent him a cross tHiich was held to be a preservative
from hailstorms^ Fierce rivalry, however, continued
to exist between Leon and CastiHe, and at one time
Ordono IH. of Leon actually compelled Gon9ales and
all his family to take refuge at Cordova, where the
Moors were always ready to exercise hospitality towards
their gallant foes ; but he afterwards returned to Castille,
and his daughter Urraca was married in succession to
two kings of Leon, both named Ordono — the first of
whom divorced her on a quarrel with her father ; and
the second, son of Alfonso the Monk, was known as
Ordono the Wicked, and was dethroned. In fact,
nothing could be more stormy and confused than the
state of the little Christian kingdoms and counties.
They were always at war or in a state of internal com-
motion, while, though the Moors were little disposed
to trouble them, northern invasions harassed them from
time to time. One of these was effectually repulsed by
Don Garcia, son to the great Feman Gongales, and
thus the claim of the family to the allegiance of the
county was much strengthened. But altogether every-
thing good was at a low ebb with the Spaniards in this
century, just as it was with the Christians elsewhere in
France, Germany, and in England. The Moors despised
them for their ignorance, rudeness, and, above all, for
their want of cleanliness. An ascetic reaction from
the excessive Roman luxury of the baths, the great

F 2

68 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. ix.

place for voluptuous enjoyment and gossip in the ancient
world, had led a certain stamp of religious persons to
despise and neglect the body, and to forget that purity
without ought to go with purity within; and opposition
to the regular ablutions of the Mahommedans led the
Spaniards into viewing cleanliness as very far from
next to godliness, but rather as opposed to it.

Thus it must be confessed that their clergy became
the leaders in that mischievous* veneration for dirt
and vermin which was a morbid feature of mediaeval
asceticism.

CHAPTER X.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF CORDOVA.

The Cordovan Khalifs were warmly affectionate people.
Abd-Allah, who began to reign in 888, had indeed a
rebellious son, Mohamed, who died of the wounds
received in a battle with his brother ; but the Khalifs
grief was great, and he adopted the only child of this
eldest son, Abd-el-Rhaman, a boy of four years old,
whose mother was a Christian slave named Maria.
Blue-eyed, fair-haired, gentle, and graceful, the boy
was loved by all, even by his victorious uncle, sur-
mxm&diAl Modhqffer, or the Conqueror, who might have
aspired to the throne. He was carefully educated.
Arabic writers jsay that he was taught first the Koran ;
then at eight years old the Sunnak, or traditional com-
ment ; next //iwr/-?, or historical tradition ; also grammar,
poetry, the Arabic proverbs, the lives of princes, the.
science of government, and other sciences, such as
mathematics ; also to groom a horse, to draw the bow,
to wield the lance and sword — to manage all weapons,
and understand all strategy. His grace, brilliancy,
affability, and ability won all hearts, and when, in 913,
Abd-Allah died, as it was said, of grief for the death of
his old mother, there was but one voice in favour of the

70 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. x.

young Abd-el-Rhaman then twenty-two years of age,
and his uncle, Al Modhaffer, was the first to take the
oath of fealty to him as commander of the FaithfuL

There had been, however, a revolt of long standing,
conducted by a family called Ben-Hafsann, or the sons
of Hafsann, who had a retreat in the mountains between
the Moorish and Christian lands, and though often
defeated by Al Modhaffer, had never been entirely
reduced. The war broke out again on the accession
of the new Khalif, and was rigorously carried on by
Abd-el-Rhaman and his uncle ; but the law of Ali
(son-in-law to Mahommed) required that in a urar
between Moslems, the enemy ^ould never be driven to
extremities, so that pursuit might not go beyond one
province, nor a siege last more than a wedc Finding
that the observance of this custom perpetuated the civil
war, Abd-el-Rhaman convoked the imaums of the
Aljama and his divan, and decided that it must be
broken. It is said to have been the only instance
among the Arabs of the> violation of the rule of mercy
and forbearance. The last of the Ben-Hafsann was
besieged in Toledo, until he made a desperate sally
with three thousand horse, and escaped to the Christians
in the Asturias. The city, which had for sixty years
been the headquarters of the rebellion, was treated with
the usual clemency of the Khalifs.

In general, however, the reign was peaceful, and
noted for great and beautiful works ; in especial .was
noted the palace of Medina-al-Zohra, in a beautiful
valley on the banks of the Guadalquivir, five miles
from Cordova. The Greek emperors sent him
marbles and workmen, and there were still Roman
remains to use. Four thousand three hundred columns

CHAP. X.] THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF CORDOVA. 71

of precious marble adorned it. The pavements -were
of marble, and in the principal rooms were fountains,
in basins of porphyry. In the Khalif 's hall the central
fountain was of jasper, and the water spouted from the
bill of a golden swan, beneath a canopy in the centre
of which was a wonderful pearl, presented to Abd-el-
Rhaman by the Emperor of Constantinople, The
woodwork was of costly cedar, and in one pavilion
was a fountain of quicksilver, the reflections of which
were wonderful It was in the midst of an exquisite
garden, where beautiM shrubs, flowers, and water
were arranged so as to be the delight of all beholders.
The name Medina-al-Zokra (town of the flower) was
taken from a fair slave, Zohia, whose statue, in white
marble, adorned the gateway. It was contrary to the
laws of Islam, which strictly interpreted the second
commandment, and forbade all imitations of created
things, declaring that the likenesses would become
bodies, and at the day of judgment demand their
souls from the artists. Credos were employed by
Abd-el-Rhaman for this statue, and the swan came
from Constantinople ; but the Spanish Arabs were
extremely liberal in their interpretation of the Koran.
Music had been absolutely forbidden by the Prophet.
"To hear nrasic," he said, ** is to sin against the law ;
to perform music is to sin against religion ; to enjoy
music is to be guilty of infidelity \ " So these were
stories of strict believers — ^when within the sound of
instruments that they could not silence — stopping their
ears till they were informed that it was over by some
boy under fifteen, and therefore exempt from the strict
(ligation of the law. The only songs tolerated were
the muezzin's chanted call to prayer, and a hymn of

72 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. X.

the pilgrims at Mekka round Hagar*s supposed well.
But nature had been too strong for Mahommed. The
Arabs still sang, and in Spain music was greatly culti-
vated. There was a chief of the royal musicians, and
in the Escorial library are still preserved some rem-
nants of the very extensive musical literature, in
especial the works of Al Faraby, on the elements of
music, on composition, singing, instruments, and ac-
companiments, with the Arabic musical writing and
notes, and drawings of at least thirty instruments. The
first volume of one of the great books of songs is also
extant, containing one hundred and fifty airs, and the
biographies of fourteen musicians. The whole collec-
tion had been the work of fifty years.

Poetry flourished with music. Everyone was a poet.
The extraordinary richness of the language, which is
so full that the dictionary is in sixty volumes, and the
natural cadences lend themselves to verse ; and the
tone of mind of the nation was poetical, and delighted
in figurative imagery and in descriptive or romantic
pieces. Professed poets were sure of renown and
wealth, and even princes sent letters and challenges
in poetry to one another. Story-tellers were also in
high honour, and there were an immense number of
romances, of which we may guess the style by their
Eastern kindred, *' The Arabian Nights;" but these
were further enlivened by the chivalrous fancies caught
from the Goths, and there was also a book of fables
showing plainly their common descent with those of
iEsop. History, genealogy, grammar, rhetoric, and
philosophy were greatly cultivated, and many treatises
on them were written, and carried the Arabs to con-
clusions never dreamt of by Mahommed.

CHAP. X.] THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF CORDOVA. 73

Mathematics were studied earnestly, and the substi-
tution of the nine Arabic figures for the cumbrous
Roman method, enabled the operations to be carried
much farther than before. Gebry the Arab term for
arithmetic, is the source of our term algebra. The
sages of Cordova carried their calculations into astro-
nomy, and improved on the systems of Ptolemy. Al
Batany, who was bom in 877, was the first to measure
the obliquity of the ecliptic, and made other great dis-
coveries of practical value. The names of most of
the individual stars remain as monuments of our debts
to these Arabs ; from whom we learnt to talk of the
zenith and nadir. Geography was also studied. The
Arab descriptions of Spain are still valuable ; and
travellers were sent out to bring home accounts of the
scenery, inhabitants, productions, and natural history
of different countries. Treatises on all the branches
of natural history abounded, and a few of them still
remain, including one on all the methods of the chase
with dogs, horses, falcons, &c

Agriculture was especially studied. Great treatises
on irrigation and crops, cattle, grafting, and gardening
still exist ; for the motto of the Arab landowner was :
" He who planteth and soweth, and maketh the earth
bring forth fruit for man and beast, hath done alms
that shall be reckoned to him in heaven." Even the
Khalifs worked in their gardens with their own hands ;
and Andalusia was like one vast highly-cultivated
farm. Many plants were introduced by the Khalifs,
which Spain lost and neglected after the discovery of
America — such as rice and sugar-cane {sbukhar^ as they
called it), saffron and mulberry-trees, ginger, myrrh,
bananas, and dates. The Spanish names of many plants

74 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chaf.X.

show their origin, and some have travelled even to us,
such as the apricot, from albaric ague ; the artichoke,
from alca chofa ; cotton, from al godon. Medicinal
plants were greatly studied, and the Arab physicians,
working on from the discoveries of Celsus and Galen,
divided with the Jews all there was of healing skill or
knowledge ; and though anatomical studies were im-
possible to a devout bdiever, their surgeons made some
progress in discovery. Chemistry and alchemy alike
are derived from their words aikymiay altered from the
Greek. The terms alembic, alcohol, and alkali maik
their progress in discovery ; and the signs of apothfc-
caries' weight, only now falling into disuse, are a
remnant of the days when the leedi was either a Moor
or a Jew.

Nor were women excluded from all these studies.
They studied enough to be companions to their hus-
bands ; and a lady named Maryam had a school for
young maidens at Seville, where they could acquire
science, mathematics, and history, as well as lighter
arts. They went about veiled up to the eyes, and
never ate with men ; but they were allowed to associate
with them in the courts and gardens of their beautiful
houses, and join in their conversations, music, and
poetry.

Their dress was much the same as that of the ladies
of North Africa. Full white muslin trousers were tied
at the ankle, and a long, full, white ^7(»/a^, a mantle of
transparent muslin, covered the tighter vest and jacket,
both of brilliant cc^urs, over which they wore gold
chains, necklaces, and bracelets, with strings of coral,
pearl, and amber ; while their hair was in little curls^
adorned with jewels and flowers. But all this was con-

CHAP. X.J THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF CORDOVA. 7s

ceakd by the thick muffling outer veil; and they also
had horsehair vizards, through which they could see
without being seen. They had a gallery fenced in
with latticework in the mosque, and were treated as
more on an equality with men than their sisters in
most of the Mahommedan world.

Cordova was, in fact, the seat of a great literary
society, where the descendants of Arab sheiks by turns
opened their gorgeous palaces in the evenings to poets,
philosophers, and men of science, who debated and
recited as in the golden days of Pericles or Maecenas.
Jew and Christian could be freely admitted, and
travellers and discoverers related their adventures,
showed the curiosities they had brought home, and
described the places they had seen. Or anecdotes
were related, when story-tellers vied with each other in
relating instances of courage, generosity, adroitness,.
or tilie hke ; poems were recited, or arguments held on
abstract subjects or mystic explanations of the Koran^
stretching its meaning as Mahonmied never intended.
The impulse he had given had carried these Arabs to
the highest point, and their progress was shown in the
exquisite taste of all their productions, from their build-
ings down to the lovely illuminations which enriched
the beautiful Arabic writing of their manuscripts.

The Khalif had a splendid library, containing copies
of books made by scribes whom he sent through
Eg^t, Syria, Greece, and Persia to transcribe all that
was left of ancient learning ; and to this library learned
men had free access. They used it not only for study,
but for imparting their information and discoveries, or,
as we should now call it, g^ng lectures. The extent
of it may be guessed from the fact that the catalogue,.

76 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. X.

compiled by the Khalif and his secretary, was in forty-
four volumes of fifty folios each, containing the bio-
graphy and genealogy of each author. Paper was here
used, having been introduced by the Arabs, who had
learnt the art of making it from the Chinese.

The habits of the Moorish noble seem to have been
to rise early, go through the prayers and ablutions of a
true believer, take some light repast of fruit and bread;
then attend to business, study, or the exercise of arms
till noon, when the chief meal was taken. After this
a siesta in the garden pavilions, cooled by the spark-
ling fountains. This prepared the luxurious for music,
the studious for reading, the young for active sports;
and it was the Khalif s time for seeing ambassadors,
hearing petitions, or giving audiences. Sunset brought
the muezzin's summons to evening prayer, preceding
supper — the social meal — after whiqh the literary
gatherings followed, or songs and music, games at
chess and backgammon, and sometimes — among the
dissipated— drinking bouts and exhibitions of dances.

In the winter months, the assembly was in a hall^
where, instead of a fountain, there was a great vase
of charcoal, round which were spread carpets and
cushions where the guests reclined, and were sprinkled
with rose-water and other perfumes. Their mental
fare was the recitation of new poems ; their bodily,
preparations of lamb or kid, milk boiled or frothed,
sweetmeats, fruit, red wine for the unscrupulous, white
wine for those who wished to keep the letter without
the spirit of the law, and lemonade for the strict
observers.

Abd-el-Rhaman was, for the most part, a peaceful
sovereign ; but he had one great war with Ramiro II.,

CHAP. X.] THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF CORDOVA. 77

who, being at peace with Navarre and Castille, made
an inroad into the Moorish dominions, burning and
ravaging to the south of the Douro. The Khalif
retaliated by a like foray to the north of the same river,
and besieged Simancas, a fortress on the little river
Pisuerga, a tributary of the Douro. The invasion was
so serious that all the Christian forces of Navarre,
Leon, and Castille united under Ramiro, and they
gained a splendid victory, being assisted, as they
believed, by two angels on white horses. However,
the loss on their own side was very severe, and they
could not hinder the Khalif and his uncle from taking
Zamora, and were soon obliged to make peace, retain-
ing the city, and leaving the Douro as the barrie
between the Christian and the Moor.

Abd-el-Rhaman underwent the usual lot of many-
wived monarchs. His nomination of his favourite
son, Al Hakem, as his successor, led to a conspiracy on
the part of another son, Abd-AUah. This plot was
discovered in time ; he and his adviser were seized and
brought to Al Zohra.

** What," said his father, " wert thou offended that
thou shalt not reign ? "

The prince made no answer but by tears. His
Ahithophel went and hanged himself. The divan met
and condemned the prince ; but Al Hakem and all the
other brothers implored their father to pardon him. It
was in vain. " I shall go mourning for my son all my
days," said the Khalif; "but I must needs think of
what is to come, and give an example of justice to my
people."

Abd-Allah was put to death in prison, and his father
did indeed grieve all the rest of his life. He left the

76 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAP. X

government to AI Hakem^ and spent his time in his
gardens, trying to find com£art in long conversations
with Abu Ayub^ a learned and devout man, who, after
having been a brave soldier, had dedfcated himself to
good works, and went about in a coarse wooDen gar-
ment, bestowing alms.

The Khalif sent many gifts to the poor by his hands,
and it was he who recorded the wordsof Abd-el-Rhaman,
in these days of depression, at the end of a prosperous
and splendid reign of fifty years. Ahnost in the words
of the Preacher of Israel did he sum up the joys and
grandeur of his reign, and then added that he had
counted up the days when he had been really and truly
happy, and found them to amount to just fourteen !

He grew weaker, and his pleasure was to listen to
the songs of Moyna, a lady who acted as his secretary,
and of Ayesha, another lady, both highly educated,
and modest as any of their Christian sisters.

Abd-el-Rhaman III. died in 961. He had an ex-
tensive dominion in Africa, including Ceuta and
Tangier ; and one of his titles was Emir'dd'M&U"
tnenyn^ or Chief of the Faithful, which became on
European lips the Miramamolin, when inherited by
his successors.

Al Hakem's reign was more peacefid and equally
prosperous, being in fact a continuation of ^at of his
Either in all essential points; but after his death, in $76,
more stumiy times began, and the brilliant flower of
Moalcmism began to pass away.

CHAPTER XI.

TEDS LOSS or CXDMPOSTELLA.

Al. Hakem 1 1, feft only one son, Hescliem II., who
was only ten years oid, and was therefore named by the
Arabs, A I Mowayed Bi^Uaky the protected by God;
and was prodauned Khalif, though the law required
that the commander of the Faithful should be above
fifteen years of age. His mother, Sobeyah, had
already exercised much power during his father's
latter years, and she made a wise choice of his hajiby
or grand vizier, namely Mahommed-ben-Abd-AUah,
better known by the glorious title he won for himself
of ^/ Mansifur, or the Invincible.

He had been left an orphan while studying at the
Aljama College at Cordova, and had been received
among the KhaliTs pages. Sobeyah perceived his
ability, and made him her secretary, in which capacity
she became so aeosible of his abilities that she placed
the whole power of the state in his hands on her
husband's death.

Leon was in an nnsettied state, for there had been a
dispute as to die soccessiofi, and Bermudo II. was
scarcely secure on his throne, besides which he was
making r^ocms in the Chaxch which were unpopular

8o THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. xi.

among the lazy lower clergy. Castille had a young
count, Garcia Fernandes, and Al Mansour deemed that
the best way to prevent the sheiks from, as usual,
rebelling against a new Khalif, would be to lead them
against the Christians. So he made an attack on
Castille, and Garcia in vain intreated aid from the
kings of Leon, Navarre, and Aragon. With short-
sighted policy they left the border county to its fate,
and year after year Al Mansour entered the country,
generally taking some important town each time, and
leading away long trains of captives to be sold at
Cordova ; for he was a much more stern and cruel
conqueror than the Khalifs had been, though he had a
grand Arab chivalry about him.

Once, when he had shut in a considerable body of
Christians in a narrow defile, and, on his summons to
surrender, they had refused, he took the worthier course
recommended in the case of the Caudine Forks by
Pontius Herennius. He bade his men withdraw, and
let them escape. The gallant Arab could not bear to
massacre so many brave men who lay at his mercy.

The Spaniards meantime fought on, not only
against the Moors but among themselves. Like the
Scots, they had a ferocious history of terrible deeds of
violence and treachery ; and like them, too, they made
these the occasion of numerous ballads, casting a halo
of romance round what would otherwise have been
merely savage and barbarous. None of the actual
versions of these songs are traceable beyond the
thirteenth century, but they are probably derived from
contemporary ones, the Spaniards having learnt the
habit of chanting wild verses about the tales that
caught their fancy from their Moorish neighbours.

k

CHAP. XI.] THE LOSS OF COMPOSTELLA. 8x

One of these incidents, horrible in itself if true, and
at any rate fertile in ballad-lore, was the death of the
Infants of Lara. Just as we find Childe the term for a
young knight, the sons of counts and kings in Spain
were termed Infantes^ and their sisters Infantas ; and
it was not till much later that the title was restricted
to youthful royalty.

Don Gonzalo, Count of Lara, in the Asturias, had
married Sancha, sister of Don Rodrigo, or Ruy
Velasquez, and had seven gallant sons, who were all
knighted on one day by Garcia Fernandes, Count of
Castille.

They all went to Burgos, with their parents, to the
grand wedding of Ruy Velasquez with a lady of high
rank, Doiia Lambra, a kinswoman of the Count of
Castille, who was present at the festival The entertain-
ments lasted five weeks. In the last week a iablado
was set up beyond the river as a mark for the knights.
This is supposed to mean a wooden castle, fastened
together so loosely that a strong blow would make it
break to pieces. Canes or reeds — which the Spaniards
had learnt from the Moorish sport of the djeridy to
throw — were launched at it ivithout success, till
Alvaro Sanchez, a favourite kinsman of the bride,
struck it full. Lambra was delighted, and cried out
tiiat no one could mend that cast

Six of the Infants of Lara were playing at tables —
backgammon — and did not heed ; but the youngest
brother, Gonzalo Gonzales, was nettled, and taking
only one squire with a hawk on his wrist, he rode up»
cast his djerid, and struck the tablado so sharply as to
break it

The elder brothers were afraid that harm would

G

8a THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xr,

come of this exploit, for the bride was angered, and
Alvaro gave the victor such abusive language, that
young Gonzalo in return gave him a blow which
knocked out his teeth. Lambra screamed out that
never was damsel so dishonoured at her wedding, and
her husband was thus invited to strike his nephew
violently. A fray broke out, and blood would have
been shed had not the Counts of Castille and Lara
interfered, and, as they hoped, made peace.

Afterwards they set foi th on a progress through
Castille, taking the bridegroom with them, probably ia
hopes of thus keeping the peace, while the seven
Infants were, in the midst of a larger company, to escort
Lambra to her new home at Bavardiello. When they
arrived the brothers went into a garden, where, under
the shade of the trees, Gonaalo bathed his hawk..
Dona Lambra, in whose heart malice was still rankling,
took this opportunity of offering him the most deadly
insult, by sending a slave to fill a gourd with blood
and fling it at him. The brothers rushed after him with
their swords. He fled to his mistress, and she tried ta
protect him, but in vain. He was slain at her feet, so
that she was sprinkled with his Wood ; after which they
took their mother, and rode home to Salas.

Dona Lambra set up a bed covered with a pall in
the courtyard, and she and her women wailed over it
eastern fashion. She worked on her husband to exact
terrible and treacherous vengeance. He asked the
Count of Lara to go to Cordova to obtain from Al
Mansour gifts towards defiaying the expenses of hi&
wedding. This seems very strange^ but it occurs as a.
matter of course in the chronicle and all the ballads^
and it is probable that the Moors were in the habit o£

CHAP. XI.] THE LOSS OF COMPOSTELLA. 83

bribing, under various specious names, the people of
one Christian state not to interfere with them when
they made war with another^ Moreover, Arabian wealth
and profiiseness in gifts made a visit from a poor
mountaineer seem like going to a perfect mine of
riches. Ruy Velasquez, however, gave the poor old
count the "letters of Bellerophon," which, says the
chronicle, were written for him in Arabic by " a Moor
who spoke the Roman tongue/ and who was imme-
diately put to death lest he should betray the secret,
namely, that the father should be at once put to death,
and that the Moors should make an inroad, when
Velasquez would betray the seven brothers into their
hands, and desired that all should be beheaded, telling
Al Mansour that they were the strength of Castille.

This was not the Al Hajib*s fashion of making war,
and he merely detained the count as a captive. Ruy
Velasquez, however, mustered his forces for an attack
on the Moors, and the Infants of Lara joined him,
though not without warnings from their wise old tutor
Nuiio Salido, who suspected treachery.

At Almenaz, Velasquez and his troops deserted them
in the midst of a battle, leaving them and two hundred
horse alone among the whole Moorish army, and re-
fusing to succour them, or let anyone else go to their
aid. After desperate fighting, six were made prisoners^
Fernando, the eldest, having fallen. The Moors at
first treated them honourably; but Ruy Velasquea
went to the two chiefs and declared that Al Mansour
intended these youths to be slain, and would ponish
those who spared their lives. Therefore they were all
massacred, and Nuno Salida with them : their heads
were cut off and sent to Cordova*

G 2

84 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xi.

Al Mansour, according to both chronicle and ballad,
had the barbarity knowingly to invite the count to
come with him and tell whose were the seven young
heads and the one old one which had been brought
home by his warriors. We quote from Lockhart's
translation :

He took their heads up one by one, he kiss'd them o'er and o'er;
And aye ye saw the tears down run, I wot that grief was sore.
He closed the lids on their dead eyes, all with his fingers frail,
And handled all their bloody curls, and kissed their lips so pale.

" Oh had ye died all by my side upon some famous day.

My fair young men, no weak tears then had wash'd your blood

away ;
The trumpet of Castille had drowned the misbelievers' horn.
And the last of all the Lara's line a Gothic spear had borne."

With that it chanced a man drew near to lead him from the

place.
Old Lara stoop'd him down once more and kiss'd Gonzalo's

face;
But 'ere the man observ'd him, or could his gesture bar,
Sudden he from his side had grasp'd that Moslem's scymetar.

With it the old man slew thirteen Moors in his
frenzy before he could be mastered. He besought
Al Mansour to put him to death; but the Khalif, shocked
at the treachery, released him and sent him home. A
Moorish woman, who had been his solace in captivity,
became the mother of a son, whom she named Mudarra,
and bred up with a full knowledgie of his father's wrongs.
He was trained to arms and knighted by Al Mansour;
and when he was fourteen was sent with the token of
half a ring, which his father and mother had broken
between them, to Salas, where he was warmly welcomed

CHAP. XI.] THE LOSS OF COMPOSTELLA. 85

by the Count, and likewise by the Countess Sancha, who
loved him for his likeness to that youngest and choicest
of all her sons, Gonzalo.

He did amply avenge the deaths of his brethren
when he met Rodrigo.

** Now the mercy you dealt to my brothers of old.
Be the hope of that mercy the comfort you hold.
Die, foeman to Sancha ! die. traitor to Lara ! "
As he spake, there was blood on the spear of Mudarra.

Lockhart.

Mudarra was baptised, and on the day of his
christening Dona Sancha adopted him by putting
on an immensely wide smock, then taking him by
the hand, drawing him through it, and kissing him.
His illegitimacy was thus taken away, and he became
heir to Salas, his progeny bearing the surname of
Manriqutfz. It is also said that after the death of the
Count of Castille, he caused Lambra to be burnt as the
author of all the mischief.

There is no knowing the truth or falsehood of this
wild and terrible story. Ballads are many, and there
is extant a series of prints with the history of the
Infants. Two chests used to be shown at Cordova
where it was said their heads had been placed, also a
building called the prison ; and there were also dis-
coveries of their headless skeletons in the church of
St. Millan in 1602, and of their seven skulls at Salas in
1587.

The Moors only made summer campaigns ; in the
autumn they returned home with their slaves and
booty, rarely leaving garrisons in the conquered cities,
and this gave the Spaniards time to rally each year.

86 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAP.XL

Too late Bermudo of Leon and Garcia of Navarre saw
their error in leaving the border county to its fate.
The Bishop of Compostella, Pelayo, offended by the
king's endeavour to restrain the corruptions of the
clergy, went over to the Moors ; and, except that
Bermudo was a good and pious man, and his comrades
stanch warriors, the story of the first conquest seemed
about to repeat itself.

Simancas and Zamora fell in succession, thougli the
saying was :

Zamora si prende in un bora.

Al Mansour threatened Leon; but Bermudo, to save his
capital, gave battle on the banks of the Ezla, and at
first gained some advantage, until Al Mansour, to stop
the flight of his people, threw himself from his horse,
and lying down on the ground, swore that if they
chose to fly, they must leave him behind. A fresh
charge secured the victory, but with such loss that he
was forced to retreat, vowing, however, to punish Leon
next year. This gave time to many femilies to escape;
and Bermudo even carried away the bodies of his pre-
decessors to the old refuge in the Asturian hills.

Al Mansour kept his word and utterly demolished
Leon, but was repulsed by the strong Asturian castle
of Luna, though he took Astorga and Salamanca. On
his way to his next campaign he visited the city of
Murcia, where he had to wait for some troops from
Algarve.

Ahmed, the governor of the place, feasted him and
all his troops for twenty-three days. All the officers
slept in beds of silk and gold tissue, and daily bathed
in rose-water ; and the soldiers were located with pro-

CHAP. XL] THE LOSS OF COMPOSTELLA. 87

portionate sumptuousness. When Al Mansour took
leave he said : " I shall take care to send none of my
warriors here. They whose rest should be in battle
ought not to lie on soft cushions. But as so great a
lord ought not to pay tribute like a mere vassed, in the
name of my lord the Khalif, I exempt thee from taxes.**
The attack this year was against Barcelona, whose
count was defeated and fled by sea, leaving his capital
to fall into the all-conquering hands. In 994 came the
turn of Coimbra, Braga, and all the northern cities of
Portugal, and, greatest blow of all to the Christians,
he made his way to Compostella — as the Spaniards
say — ^by the contrivance of the wicked Bishop Pelayo.
The Arabs considered it an al djihed^ or holy war, to
attack and destroy the shrine of the Christians' prophet,
whose influence they had begun to dread. So they were
bent on taking and destroying what they called Sham
Yakoub, where they considered a great figure of
St. James, over the sarcophagus, to be the Christian
Kaaba, They found the place empty and deserted, only
one old monk sitting sad and desolate by the tomb.
He was led to Al Mansour, and, being asked who he
was, replied : " I am a servant of Santiago." The
general bade that the old man should go free, but
stripped the place, and fed his horse out of the great
porphyry font ; and purified the place, as he thought,
by a destruction of all the images and crosses ; but he
could not find the body of Santiago, which no doubt
had been removed. Still he carried off the two great
bells, marked with the cross and lizard, and hung them
up as lamps, reversed, in the Aljama at Cordova. The
Christians had no comfort but in the belief that the
horse died of his sacrilegious meaL

88 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. xi.

After the fifth part of the spoil of this campaign had
been taken fcr the Khalif— or rather for the hospitals,
the schools, and the poor — each foot-soldier had
received five miscdls of gold, each horseman double
that sum. Al Mansour had chosen to share alike with
his soldiers.

CHAPTER XII.

THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR.

The loss of Compostella roused the Christians to band
together under Garcia Fernandez, Count of Castille,
to make a more resolute resistance. The campaign
that ensued is so brilliantly and yet so accurately
described by M. Viardot, that the following pages are,
with a few omissions, translated from his "Histoires des
Arabes." Every incident is fact, and for each bit of
description there is authority, chiefly from the Moorish
historian Conde.

The cry of al djihed was chanted by the Khalif of
the great mosque of Cordova, and repeated by the
imaums of all the mosques. It rang out even in the
most distant comers of the empire. The holy war
was proclaimed. Thus enjoined in the name of Allah
by the Prophet's successor, warfare became a religious
service. Every Moslem — except women, children, sick
men, and slaves — was as much bound to fulfil it as he
was to pray five times a day, to attend the mosque
once a week, keep the Rhainadan once a year, and go
on pilgrimage to Mekka once in his life.

Religion, law, authority, property, duty, and all be-
sides were among the Arabs subject to the one grand

^ THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

principle of unity. Like the world, the state was
governed by a single intelligence, ruled by a single
power. The Khalif reigned over the empire as God
does over the universe. He was chief of the nation
because he was pontiff of the Faith. He was supreme
judge in every matter, because he was the only inter-
preter of the only law ; he commanded actions because
he commanded consciences, and obedience was as
much one as was command. Every professor of
Islam was subject to dte priest as much as to the
prince ; subject alike in body and souL Every political
duty was a religious duty. The tax was due to the
Khalif as a tithe was due in alms to the poor ; and it
was as needful to obey the wali's summons and muster
for the gasweh (sacred war), as to attend to the call
of the imaum and march round the fields in procession
to pray against drought.

This year (998) the Faithful came in multitudes.
All the tribes vied with one another in furnishing their
contingent The only difficulty of the Khalifs officers
was in the choice. Men of all ranks, trades, and even
of all ages, hurried forward with equal eagerness.
Beside a scholar of the colleges, still wearing his
student's robe, was a gray-bearded merchant, enriched
by three voyages to India, and who hoped to gain
salvation after gaining his fortune ; next to a driver of
al zemyls (namely, the long strings of beasts of burden
— asses, mules, and camels — ^which transported mer-
chandise from one province to another) stood a shep-
herd, who had left his huge flocks of sheep on the
mountain-chains, where they wandered, according to the
season, from the northern to the southern slopes.
Citizens were mingled with peasants, artisans with

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 91

labourers ; the paper-maker from Xativa presented
himself with the hemp and flax grower from the plains
of Valencia ; the tanner from Merida with the rice-
farmer from Estremadura ; the cutler of Jaen with the
sugar and cotton planter of Malaga ; the silk-weaver
of Murcia with the mulberry-owner of the Vega of
Granada.

Among all these eager volunteers, the officers first
chose the veteran soldiers who had served in the last
campaign, filling up their numbers with the strongest
youths^ and always taking single xather than married
men, and never enlisting them for more than a single
campaign. At the end of the season the army broke
up upon the frontier, and each soldier returned to his
family till a new army was called out The only per-
manent troops were the Khalifs guard, chiefly African
mercenaries ; and the kasche/Sy or police, who kept
<»:der at home.

The muster-place was a vast tableland in the district
of Toledo, beyond that strong city, but on the south of
the mountains separating the two Castilles, and dose
to a town almost entirely inhabited by Mozarabians.
This town, nearly the central point of the Peninsula,
afterwards became the capital of the Spanish monarchy,
though more from the caprice of an absolute prince
than from the advantages of its position.

A few squadrons of Abd^el-Malek's army, who had
returned from Africa with their general, had not been
disbanded between their winter campaign against the
rebels of the south and their summer one against the
•Giaours of the north. They were already encamped
in the meadows bordering the torrent of the Manza-
^tar^s (apple-trees), whose tortuous sandy channel dis-

93 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xif.

charges into the Tagus the water of the snows melted by
the spring sunshine on the heights of the Guadarrama.
Every day fresh troops from all parts of the empire —
from the banks of the Douro to the port of New
Carthage, and from the point of Al Gharb (Cape
St Vincent) to the mouths of the Ebro — came to swell
this nucleus of the imperial army. In came, in due
order, the sons of the Arab tribes of Yemen and
Hedjaz, neighbour and sister tribes, but ever rivals
from days beyond the ken of history ; the sons of
Syria, the earliest convert to Islam ; the sons of Egypt,
who received it almost at the same time, men of noble
race, whom the pure Arabs treated as brethren, and
who, the first conquered, had shared all the subsequent
victories ; and lastly the sons of the Mahgreb, the in-
numerable vanquished race who only adopted the
Prophet^s faith when overcome by the swords of his
disciples, and who inundated Spain, with successive
immigrations.

These nations, so different in origin, number, and
character, but all united by a common faith beneath
the sceptre of the pontiff king, formed the Moslem force,
of which the Africans were the body and the Arabs the
head. The volunteers of their tribes composed the
cavalry, that is to say the army— for among the Arabs
the horse was a part of the warrior. The soldier, like
the ancient centaur, was made up of a man's head and
hands upon a horse's strong back and swift legs. In
his eyes, to fight on foot was but like the slave using
his fists, or the beast his teeth.

Still there were a few bodies of infantry ; but these
were almost entirely Jewish or Mozarabic Christian.
Few Moslems, except the officers who commanded

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 93

these forces consented to such a servile office. These
despised troops seldom had any share in the honours of
the combat It was not to extend in long lines or mass
themselves in impenetrable squares that they were
called out With half the rations of the horsemen,
they were the servants of the real warriors. Their duty
was to spread the tents, plant the palisades, fill up
the bed of a river, clear the way on a mountain, dig
trenches, drive cattle, prepare victuals for man and
horse. A few of them were archers and slingers, carry-
ing the zemboureky or foot-bow — a cross-bow which
could only be bent with the aid of the foot, and which
casts, from a groove, short aArows, balls, or stones.
The infantry were a sort of medium between the horse-
men and the beasts of burthen. These were always very
numerous in the train of a Saracen army, and carried
tents and hammocks, stores of arrows, lances, and all
kinds of weapons, wheat and rice for men, and barley
for horses — ^all most needful in those border-lands
yearly wasted by the forays of both parties. They
also drew balistae, battering-rams, catapults, moving
towers — all the siege-machines which raised rampart
against rampart, broke gates, and battered walls.

Each fresh troop formed a fresh camp. * The tents
were arranged in a circle as in the nomadic villages
of the Bedouins, touching one another and leaving no
opening except towards the Kebla^ the direction of
Mekka, so that for each of his daily prayers, the
warrior had only to turn towards the gate of the
camp.

While the Arab army was assembling in the camp
of Madrid, the hajib was fulfilling a ceremony partly
religious, partly political, which preceded every cam-

94 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

paign or declaration of war. The Koran says : ** Figbt
with your enemies in the warfare of the Faith, but be
not the first to attack. Allah hates the aggressor. If
they attack you, bathe, in their biood. That is the
reward due to the unbdievers. If they forsake their
errors, Allah is gracious and merciful." Thus, even in
the case of an invasion of pure aggression for conquest's
sake, the power of council had to be tried before that
of the sword. Therefore two heralds were sent to
carry to the King of Leon two di^inct summonses — one
entirely religious, exhorting him and his people to lay
aside the worship of idcds and adore the true God;^
the other was entirely political, and called on them to
become subjects and tributaries of the Khalif of
Cordova. Such summonses were only warnings to
the enemy who was threatened by the Moslem armies,
and in this case they were the vainest forms. The
heralds who bore them, and whose mission had been
so often repeated that it was known before they uttered
it, were not even admitted to the presence of the king,
but were turned back by ihitjronteroy or warden of the
marches.

Five days after the return of the heralds to Cordova
the joyous Heklis of the Arab horsemen, in long lines
in front of the camp, announced the arrival of the
kaid-aUkowctdy or generalissimo. Without giving him-
self any time for rest,. Al Mansour began the review of
his army. Each man, each horse, each mule passed
before him. He ascertained that each horseman had
lance, bow, sword, and a mace fastened below his knee ;
that each had an iron cap under his turban,, a coat of
mail over his Icmg vest, and a Hght basketwoik shield ;
and that every horse carried his master's quiver dL

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 95

partridge-feathered arrows on one side, and on the
other a leathern bag for provisions and a copper vessel
for cooking them.

The army was in five divisions^ the large tent of the
general in the centre, and ova: it the Mussulman
standard — white, with the hand and the book on one
side, and, on the other, five verses from the Koran
entitled "Victory." Beneath this sacred banner, and,.
as it were, sheltered by its folds, was a precious relic —
a manuscript of the Koran, copied by the very hand of
Othmaiiy the fourtii of the Khalifs, and which had been
brought to Cordova by the Ommeyad who founded the
Spanish empire. It was bound in gold plates thickly
set with diamonds, and was inclosed in a casket of
aromatic wood adorned with rubies and emeralds, and
carried on a litter between two richly-caparisoned
camels. It was always thus carried in the centre of
the army.

The adalides, or scouts, were Mozarabic Christians
of Toledo, who in many a former expedition had
learnt every forest-path, every mountain-path, every
river-ford, and had a wonderful power of finding
their way in the dark, and recognising the trail of
every person and animal ; but their fidelity was not sa
trustworthy that the fate of the army could be allowed
entirely to depend upon them, and they were closely
watched by Moslem adalides, while at their head was
an old Arab knight, who had been among the troops
sent by Abd-el-Rhaman III. to Sancho the Fat He
had married the daughter of a Leonese baron,, and had
lived many years at the Christian court ; but he con-
sidered it an expiation to devote the last years of his
1^ to the service of Islam.

96 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

The army encamped every night, and halted by day
for meals and prayers. The five prayer-times were
reduced to two, and only half the number of prayers
were to be said ; while, if water were lacking for ab-
lutions, sand, dust, or ashes might be. used instead.
Signals to march and to halt were given by beating a
huge drum at headquarters. It was fifteen cubits in
diameter, and was made of ass's skin and sonorous
wood. It could be heard in calm weather at half-a-
da/s march distance, and, the sound being repeated
by the timbals and kettle-drums of each division, the
order rapidly went through the whole army.

After some days* march the Arab army reached the
river Torm^s, whose waters so often ran red with the
blood of warriors of either faith. They were coasting
the left bank upwards to find a fordable place fit for
the baggage and engines, when suddenly, like a flash
of lightning, a bright little flame appeared on the
liorizon ; then other flames broke out one after another,
coming nearer and nearer, and extended themselves
almost instantaneously in a line of beacons, as if the
first fire had leapt along its course with the rapidity
of light itself in gigantic bounds. Immediately the
great drum beat to halt, and the word of command
was heard from end to end of the army. The scouts
in advance had announced an obstacle. Fire was
their mode of correspondence, and to render it more
visible, and enable it to convey information, chemistry
had discovered substances which they could mix with
their powdered charcoal and sulphur, especially the
saltpetre, which was soon to be put to a more deadly
use.

Al Mansour, with a small escort, rapidly rode for-

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 97

ward, and, reaching the top of the steep hill whence
tlie first signal had come, he gave a cry of amazement,
and sharply reined in his horse. The whole Christian
army lay before him encamped on the other side of
the Torm^s ! '

Accustomed as Al Mansour was, by twenty years'
experience, to the unshaken constancy of the Spaniards
and the patient indomitable energy which brought them
back to the struggle after twenty defeats, the sight
before him was like an incredible dream. It was but
a few months since he had beaten these Christians in
two bloody encounters, and driven away the remnant
of their troops, marched through their provinces, and
ransacked their sacred city. Yet already these obstinate
men, swifter than himself in preparing for war, were
ready to meet him, not hidden in the inaccessible dens
of the mountains whither he had chased them, but in
the midst of the plain, ready to dispute the passage of
the river !

There were their huts, half hollowed out in the ground
and half covered with branches, which sheltered the
soldiers, and at intervals among them arose the tents
of the barons who had collected their vassals beneath
their banners. By the assistance of one of the
optical instruments by which the Arabic astronomers
studied the motions of the heavenly bodies, Al Mansour
could count the tents of the nobles in the Christian
camp. With an amphitheatre of hills behind it, this
camp was in four divisions. The most distant was
alone more numerous than the three others put together,
and consisted of Leonese, Galicians, and Asturians,
the immediate subjects of the King of Leon. Above a
tall tent, placed, like the cathedral of a city, in the

H

98 THE STORY OF THE MOOES, [chap, xn.

■

centre of the dwdHngs, floated a lacge standard,
where was visible on a red ground the yellow cross
and the lizard of Compostella. There mast be the
dd Bermudo LL, who had lioo: siidsen years occupied
the throne of Pelayo, for no other persoA cotdd set up
the royal banner. The post nearest to the river, form-
ing the advanced guard, was occopied by the warriors
of CastMle. A square banner, adorned at the four
comers by two towers and two lions, announced that
their heave count, Garcia Fernaades, was in the midst
of his viissals. The third and fourth divisions, placed
at a distance from one another a little in the lear of
the CastiUans, protected the Leonese flauiks. In one,
there was Jio princely banner, for it was an auxiliary
corps sent by the Kin^ of Navarre, Sancho el Mayor,
who was more occupied with his own family intepests
than with his claims as a Christian or his renown as a
warrior. In the other, three red hands painted on the
banner, with the legend Irurakbat (three make one),
showed that the three litde republics of Alava, Gcdpuscoa,
and Biscay had sent to the Gotho- Iberian army the
sons of their pec^le, still as free in the mountains, still
as pure from foreign intermixture, and as untouched by
foreign conquest as when, a thousand years before,
Horace called the natives Caniaber Imhrnitus,

These were the only true volunteers — for they had
neither king, lord, nor master of any kind. They were
not even S^niaxds — only Christians, and joined the
war only for conscience' sake. Among die Christians
no one fought on horsebadc but the <iiie£s and aoldes.
This was no such disadvantage, as it se emed at first
sight, in de£^sive waxfaie, or for aai escape among
rocks and precipioes. It had been a mistake on i3ut

CHAP. xiT.] THE INVINCIBLE AL M.\NSOUR.

part of the Arabs to retain in mountainous Celt- Iberia
tbe oiaimer of fighdiig suilied to the sandy steppes of
Arabia.

Tke Spanish camp showed no trace of the splendours
and comforts* that the Arabs took with them on all their
expeditions. Poor, isolated, without arts or commerce,
the Spaniards had nothing but their courage to oppose
to their rich and industrious enemies. They had not
even come to the point of imitation. The sheik of a
tribe on pilgrimage to Mekka carried with him a whole
caravan of dependants and slaves. He had silver
ovens in which to bake fresh bread every day, and his
camels bore leathern bags filled with snow, that he
might drink iced sherbet in the midst of the desert
A general carried about his court of women, musicians,
and poets ; and feasts, dances, and jeux d'esprit pre-
vailed in his pavilion as much as in his palace at
Cordova.

The Christians, on the contrary, slept in hovels of
earth and boughs of trees ; they lived on barley bread
and goats' fiesh ; the best armour of their barons was
a heavy breastplate and headpiece, and their soldiers
were clad merely in leathern garments leaving the
arms bare, and often had no better weapon than an
iron-pointed stake. Instead of the troop of women
and musicians, the Spanish host took with them a
brotherhood of monks who sung psalms and canticles;
and every morning mass was said at a wooden cross
planted on a tuif altar.

Al Mansonr chose the place for his camp ; and in a
few houxs the infantiy had dug a deep trench, forming
a \m%it ciFcle^ within which the quarters of each division
were traced out It was so near the Christian camp

H 2

ioo THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

that the outposts could have reached the foremost
Spanish sentinels with their arrows. These sentinels
were guarding a narrow stone bridge, formed of a
single arch, so tall and so pointed that from the water
it looked like the doorway of some lonely chapel.
It was an important pass, for bridges were scarce ;
and it was this that the Christians sought to secure.
Between the two camps — whose watch-fires were re-
flected in the stream, like the lights of a city on either
side of a river — the warriors of the two religions
watered their horses quietly half a bow^shot from one
another.

All that night and day passed quietly. Early the
next morning the scouts announced a herald. Carrying
in his hand a lance, surmounted by a little shield with
the royal arms, and at intervals blowing a bulPs-horn
trumpet, he demanded audience for an envoy of the
King of Leon. Shortly after a Spanish bishop, in his
robes, rode over the bridge with two horsemen, and
was conducted by a guard of honour to Al Mansour's
tent, where the hajib and some of his officers were
assembled.

Slowly and gravely he spoke : " The Sovereign
Lord of three kingdoms, the defender of his people
and extender of his dominions, the glorious King
Bermudo, the son of Ramiro, my lord, sends me
to Mahommed, the son of Amer, and general of
Haschem, the son of Al Hakem, calling himself Khalif
of Cordova and Commander of the Faithful. Thine
army, and that of the king, my lord, are still within
their entrenchments. It is too iate to fight to-day.
To-morrow is Friday, the sacred day of the Moslems ;
and it is right that thou and thy people should cele^

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. loi

brate it in peace. Saturday is the Sabbath of the
Jews, who are numerous in each army, and should
have the same privilege. Sunday is the Christian
holy day. I therefore propose a truce for three
days."

Al Mansour replied : " Thus saith the Koran : 'Jews
and Christians, who believe in God and live good
lives, shall receive their reward from the Most High.
They shall be free from danger and punishment'
Allah forbid that Al Mansour should be accused of
disturbing the prayer of any man. Return to thy
master and tell him that I respect his scruples, and that
the truce for three days is granted. The wrath of
Allah fall on him who breaks it ! "

The prelate retired, but Al Mansour, not trusting
the Spanish faith, caused careful watch to be kept, and
his vigilance was unhappily justified, for a troop of
Spaniards crossed the bridge in the night, but they
were at once discovered, and those who could not
swim the river were forced to yield. Whether this
were deliberate treachery of the leaders, or, as is more
likely, the individual attempt of some adventurous and
insubordinate baron, Al Mansour resolved to chastise
it by giving battle immediately ; and Bermudo expected
the same consequence, and prepared for a desperate
resistance.

In expectation of an attack from the front, the
Spaniards had filled the whole space between their
camp and the river with their dense masses of infantry;
but they were mistaken. Al Mansour had too much
experience to entangle his cavalry on a narrow fortified
bridge. So, instead of taking the same road as the
Spaniards in their night attack, the Arab army had

1Q2 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

left the camp on the opposite side and^ forming an im-
mense line on the banks of the Torm^s, extended far
beyond the crossing guarded by their enemies. With
the earliest dawn the scouts, who had reconnoitred
and sounded the whole course of the river, dashed into
the water to mark the safest landing-place on the other
side. Immediately all the squadrons, preceded by their
officers, set their horses swimming, most of the horse-
men taking up each a cross-bow man behind him, and
for a few moments the river vanished under the armed
multitude which crowded its waters ; and, before the
astonished Spaniards could move forwards, the Arab
army was drawn up in order of battle. '

The Spaniards wheeled swiftly round, so as to
present their whole front to the enemy ; with th^
Leonese, Galicians, and Asturians> under the command
of King Bermudo, forming a huge square phalanx in
the centre. The right wing, towards the river, was
composed of Castilians, while the Navarrese and
Basques flanked the main body towards the left. Thus
arrayed, the Christian army ceased to move, and
stood silent and motionless like a wall bristling with
iron points. In advance stood men covered with iron
or steel breastplates, or coats padded with wool and
guarded with steel, and carrying pikes, darts, axes,
iron maces, scythes, sickles, bidents and tridents with
sharp points ; and behind them were the archers and
slingers.

Al Mansour resolved to make his principal effort
against this main body, sure tliat its defeat would lead
to that of the rest. He sent his son Abd-el-Malek and
Suleiman — the Berber general of the African horse —
to occupy the Navarrese on the one side, and the

r

J

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 103

Castilians on the other, while he reserved himself and
the Arabs for the chief struggle.

Fhrst — as supreme imaum df the army — Al Mansour
dismounted from his horse, and, kneeling down,
IM'ostrated himself with his beard in the dust ; and
each captain of a troop in his turn played the part of
an imaum, while every horseman repeated after him
the brief battle prayer : " Allahy grant us steadfastness
and courage, strengtbeit our feet, and aid us against an
unbeMeving people*" Here and there were warriors
with wreaths of flowers on their heads. They were
men, who> either in expiation of some crime or out of
austere fnety, had sworn to die as uJ^kydy or martjrrs,
and mearched to the battle adorned as victims for
sacrifice.

Just as Al Mansour had remounted his war-horse
and ridden to the top of a hill ta give the word,
a Christian baron came forth from the ranks and
advanced alone into the field. He was of tall stature,
and broad-shouldered, and wore a double cuirass and
a large steel cap, whence escaped his loz^ red hair.
He was mounted on a heavy powerful horse covered
with a bearskin, with the claws crossed over his chest
Halting between the two armies, he flourished his
lance three times, as a challenge, and then leant upon
it. Single combats often preceded a general engage-
ment. Al Mansour signed to one of his best oiEcers,
Mushafa-al-Gamry, ta approach.

''How many brave captains have I, dost thou sup-
pose, capable of making head against that infldel ?*"
said be. ^ Have 1 a thousand ?^

" Not so many," replied Mushafi*

** Have I five hundred ? "

I04 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAP. Xil.

'' Still less."

** A hundred ? ot fifty at least ? "

" I do not know," replied Gamry, " if there be more
than three."

A nahib^ or captain of the Berber guards, had ad-
vanced to break a lance with him ; but the Christian
scarcely moved in his saddle, drove his weapon right
through the body of the Berber,* and, withdrawing it
drove the horse with the bloody lance to the Chris-
tian army, while loud shouts welcomed the victor.
Another officer rode from the Arab ranks, and, warned
by this fatal experience, avoided the Castilian's deadly
lance, and came close enough to grapple with him,
hoping to pull him from his horse ; but the Christian,
grasping a great mace, studded with iron spikes, which
hung at his saddle-bow, dashed out the Arab's brains,
and sent his body rolling on that of the Berber, while
triumphant cries broke out from the Spaniards and
while the Moslem army kept a mournful silence.

Al Mansour again called Mushafa. "Canst thou
be right," he said ; ** are there not three men in my
army who can meet that infidel ? Go and kill him,
Mushafa, or I must either send my son or go myself,
for I cannot suffer this shame nor. this ill-omen."

Mushafa waited no longer. The Christian had
changed his horse, and was in front of the Arab ranks.
"Who art thou?" he cried. "How art thou distin-
guished among the noble Moors ? "

Mushafa flourished his lance, saying : " Here is my
parentage ; this is my nobility ! "

Wheeling round the heavy Castilian with his rapid
Arab steed, baiting him like a mastiff besetting a
wild boar, Mushafa at length pierced him at the

CHAP.xii.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 105

joint of his armour with his slender scimitar, and the
champion fell, expiring. With a second blow, Mushafa
cut off his head, and, carrying it by the hair, with the
bearskin saddle-cloth thrown over his horse, he re-
turned to the Arab ranks.

At that moment a lad hurried from the camp and
bent his knee before Al Mansour, presenting to him a
deer in chains, and a letter from the Syrian poet,
Saydoben Hassan-al-Robay, who had lately arrived
from the East, and had followed the hajib to the camp.
Al Mansour, wonderful man that he was, it is said,
actually paused to read and admire the poem, which
may be thus translated :

Shelter from every ill,
Refuge from every wrong,

let thy gracious ear

List to thy servant's song.

Thy bounteous hand Kath blest,

Like the refreshing rain,
The meadow's verdant grass

And the up-springing grain.

May Allah be thy stay,

Bless thee and keep from ill,
From the wrong cpurse preserve,

And with all joyaunce fill.

Did not I see thy power,

Thy courage, and thy might,
So timorous am I,

I soon should die with fright.

1 see the dust arise

'Mid yonder tamarisks tall :
Two leopards seek, with savage eye.
Upon their prey to fall.

xq6 the story of the MOORS, [chap. xii.

That victim, should I be

But for thy mighty arm ;
Thine humble servant see

Within that potent charm.

A stag he offers tkee,

And Garcia is its name —
A token how the coming fight

Shall swell thy mighty fame.

Even as chained it comes^

If Allah grant my prayer.
Garcia ben Sancho may I see

His chains and fetters wear.

Oh, happy dawn appear.

Bring on the welcome hour 1
If thou accept my lay,

Full my reward and dower I
And may, thine arrows like a cloud

Upon the foeman shower.

As soon as the Moslems came within a bow-shot of
the Christians, their clarions sounded, and the mounted
archers began the combat by riding up almost close to
the Christian ranks and discharging their arrows, then
galloping back to avoid the arrows shot in return.
Many of these were poisoned — those of the Arabs with
aconite, those of the Christians with black hellebore.
The Arabs shouted, whenever they came on, Allah
akbarl the Christians, after one first invocation of
^^ Sant lago mata moros P^ kept silence, except that
from the midst of their ranks the voices of a body
of clergy arose, singing the psahn In exitu Israel de
Egypto,

The number of the Arab archers dashing in small
parties against the Spaniards increased. There was sl

CHAP, xir.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 107

perpetual hurricane of horsemen — agoing, coming, whirl-
ing, dashing about in every direction, clouds of dust
rising under their feet, their arms flashing through it,,
and a perpetual hail of arrows constantly thickening and
increasing. The Spaniards, fixed in their place, did not
give back a step. The dead and wounded were replaced
by fresh combatants, and the ranks still presented a
dense mass ; but in front lay a line of dead and dying
men and horses, like a rampart, making the approach
to this living citadel even more dangerous.

Al Mansour put a stop to this useless carnage by
commanding the flying troops of archers to disperse
and leave the field free. His choicest troops advanced
and rushed upon the motionless mass of Christian
infantry. Twice tbey came on, with lance ia rest,
galloping headlong ; twice the floods of Arab fury were
broken against the rock of Christian steadiness. With-
out stirring, the Christians presented the points of their
lances and forks at the heads of the horses^ and horse
and rider rolled in the dust.

After the second attack, the Arab ranks were broken
— horses were straying without riders and men without
steeds. Many lay dead on the rampart of slain in
front of the Christians ; the others fell back disordered
and discouraged on the banks of the river.

Al Mansour threw himself before them. He tore off
his turban, threw down his sword, leapt off his horse^
and, flinging himself on the ground, showed that if
they meant to fly, it must be over his body. They
began to feel shame ; the voice of their officers was
heard ; they rallied ; and the hajib, taking in his own
hands the Khalif s standard, led them forward again,,
formed into a deep terrible column, which dashed for-

^^■nMBHHB

io8 THE STORY OB^ THE MOORS, [chap. xir.

ward at full speed against the centre of the Christian
phalanx. The foremost were forced on by those
behind. Their horses were pierced in the breast, but
were pushed on upon the weapon, and, as they fell,
crushed the enemy and opened a way. Man upon
man crowded on— to perish, but to enlarge the breach
in the wall, till, like a river carrying away a bank,
the Arab cavalry had made a hundred entrances into
the shattered Spanish infantry. Then all was over ;
resistance and flight were equally impossible. Divided,
trampled down, unable to use their weapons or to
ward off the blows from above, the foot-soldiers had
no choice but surrender or death.

The second line, in which were King Bermudo and
his principal barons, also began to retreat. Collecting
the remnants of the broken battalions, and present-
ing a formidable front to the pursuing archers, they
retreated in good order to the camp, collected the
sacred and the valuable articles it contained, and
vanished in the mountains which enclosed the battle-
field. As Al Mansour had foreseen, the defeat of the
King of Leon was that of the whole army. The wings
were likewise beaten, but by no means in the same
manner. Abd-el-Malek, to whom his paternal affection
had allotted the least dangerous task, after keeping
back the Navarrese by his mere presence, had seen
them take flight as soon as the action became severe ;
and the Basques, who had been steadier at first, had
given way on seeing the centre broken. The youth
brought back fifty captives chained together.

The Castilians had bravely maintained their name
for valour and fidelity. On seeing the first line oi
Leonese giving way, the brave Count Garcia had tried

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 109

to bring aid to his suzerain by breaking through the
chain of Berbers, who were skirmishing round the
ranks, and keeping him from the decisive struggle.
On his side, taking advantage of the count's bold
move, Suleiman had also given the word to charge,
and there was as terrible and bloody a mil^e as in the
centre. Riding at the head of his warriors, and serving
as a mark for all the hostile archers, the too-daring
Garcia almost immediately fell beneath their arrows.
The Castillians were left without a leader, and falling
back on the bank of the Torm^s, guarded their dying
count in the midst of their ranks ; but they were in a
position where their retreat was cut off. They were
shut in on all sides. Whilst Suleiman's Berbers occu-
pied the ground where the battle had been fought,
Al Mansour's Arabs returned from the pursuit of the
Leonese and shut them in from above ; so that the
Castilians were enclosed in a half-circle of enemies,
with the river behind them ; nor could they even try
to cross it, for the Moslem infantry, who had been left
to guard the camp, had no sooner seen the result of
the battle than they had hurried to line the opposite
bank of the stream.

Al Mansour made a sign to restrain his troops, who,
flushed with slaughter, were about to overwhelm the
last remains of the Christian army. He wished to
spare so many men's lives ; and instead of watering
the earth with so much generous blood, to supply
strong hands for his various works, his fields, his
ships, his mines, and monuments. A herald was sent
t(5 summon the Castilians to yield on the promise
that their lives should be spared. Al Mansour stood on
a rising ground, and watched his messenger approach

no THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

ivith a green bong^h in his hand, and tliie Castiiian
ranks opening to admit htm so as to disclose in their
centre their count, lying on a litter formed by crossed
lances, while a brotherhood of monks in dark robes
prayed around him. As the herald's voice reached
his ears, he raised his pale face, tried to speak, but
after uttering a word or two fell ba^k and expired ;
-while the monks, raising their arms, chanted aloud.
Requiem eetemum dona nobis, Damine; and all the
Castilian warriors, falling on their knees and folding
their hands, joined with one voice in the mournful
psalmody of the office for the dead.

Al Mansour stood watching with the tears in his
eyes when Suleiman came up. " Son of Amer," said
he, " why doth not the signal of thy hand command
the destruction of those accursed dogs, whose howls
defy us and insult heaven."

" Son of Al Hakem,*' replied Al Mansour, "knowest
thou not that it is written : * He who slayeth one man
without having met with violence will be punished like
the murderer of all mankind, and he who saveth the
life o£ one man shall be rewarded like the rescuer of
all mankind.' Make room, sons c^ Ishmael, make
way. Let these Christians live, and let them bless the
name of the clement and merciful God.''

At tlie same time his outstretched arm commanded
the Arabs to quit the bank of the Torm^, and his
obedient legions flowing back, gradually l^t the
ChristiaaK a way to life and liberty. When they
saw a fiassage left open before them, the Castilians
accepted it as a miracle granted to the blessed soul id
their iziartyzed piince, and rose from their knees in
the gra;ve joy and trust erf a great deMveraace. The

CHAP. XII.] THE INViNCIBI^ AL MANSOUR. m

monks took up th* body of the good count upon tlaeir
shoulders like a sacred t'Clk, and all the -warriors,
without interrupting their chanted prayers, marched
away bareheaded, with lowered weap(^ns, and in
unbrokoi order.

The Arabs reined in their horses, and kept their
ranks without moving ; but as the Christian troops
moved away, they broke into the song of victor>'
aajoined by the Koran ; "Fiotory cometh from Allah ;"
and at the same time a caixier-fngeon, let loose from
the caiz^p, soared on hi^ to bear to the Khalif at
Cordova the tidings that his hajib had deserved more
than <ever his title of " The Invincible,"

The Arab army had suffered enough to be obliged
to return immediately, and this gave Bermudo time
to prepare for his next invasion by carrying off the
remains of the kings and all that was most precious
from Leon to their old home at Oviedo, That city
was sacked, and so were Toro, Zamora, Braganza,
and Tuy ; Barcelona followed the next year ; and the
Christians had lost all the gains of the last two hundred
years, and were driven back into the very cradle of their
realm, with the Pyrenees and the Sierra Penamerella
once more for their boundary.

Had Al Mansour been Khalif, instead of merely
al hajib, p'obably a final blow would have been
struck ; but at this period of the greatest danger the
Spaniards were relieved by a revolt of the Moors in
Africa, which called off the forces of the mighty victor.
As usual, he subdued everything before him there.
His thanksgiving was a noble one. It was an abun-
dant almsgiving, the payment of the debts of many
distressed persons, and the freedom of three hundred

XI2 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xir.

Christian slaves and fifteen hundred Christian captives.
He was a man of magnificent generosity. When his
son Abd-el-Malek was married to his cousin, dowries
were given to a great number of orphan girls, gifts
were distributed to the schools and hospitals, all his
guards were newly clothed, and the poets who com-
posed verses in honour of the occasion were richly
rewarded. The wedding-feast was celebrated in the
gardens of a beautiful country-house called Almeria,
which were illuminated with lamps on every tree and
shrub ; while on the lakes were boats, whence gentle
music was heard. Still, as a remnant of the customs
of the desert tribes, who used to carry off their wives
by force, the bride was placed in a pavilion, round
which her fellow-maidens kept guard with rods of
ivory and gold, and fought a mimic struggle with the
bridegroom and his attendants, who came with gilt
maces to win an entrance.

From these scenes of delight, Al Mansour, in loor,
set forth on his fifty-second warlike expedition, hoping
to complete the conquest of Spain. The Christians
had had three years in which to rally ; they had
repented of their fatal divisions, and all their chiefs
united : Bermudo II., though so lame with gout that
he had to be carried in a chair ; Garcia, King of
Navarre ; and Sancho Garcias, the son and successor
of the late Count of Castille. Every man who could
wield a lance or a bow was summoned to their
standards.

Al Mansour knew of the league, but was too much
accustomed to victory to fear it, or take any steps to
enlarge his force, which as usual was partly Arab and
partly Berber. His object was to attack the lands of

CHAP. XII.] THE INVINCIBLE AL MANSOUR. 113

the King of Navarre, who had not yet been pillaged ;

a4id his troops were advancing thither beyond the

Sierra de Aylon, near Niiraantia, the city which held

out for sixty years against Rome. Near this spot the

Christians were encamped at a place called, in Arabic,

KalaH al Nassotir, the Eagle's Rock ; by the Spaniards,

Calatanazor.

There the battle took place. The tactics on each

side were the same as at Tonnes ; but though the

rampart of dead rose higher and higher, the Christian

ranks remained unshaken.

The stubborn spearmen still made good
The stout impenetrable wood —

And after the fight had raged the whole day, Al
Mansour*s last desperate charge had ended in his
being wounded and carried to the rear. After twelve
hours' incessant fighting, night came on, and separated
the combatants.

The battle was still undecided. Each army had
betaken itself to its camp. The Christians dug long
trenches, where their slain were placed with a blessing
from the priests ; while the Arabs burnt their dead on
funeral piles lighted with naphtha. Al Mansour had
been carried to his tent, and there waited for his
captains to give them orders to renew the attack. His
son, Abd-el-Malek, came in with bandaged wounds,
and, as each brave warrior was mentioned, answered

slain " or " captive."

The great unconquerable knew he was conquered.

For the first time he had to give the word for retreat.

Even the great drum was forgotten. As the proverb said :

A Calatanazor,
Perdio Almanzor,
El atambor.

«

"1

XI4 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xii.

The hajib was carried in a litter over the Douro,
and having seen the remnant of his army safely across,
and heard that the bridges were destroyed, he refused
all nourishment, tore off the bandages of his wounds,
and died, in his sixty-third year, his proud heart broken
by his first defeat.

Then was opened a small cedar case which he
always carried about with him. It held the dust he
had shaken from his garments after each oi his fifty
victories, together with his winding-sheet of hemp
grown in his fathei-'s little field, and spun and
woven by his daughters to form his winding-sheet.
In it he was laid in his coffin, and buried in
a splendid tomb with an inscription recording his
victories.

When morning dawned on the Spaniards, their
enemy was gone, and they knew they were saved.

As Al Mansour's first defeat had been his last
battle, so Bermudo's first victory was likewise his last.
A few weeks later he died, in looi, leaving his crown
to his young son Alfonso V., under the care of his
mother Elvira.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FALL OF THE KHALIFATE.

The mistake of Al Mansour's life had been a jealousy
of power, which made him keep the KhaKf back from
affairs, and living entirdy among the ladies of his harem.
Indeed, it is probable that Hascbem II. was deficient
in the high qualities of mind and body which had lasted
unimpaired for so many generations, for, though he
was a man of mature age when he lost his great hajib,
'his mother, Sobeyah, still took the direction of affairs.
At first, the family of Al Mansour seemed to be becom-
ing a sort of mayors of the palace, for the eldest son
was made hajib; and on his sudden death in 1008, at
the same time as that of Sobeyah, his younger brother,
Abd-el-Rhaman, was appointed to the same office.

He was a foolish, ambitious man, of more pretension
than his father and brother, though with none of their
abilities. The Khalif being childless and exceedingly
fond of him, he obtained the promise of being made
heir to the throne — thus curiously playing the part of
Harold towards Edward the Confessor. Now the Khalif
was supposed to be the lineal representative of the
Prophet, and therefore a sacred personage, and the
admissi(m of a new family outraged all Moslem feeling,

I 2

ii6 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xiii.

more especially as there was no lack of men of
Ommeyad descent, since most of the previous Khalifs
had large families who had lived together in all peace
and amity. The appointment, though made in the
secrecy of the harem, was whispered abroad, and
Mahommed-a-ben-Abel-al-Djahar, a grandson of Abd-
cl-Rhaman III., hastened to Cordova to assert his
rights. He obtained possession of the person of the
unfortunate Haschem, forced him to abdicate, and put
to death by the cross the unfortunate and foolish Abd-
el-Rhaman, after a ministry of only five months.

Poor weak Haschem was spared at the entreaty
of his servant Wadha, but he was kept in a secret
dungeon, while obsequies were celebrated for a
man who much resembled him, and who had been
strangled on that account The new Khalif still
mistrusted the Zenetes, or guard of honour, instituted
by the first Abd-el-Rhaman, recruited from Barbar^'-,
and always on guard at the palace, and he tried to
break them up. They fought hard ; the citizens of
Cordova took part against them, and there was a
terrible street fight, ending with their being expelled,
and the head of their leader thrown to them over
the walls. They elected his cousin, Suleiman-ben-
al-Hakem, the ferocious Berber we saw at Torm^s,
and marched off to Toledo, where they allied them-
selves with Sancho, Count of Castille, and with his aid
and support fought a tremendous battle at Quintos.
Mahommed gained the victory; and pushed on to
Cordova. Once more, though only as allies, did the
Spanish nobles behold the towers of Cordova. They
were only admitted as far as the suburbs, and thence
returned home with their mules loaded with plunder^

CHAP. XIII.] THE FALL OF THE KHALIFATE. 117

and with the promise that six cities should be added
to the Castilian territory.

The Berber Suleiman — no son of Ommeyad — was
proclaimed Khalif ; but Mahommed had made his
retreat good, and called in the assistance of another
Christian ally, Ramon, Count of Barcelona. Again
there was a great battle, in which the Berber was
defeated. Finding himself unable to hold Cordova,
he went off to the lovely Al Zohra palace, and pillaged
it, mosque and all, of its splendid ornaments and
treasures, meaning to carry them off to Africa.
Mahommed hurried after him to recover the spoil, but
coming up exhausted, was defeated so completely that
he had again to shut himself up in Cordova, where,
finding all the people against him, as a last hope,
released the deposed Haschem from his dungeon.
Suddenly in the Khalifas place, in the great mosque,
was seen the true prince, who had for two years been
thought to be dead. The Cordovans hailed him with
ecstasy. The usurper threw himself at his feet with
abject entreaties for life, but all in vain ; and presently
Suleiman received the head of Mahommed on the
point of a lance, with the message that such was the
fate of traitors.

Suleiman, on his side, made use of the head. He
embalmed it in camphor and sent it to Obeid-Allah,
the son of the late usurper, with the message : " This
is the head of thy father, Mahommed. Thou seest
how Haschem recompenseth the man who restored
him to the throne. If thou wouldest have safety and
vengeance, Suleiman will be with thee."

Haschem's servant, Wadha, made his way to Castille
to obtain support against Obeid-Allah and Suleiman.

ii8 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xm.

Sancho was ready to change sides. " Six cities were
given me by Suleiman," said he ; " but if thou wilt
offer the like, I had rather ser\-e the Khalif than the
usurper.*' The Castilian forces enabled Wadha to
overcome Obeid-AUah, who was made prisoner and
crucified.

The humane and generous customs of the Moors
had been lost in this deadly civil war. Suleiman and
his Berbers acted like true barbarians. Encamped on
the banks of the Guadalquivir, they ravaged and deso-
lated Andalusia like a conquered country, cut off the
supplies from Cordova, and reduced the city to all the
horrors of famine and pestilence. The citizens cried
out that it was the consequence of Allah's wrath at
their unholy alliance with the Christians. Haschem —
wretched, cowardly, and foolish — put to death his only
true friend, Wadha, as the instrument of this alliance.
The whole city was in confusion, though the new
hajib, Hairan-al-Ameri, was a brave man, who reso-
lutely defended the walls. A general assault was
commanded by Suleiman. Hairan fought to the last
at the head of the KhaliPs guard — a gallant band,
which perished to a man on the steps of the palace.
Hairan, senseless and desperately wounded, was found
among the slain by a poor man, who hid him in his
house, while the city was sacked for three whole days
by Suleiman and his savage Berbers. The exquisite
mosques and the Aljama college were not spared, and
great ntlmbers of the scholars, philosophers, and poets
perished in the massacre, the beautiful houses and the
costly treasures being destroyed, and many of the
great old Arab families being exterminated. The un-
fortunate Khalif Haschem was never seen again, and

CHAP, xni.] THE FALL OF THE KHALIFATE. 119

no doubt was killed without being recognised. His
fatal reign thus ended in 1013.

Suleiman tried to strengthen his usurpation by giving
six Berber chiefs lands to hold as fiefs, on the con-
dition of serving him in war, after the example of the
northern nations. The Arabs, however, hated this
Berber dominion, and Hairan, recovering from his
wounds, cleverly obtained the stronghold of Almeria,
and made it a rallying-point His brother, or kins-
man, Ali-ben-Hamoud, wali of Ceuta, came to join
him with an Arab reinforcement from Africa ; and in a
battle near Seville, fortune turned against Suleiman,
who was taken id his flight, and, with his brother and
his old father, the governor of Cordova, was brought
before the victor.

"Old man," said Ali, "what have you done with
Khalif Haschem? These, heads are called for by
vengeance."

" Strike rae akme ! " said Suleiman ; " the others are
not guilty."

Ali, however, swept off all the thr^e heads with his
scimitar. Search was everywhere made for Haschem,
and, when he could nowhere be found, Ali was pro-
claimed Khalif. In his jealousy of Hairan he forgot
his gratitude, and sent him off unrewarded to his old
province of Almeria. There, of course, Hairan stirred
up a fresh revolution, finding another Ommeyad to
proclaim as Khalifl He counts as the fourth Abd>el-
Rhaman, and gained the allegiance of the south-east,
but was defeated by Ali, who cut off Hairan^s head
with his own hand, as he had cut off Suleiman's. Still
the love of the Ommeyad, as the right heir of the
Prophet, was so 3trGng that the usurper could not be

I20 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xiii.

endured, and Ali was smothered in a bath immediately
after his return to Cordova.

But in this miserable time, the destruction of one
pretender only seemed to multiply parties. Al Kasim,
Ali's brother, was elected by his soldiers ; and when
Yah-yah, son of Ali, came over from Africa, one reigned
at Cordova, and the other made war on Abd-el-
Rhamam IV. After about four years, in 1022, Al
Kasim was overthrown and imprisoned for life ; and
soon after Abd-el-Rhaman was killed in battle with
Yah-yah. Another Abd-el-Rhaman, of the Ommeyad
dynasty, was elected ; but he was one of the stern,
ascetic, and devout class of Moslems ; and his troops,
demoralised by the long civil war, declared that he
was only fit to be sheik of the dervishes in the desert.
They murdered him after he had reigned only forty-
seven days, and set up his cousin, Mahommed. Feeling
that all depended on these soldiers who had become
a perfect Praetorian guard, he pampered and flattered
them to the last degree, and taxed the people heavily
to supply their demands ; but all in vain — he was
poisoned at the end of sixteen months. Yah-yah
soon after perished, and the last of the Ommeyads,
Haschem III., was chosen. He was a timid and
gentle person, much distressed at this perilous eleva-
tion, and tried in vain to win the hearts of his people
by mildness. When a new tumult arose and they
demanded his deposition, he quietly gave thanks to
Allah, laid aside the ensigns of royalty, and left
Cordova. Thus, in 1031, ended that grand dynasty
which had ruled southern Spain for two centuries. As
long as great men succeeded one another it had pros-
pered, but with the first weak sovereign it collapsed

CHAP. XIII.] THE FALL OF THE KHALIFATE. 121

altogether ; one lawless captain after another seized
the power, and the discordant elements of Arab and
Berber fell apart, the walls gradually becoming inde-
pendent sovereigns, with little courts of their own.

It would be only confusion worse confounded to try
to trace their wars and entanglements. A Khalif was
elected at Cordova, 103 1, Djehwar-ben-Mahommed,
who did much to restore order and good government,
and bring back the sciences and arts for which it had
been so famous before these thirty years of anarchy.

But his power was greatly diminished, and the
EmtrSy as the governors of provinces were called, were
like the great crown vassals of France and Germany,
scarcely under the yoke of the sovereign. Seville,
Toledo, Malaga, Granada, Jaen, Carmona, Zaragoza,
Medina- Sidonia — each had its own emir. The great
peninsular khalifate had become a set of mere frag-
ments — some retaining the Arabic traditions of culture,
others little more than nests of Berber savage marauders.
The old fable of the bundle of sticks was worked out ;
the ruin of all was only a matter of time.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE UNION OF CASTILLE AND LEON.

Why did not the Christians profit more by the divisions
of the Moors ? Ultimately they gained ; but they were
far too unsettled and disunited to make any great effort
in the common cause. Indeed, they were not unwil-
ling either to hire out their swords to the Moors, or to
obtain Moorish aid against their enemies ; and both
religion and morals w^ere at a low ebb amongst them.
The difference was that Islam liad done its very best
in forming such civilisation as that of the Ommeyad ;
while Christianity, though at a low ebb in the Spanish
mountains, had infinite possibilities.

The kingdom of Leon had prospered under the
regency of Elvira, the widow of Bermudo III., who
bred up her son, Alfonso V., to much excellence. He
rebuilt Leon, fortified Zamora, and hoped to take
Viseo ; but while reconnoitring without his armour
he was killed by an arrow from the walls, when only
thirty-four years old, in 1027, leaving two children,
Bermudo III. and Sancha, both very young.

Castille had likewise a young count. That Garcia
who had been typified by Al Mansour's stag, had left a
son named Sancho. Of him a strange story is told

CHAP. XIV.] UNION OF CASTILLE AND LEON. 123

— ^that he fell in love with a Moorish lady, and his
mother, the Countess Marioiia, wishing to prevent the
marriage, prepared a cup of poison for him. Another
version says that it was Dona Mariona herself who
wanted to marry a Moor, and tried to poison her son
for fear he should hinder it As to the fact, both are
agreed that he guessed her intentions, and insisted on
her drinking off the potion herself ; whence, say the
Spaniards, arose the custom of the lady being the first
to pledge the gentleman in a cup. Probably the
eastern habits of keeping women in the background
led to this desire to account for a custom inherited
from the more courteous Goth.

In expiation for his mother's death, Sancho founded
a great double monastery in a lovely valley, watered
by four tributaries to the £bro, of which the Oca is the
chief. The dedication was to San Salvador ; but it
was called Ona, after the countess ; and Sancho's
daughter. Dona Frigida, was the first abbess. He
extended his borders during the wars of the floors ;
sometimes, as has been seen, by hiring out his alliance
£E>r so many fortresses, sometimes by conquest ; and
he was besieging Sepulveda, when he died of a short
illness in 1022.

He left an only son and three daughters. The
ddest was the wife of Sancho IV., king of Navarre,
who took under his protection the young Don Garcia
Sanchez, Count of Castille, a very promising boy of
fourteen* A marriage was arranged between him and
Sancha of Leon ; but the poor boy had incurred the
resentment of the tliree sons of the Count of Vela,
probably because his brother-in-law had tried to break
op a sort of outlaw settlement in the Castle of Mongon,

124 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xiv.

where some of the family were living by connivance of
the Moors. At any rate, the very evening the young
bridegroom arrived at Leon, he was stabbed to the
heart in the street on his way to church, in the midst
of all the Leonese nobles. The assassins made good
their escape to Mongon, but were pursued thither,
taken, and burnt alive by the King of Navarre.

He was the last male of the line of the Counts of
Castille founded by Garcia Fernandes ; and his eldest
sister, Elvira (or Nuiia), carried the inheritance to her
husband, Sancho IV. of Navarre, called el Mayor, the
Great. Indeed, he really was by far the greatest of
contemporary kings of the Peninsula, and for a time it
seemed as if Navarre might unite all the little realms
^ under one head ; for the line of early kings of Aragon
had failed, and that district was only governed by a
count, as vassal to Navarre. The eldest daughter of
Sancho and Elvira of Castille married Fernando III.
of Leon, but her only child died a few days after its
birth ; and Fernando, the second son of the King of
Navarre, was betrothed to Dona Sancha, the only
sister and heiress of Bermudo, the intended bride of
poor young Count Garcia of Castille.

More wild stories are here told. Sancho was hunt-
ing on the borders of Leon, when his prey, either a
boar or a deer, took refuge in a cave or vault in some
old ruins. Out came a hermit to protect the hunted
creature ; and when the king would have struck it he
found his arm powerless ; but on his humbling himself
it was restored at the prayer of the hermit, a French-
man named Antholin. Sancho found that the spot
was the site of an ancient monastery called Palencia,
and vowed to restore it. It became a palace and also

CHAP. XIV.] UNION OF CASTILLE AND LEON. 125

a school of learning, where St Dominic's education
was begun. The well of St. Antholin is still shown,
and the water is thought to work cures.

Palencia was on Leonnese ground, and Bermudo
considered Sancho's buildings as an aggression. A
war was threatened, and was onfy prevented by
5ancho*s engaging that his wife Elvira's inheritance of
Castille should pass to his second son, Fernando, the
husband of Sancha of Leon, instead of to his eldest
son Garcia, the heir of Navarre.

Another strange romance is here brought into ac-
count for thcL disfavour of the firstborn. It is said that
while King Sancho was absent, Garcia wanted to use
his father's favourite horse, and that he had obtained
consent from his mother to his riding it, when Don
Pedro Sese, the Master of the Horse, assured her that
the king would not trust it with the youth, and she
withdrew her sanction. Don Garcia, in savage fury,
made the vilest accusations against his mother and
Don Pedro ; and his brother Fernando, when appealed
to, neither affirmed nor denied her innocence. She
appealed, like all queens in romance in such a predica-
ment, to the ordeal of battle ; but no one cared to
descend into the lists with the heir of the kingdom ;
and she was in danger of the stake, when a champion
rode forward and undertook her cause. He proved to
be Don Ramiro, an illegitimate son of the king him-
self, a brave youth, who could not bear to see an
innocent queen perish by the slander of her own son.
No sooner was his name proclaimed than a monk
rushed between the half-brothers, and addressed such
burning words to Garcia, that the lad, overwhelmed
with shame^ fell at his father's feet and declared that

126 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xiv.

the whole accusation had sprung from his anger. Don
Sancho, bitterly grieved and angered, declared that
Dona Elvira must mete out the just punishment to her
sons, and it was she who deprived Garcia of her in-
heritance of Castille, and gave it to his less guilty-
brother Fernando. She also begged that Ramiro
might be made equal to her own sons ; and he there-
fore received the county of Aragon.

There is no doubt that, whatever the cause, Sancho
the Great broke up his dominions on his death, leaving
Navarre and Biscay to Garcia, Castille to Fernando,
Aragon to Ramiro, and Sobreira and Ribagorga to
Gonzalo, the youngest. This was in 1035, and all took
the title of king. Gonzalo was soon after murdered by
one of his servants on the bridge of Mongon, and his
small kingdom was immediately absorbed into Aragon.
A fresh quarrel broke out between Fernando I. and
his brother-in-law, Bermudo of Leon. Garcia assisted
his brother, and in a battle near Carrion, Bermudo was
killed by the thrust of a lance in 1037. Fernando took
possession of his kingdom, and the Christian territories
were in the hands of the three Navarrese brothers,

Garcia and Ramiro spent most of their strength in
wars with one another ; but Fernando I., whose king-
dom was by far the strongest, was in condition to
make real advances against the Moors. He was a
man full of devotion of the fervent Spanish description,
which regarded wars with the Moslem as sacred ; and
the Moors, after a ^ort breadiing-time, were in a state
of utter confusion, the emirs all attacking one another,
and the khalifate the prize of the ambitious, until, in
1060, the last bearer oi that illustrious title, Abdnd-
Malek^ was murdered at Cordova.

CHAP. XIV.] UNION OF C-\STILLE AND LEON. 127

Femando's first exploits were tlie sieges of Visea
and Coimbra. The Spaniards have a legend that a
Greek bishop, who in his own country had derided the
Spanish stories of Santiago^ and said St James was
a fisherman of Galilee, was visited in a dream by
that great champion of Christeiidom with a bunch of
keys in his hand, who said : *' These are the keys of
Coimbra. I am about at this very hour to deliver it
into the hands of the Faithful.'' The bishop set out for
Spain, found that the city had surrendered at the very
hour of his dream, and became a most devout votary
of Santiaga (So saiOi the ** Chronicle of the Cid.'")

Fernando is said to have called himself Emperor,
and thus brought on himself the displeasure of both
Emperor and Pope. A legate was sent into Spain,
who viewed the old Gothic liturgy with great jealousy
and dislike, but could not prevail on the Spanish
Church to discard it. The devotion of Fernando and
his Queen Sancha was, however, unquestionable. The
Queen built a church at Leon, to which she meant to
remove the corpse of her brother from Oria. Wishing
for some relics to hallow it, she recollected two virgins,
Justa and Rufina, who had been martyred at Seville ;
and sent Avito, Bishop of Leon, to demand theirbodies
from Ben Abed, Emir or King of Seville. The emir
made no objection, except that nobody had the least
idea where to find the corpses of the martyrs. While,
however, the inquiry was going on. Bishop Avito had a
vision of the great Bishop of Seville, St Isidoro, who
said : " I am the Doctor of the Spains. Mine is the
body to be removed ! " and further disclosing the very
spot where it was to be found.
It was removed to Leon, miracles being worked to

128 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xiv.

attest its reality, and a church founded wherever it
rested for a night. The king and queen went out in
the midst of a great procession to meet it, and San
Isidoro became almost as much a champion of Spain
as Santiago himself.

He appeared to Fernando himself in the middle of
a successful campaign to foretell his approaching end.
The king did in fact come home very ill, went to the
church of the saint, performed humble penance for his
sins, then, becoming worse, died on the 27th of Sep-
tember, 1065. The benefits of union were so little
perceived that he again split up his kingdom, giving
Castille to his eldest son, Sancho ; Leon to the next
brother, Alfonso ; Galicia to the third, Garcia ; and
the cities of Zamora and Toro to his two daughters,
Urraca and Elvira.

CHAPTER XV.

RUY, MI CID CAMPEADOR.

We have reached the central figure of Castilian song
and story — the national champion — Rodrigo Diaz de
Bivar, commonly called The Cid. We will tell his
story first as Spain has sung and told it ever since the
thirteenth century ; and then, alas, we must put it
into the crucible of modem criticism and comparison
of authorities.

In the time of King Fernando I. there dwelt at
Burgos an old hidalgo named Diego Laynez, Lord of
Bivar. A strife arose between him and the Lord of
Gormaz, Count Gomez, and he received a blow which
he was too feeble from age and infirmity to repay. He
returned to his house broken-hearted at the insult, all
the more because Gomez was a mighty warrior, and his
elder sons durst not avenge his honour in the combat.
His youngest son was Rodrigo, a mere lad, as yet un-
.tried, but his heart so burned within him at his father's
grief that he took down a sword from the wall — the
very sword of Mudarra, the avenger of Lara—and
went forth to defy the count.

•

Weeping sore, Diego Lainez

At the board was seated,
Bitter tears of sorrow shedding —

Of his shame he treated.

130 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xv.

At the meal the old man sat,

His heart with sorrow swelling ;
On a thousand questions nice

Of punctilio dwelling.

When his son Rodrigo entered.

And by the hair he bore
Count Gomez' severed head, and held it,

All ghastly, dripping gore.

From a swoon his father waking

To a joy so sweet :
** Here the evil weed thou see'st ;

Eat, my father, eat.

" Open father, ope thine eyes,

Lift thy face," he said ;
" See thine honour safe — its life

Is risen from the dead.

" Every stain is washed from off thee.

Right from his pride is wrung ;
The hand that hurt thee is no hand.

The tongue, no more a tongue."

*' Sit down to eat, my noble son.

Above me," Lainez said ;
" For he who yonder head has brought

Is of this house the head."

Diego died soon after, and Rodrigo did many ex-
ploits against the Moors in the service of the king.
When the king, Fernando, next held his court, a lady
came before him. She was Ximena, daughter of Count
Gomez, and her prayer was that the king would give
her to wife to. Rodrigo de Bivar, because she knew he
would be greater than any man in Castille, and she
could then pardon him with a good wilL

CHAP. XV.] RUY, MI cm CAMPEADOR. 131

So he came to Palencia, and plighted his troth to
Ximena most willingly ; but he placed her with his
mother, vowing that he would not take her to his own
house till he should have fought five battles against the
Moors. Of course he fulfilled his vow ; and after-
wards he made a pilgrimage to Compostella. In the
midst of this journey the Ballads give one of those acts
of devotion which so strangely blend with the ferocious
pride of the age. A poor leper called to Rodrigo for
aid from the midst of a quagmire. He not only set
the man on his own horse, but, on reaching an inn,
ate with him at the same table and lay down to rest
in the same bed. In the middle of the night he
missed the leper, and, after searching for him in vain,
he beheld a man in robes of white, who declared that
he was indeed St Lazarus, who had appeared under
the form of a leper, and went on to promise him
victories and blessings untold.

Rodrigo was knighted by King Fernando, and did
good service in his wars. The names of Cid and
Campeador were then given him. Cid the Spaniards
consider equivalent to A I Said, the Arabic for chief;
Campeador, his chronicler says, means the person
who chose the place for encamping, though it is also
explained to mean Champion. Quarrels soon broke
out among the children of Fernando I. after his death.
Sancho, the eldest, thought himself injured by the
division, and attacking Alfonso, defeated him and shut
him up in the convent of Sahagun, whence he escaped
to the protection of Al Maimon, the Moorish king of
Toledo. Garcia was in like manner subdued and im-
prisoned at Luna, then Elvira was deprived of Toro,
and lastly Sancho attacked 2^mora. Urraca would

K 2

133 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xv.

not yield her inheritance without a struggle, and, in
the midst of the siege, Sancho was treacherously slain
by a knight in his own army, named Vellido Dolfos, in
1073, who escaped into the city, and whom Urraca
would not give up.

She sent at once for her brother Alfonso, her especial
favourite, and he was readily accepted as king ; but a'
large number of persons, with the Cid at their head,
suspected that Dona Urraca and Don Alfonso had
been concerned in the murder, and at the coronation
Rodrigo insisted on the king and his knights clearing
themselves by oath, which oath was to be taken on the
bolt of the gate of Zamora and on the crossbow staff.

At Santa Agueda of Burgos

Did the hidalgos* swear,
Of brother's blood, the clearing oath

Alfonso must take there.

The good Cid tendered it— ^

That good Castilian brave —
Upon the iron bolt.

And on the arblast's stave.

With holy Gospel books

And Crucifix he stood ;
So strong and stern his words.

They awed that monarch good.

' •• May villains slay thee, king^

Villains, not men of birth —
No lords of Oviedo's forts,

Nor of Asturian earth.

♦ Filio, fijo-dalgo, hijodalgo, hidalgo— son ol 9. S>^Qm%\i gentlft.
xnan— the term for somebody.

CHAP. XV.] RUY, MI CID CAMPEADOR. X33

" Pierced by no lance or dart.

May thy base life be spilt
By mere horn-handled knives,

And not by daggers gilt."

Many curious particulars followed as to the dress of
these low-born murderers, who were to wear green
leathern hose, and not boots, and hempen, and not
hoUand, shirts, and to ride .asses instead of horses or
mules. Then the Cid continued to the king, who was
much overawed by these minute threats.

*• May they take out thine heart

Alive, and never rue,
Unless to what I ask thee now

Thou giv'st an answer true.

" Wert thou, or wert thou not,

Of Sancho's death aware?"
So awful was the oath,

That the king would not swear.

Then up and spake a knight,

One to the king most near :
•' Come, take the oath, good king,

And take it free from fear.

•' Ne'er yet was king a traitor,

Nor Pope 'scommunicate."
And now the king hath sworn himself

Free of his brother's fate.

But then in haste and wrath

The king thus spake his will :
"111 hasl thou sworn me, Cid —

Cid, thou hast sworn me ill.

134 1'HE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xv.

" Since thou hast put me to the oath,
When thou should'st kiss my hand,

A bad knight art thou proved, O Cid ;
Go forth, then, from my land.

" Nor here return again

Till from this day a year."
'• Well pleased am I, then," quoth the Cid,

*• Well pleased and glad my cheer.

"For I'm the first in all thy reign

To bear commands from thee ;
Dost banish me for one year's space?

For four I banish me."

Tl:en sped the good Cid forth.

And with him went away
Three hundred horsemen brave,

Hidalgos all were they.

The Ballad makes the banishment the immediate
penalty of the exaction of the oath, but the Chronicle
puts it on an accusation that he had broken a truce
with the Moorish king of Toledo.

The Cid had to depart in nine days' time. To pro-
vide means for his journey he sent his nephew, Martin
Antoninez, to borrow nine hundred marks of two Jews,
leaving them in pledge two chests, iron-bound and
locked with many locks, which were supposed to
contain valuables, but really were full of sand. Jews
were considered as fair game, so that this shocked no
one. He left Dona Ximena and her little children in
the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeiia, and with his
friends Alvar Fanez and Martin Antoninez led a wild
outlaw life, the theme of endless ballads, which repre-
sent the Spanish ideal of devotion, loyalty, courage.

CHAP. XV.] RUY, MI CID CAMPEADOR. 135

and courtesy, though dashed at times with terrible
ferocity.

The Chronicle and the Ballads make him live rather
as David did at Ziklag, making war only on the
enemies of his religion, except when attacked. Ramon
Berenguer, the Count of Barcelona, thus fell on him
to take away his spoil, but was defeated and made
prisoner. Then, says the story, " A great supper was
prepared for my Cid Campeador ;" but Count Don
Ramon would not eat *^ I will taste no meat for all
Spain. I will lose my life, since such wretches have
conquered me in battle."

My Cid heard him. "Eat, count, eat this bread,
drink this wine ; so shalt thou cease to be a
prisoner."

Finally, the generous conqueror prevailed, and the
count's supper was his ransom. He was set free with
many fair gifts of horses and furred mantles.

Rodrigo reconciled himself to the king, coming
creeping to his throne with a saddle on his back ; but
he always dwelt beyond Alfonso's dominions, and
finally won Valencia, whither he brought his wife
and children, and reigned, only doing homage to the
king for the rest of his life. He had an ivory chair
in the Cortes, and he and his good steed Babieca
were always in the forefront of the battles, where he
wielded one or other of his bright swords, Colada and
Tizona.

The Cid lost his only son, Don Diego Ruiz ; and his
daughters, Elvira and Sol, were viewed as heiresses.
The two sons of the Count of Carrion, Ferdinand and
Diego Gonzales, sought them in marriage, and by
favour of the king obtained them. Rodrigo. gave

136 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [ciiAr. xv.

them, not only his daughters, but much wealth, an(J
his two beloved swords, Tizona and Colada ; and for
two years they lived with him in Valencia.

Now the Cid kept a lion, with which he was wont
to amuse himself. One day, at dinner-time, there
was an alarm that Moorish ships were seen in the
offing. Rodrigo said he was very glad, for it was three
years since he had had a stroke at a Moor. He gave
all his orders, and then fell asleep in the noonday
heat. In the alarm, the door of the lion's den had
been left open, and the beast made his appearance in
the castle-hall, to the extreme terror of the Infants of
Carrion. Fernando crept under the Cid's couch ; and
Diego, crying " I shall never see Carrion again," rushed
out through a postern-door, and fell into a wine-press,
where he was stained by the lees. The warriors stood
round the couch to defend the Cid, and the noise they
made awoke him. As he saw the lion coming towards
him he quietly said : " What's this ?" The lion stood
still at the sound of his voice, and he took him by the
mane as if he had been a mastiff, and led him back to
his den.

The two Infants came forth from their hiding-place,
and were much laughed at for their cowardice. They
showed an equal want of valour in the attack of the
Moorish ships that followed ; and finding themselves
altogether in disgrace and looked down upon, they
desired to take their wives and return to their home
in Castille, meaning to have a base and cowardly
revenge.

The mother, Dona Ximena, was so uneasy that she
begged that Rodrigo's nephew, Feliz Munoz, might
follow her daughters and watch them. WeU it was

CHAP. XV.] RUY, MI CID CAMPEADOR. 137

she did so ; for when the Infants had reached the
great oak-wood of Corpes, they encamped for the
night, and in the morning sent all their attendants
on before them. Then they fell upon the two poor
ladies, tore off their furred velvet mantles, beat and
kicked them with their spurred heels, and left them
for dead, saying : " Lie there, daughters of the Cid.
It is not fitting that ye should be our wives, or have
dower on the lands of Carrion! We shall see how
your father will avenge you, and we have now avenged
ourselves for the shame he did us with the lion/'
Wherewith Fernando and Diego rode away, leaving
their two young wives swooning on the grass, where
their cousin found them. He covered them with his
cloak, fetched them water, and tried to revive and
console them ; and presently found a good peasant,
who took them to his cottage, and gave them shelter,
while tidings were sent to their father.

The companions of the Infants of Carrion had been
shocked at their treatment of their wives, and had
turned back and searched for the poor ladies in vain.
The king was greatly displeased, and when the Cid's
complaint came, he held a Cortes for the trial of the
two recreants.

The Cid appeared, and the first demand he made
was that, since the Infants had renounced his daugh-
ters, they would give him back his swords, Colada and
Tizona. Hoping this was all, they brought the swords,
which were so bright that the whole court shone with
their light. He kissed them, and said : " Ah, my
swords, Colada and Tizona ; I gave ye in keeping to
ihe Infants of Carrion that they might do honour to
my daughters with you. But ye were not for them !

138 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [cHAP. xv.

They kept you hungry, and did not feed you with
flesh as you were wont to be fed !"

After this grim congratulation Rodrigo demanded
that all the treasure he liad given the Infants with his
daughters should be restored. With much difficulty
they were made to refund this ; but thirdly, he de-
manded satisfaction for the honour of his daughters.
Fernando had the assurance to declare that, the lineage
of the Cid not being equal to that of Carrion, the mar-
riage was unequal, and ought to be broken ; but all
that came of this was a challenge to him and his
brother to fight hand-to-hand with the terrible Cid
and his nephew, Martin Antoninez. The king forced
them to accept it ; and, lest they should avoid it, came
to Carrion in person to see it fought out. It could end
in only one way : Fernando was killed, and Diego
— driven ignominiously out of the lists — and his father
were banished, and the lands of Carrion forfeited to
the king ; while Dona Sol and Dona Elvira obtained
noble husbands in the Infants of Aragon and Navarre.

When the time came for the Cid to die, the Moors
were threatening a great attack on Valencia. He knew
it could not be held out without him, and he therefore
charged his wife. Dona Ximena, that no crying nor
lamentation should be made when he expired, but that
the trumpets should sound and bells should ring. Then
should his embalmed corpse be clad in armour and
set, fastened upright, on his good steed Babieca, and
that Tizona should be bound to his hand and his
banner borne before him, while his warriors formed in
battle array, with the women, children, and sumpter
beasts in their midst, and thus should every Christian
pass out of Valencia and give battle to the Moors.

CHAP. XV.] RUY, MI CID CAMPEADOR. 139

Thus then it was done, and thus, as a dead man,
did Ruy Diaz de Bivar win his last victory, and guard
his wife and his followers back to Burgos. Never
man mounted Babieca again after that wonderful
ride!

The Cid was placed on an ivory chair at the church
of San Pedro at Cardeiia, where he remained till a
Jew ventured to pluck his beard,, when the dead hand
struck down the sacrilegious intrudei*. After this he
was buried in San Pedro.

Such is the outline of the story told in the " Cronica
del Cid" and in his " Cancionero," containing one
hundred and fifty-four popular ballads on this favourite
hero, whom Spanish fancy has made up to its own
fantastic standard of devotion and loyalty, though far
from being unmixed with darker traits.

Alas ! by the test of charter and veritable history,
and by what can be gathered from the Arab chroni-
clers, it is plain that the fancy of a more chivalrous
age has adorned the rudeness of a fierce outlaw with
many borrowed graces.

Rodrigo de Bivar — or, as the Moors called him, Al
Sayd Rouderik-al-Kambythour — seems to have early
become a leader of free lances, and to have hired him-
self out first to Ben Houd, Emir of Zaragoza — an ally
of Fernando I. Then he passed into the service of King
Sancho the Strong, and married Ximena, daughter to
the Count of Oviedo. When Sancho perished, at the
siege of Zamora, Rodrigo distrusted Alfonso, and re-
turned to his former roving habits of hiring himself out
to fight the battles of Moorish chiefs, feeding his band
upon plunder alike of Moor and Christian.

Valencia was stUl Moorish, but the emir, Al Kadir^

I40 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xv.

paid tribute to Alfonso, and had admitted a Christian
bishop. Al Kadir was a tyrant, and exacted such
heavy imposts, especially on barley, that the very dogs
were said to bark at tlie words " give barley."

Discontent was great, and Alvar Fanez — the friend
and comrade of the Cid — was invited to fight the
emir's battles, while another Christian soldier from
Barcelona was called in by the malcontents. Al Kadir
was successful, and, being unable to give Alvar Fanez
any pay, he presented him with a castle, where all
sorts of lawless people collected and lived by plunder,
accompanied by horrid cruelties. They made prisoners
all who fell in their way, whether Mahommedan or
Christian ; and, if no ransom were brought for them,
cut out their tongues, put out their eyes, and hunted
them with dogs.

Al Mostain, Emir of Zaragoza, proposed to the Cid
to overthrow Al Kadir, when the Moor was to keep
Valencia itself and the Christian be paid by plunder ;
but ere the attack began Al Kadir had an interview
with the Cid, and bribed him not only to refuse to
continue the war with one who paid tribute to Castille,
but to pass into his own service, levying huge sums
as black mail from the cities which he did not plunder.
During an illness of Al Kadir he managed the affairs
of Valencia ; but, so far from holding it for his native
prince, he made it independent. Alfonso besieged
Valencia ; Rodrigo harried Castille to call him home.
Finally, while Rodrigo was at Zaragoza, there was a
rising against Al Kadir, and the Almoravid chief, Ibu
Djahhaf was admitted by the people. Al Kadir fled,
carrying in his bosom a necklace of precious stones
which had belonged to Zobeideh, the wife of the

CHAP. XV.] RUY, MI CID CAMPEADOR. ^t

great Khalif Haroun-al-Raschid. He was pursued,
slain, and his head thrown into a pond.

There then followed a war between Al Mostain,
assisted by the Cid, and Ibu Djahhaf, ending in a siege.
After a long blockade, some of the citizens opened the
gates, and a frightful slaughter ensued ; only those
being saved who could ransom themselves, or were
worth being sold for slaves. ' Ibu Djahhaf was taken,
and, after having given up the necklace and all the
rest of the spoil, was burnt alive in revenge for the
death of Al Kadir.

Murviedo was also taken by the Cid by treachery,
and cruelly used. The Arab records say that a Moorish
army defeated Alvar Fanez, and that Rodrigo, who was
already ill, died of grief. Then the Moors besieged
Valencia. Ximena held out for seven months, till the
King of Castille came to bring succour. Finding the
place no longer tenable, he escorted away all the
Christians and set it on fire. Rodrigo*s body was
brought home and buried at San Pedro de Cardeftas.
His two daughters, whose real names were Maria
and Christina, married the Infants of Navarre and
Aragon.

Two generations seem to have built up the won-
derful superstructure of romance on the life of one
who probably had much brilliance, courage, and dig-
nity, but who evidently was really only the fierce
partisan warrior of Spain, not by any means the
perfect Christian hero. However, the "Cronica del
Cid" has so many actual bits of history in it that his.
feats have been accepted as genuine. Comeille made
his marriage the theme of a drama ; and when the
French invaded Spain in 1808, they fell into raptures

14a THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. XV.

over the tomb that Chim^ne shared with her lord, and
removed it to the public promenade at Burgos. It
was afterwards restored to Cardena, but the remains
of the Cid were taken from his tomb and placed in a
walnut urn in the museum of Burgos.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE ALMORAVIDES AND THEIR CONQUEST.

To complete the story of the Cid, it has been neces-
sary to anticipate the great changes produced by the
disunion of the Moors and the increased strength of
the Castilian kingdom under Alfonso VI.

He was an able man^ not very scrupulous, who kept
his brother Garcia in prison till his death, and neglected
no chance of extending his frontiers. He kept the
peace with the Moors as long as his friend Al Maimoun
lived ; but when that emir died, he allied himself with
Mahommed Aben Abed of Seville against his son, and
besieged Toledo in 1074.

After holding out with true peninsular constancy,
the city surrendered, on condition that such Moslems
as left it should carry away their property, and those
who remained should freely exercise their religion and
retain all their mosques. Thus Alfonso, after three
hundred years, re-entered the capital of the Goths,
and obtained the city where the unhappy Rodrigo, last
of the Goths, had reigned.

He was the first Castilian king who had been
important enough to wed beyond the Pyrennees. His
wife was Constanza of Burgundy, granddaughter of

144 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xvi,

Robert the Pious of France. She came full of the
revival that had taken place under that devout
monarch, and bringing with her Bernard, a monk of
Cluny, bred up under the vigorous and devout rule
that favoured our Lanfranc and Anselm. They were
shocked at the laxity of Spain, both in morals and in
doctrine, and they had already obtained that a synod
should be held for a reformation of the Church. They
were unable to understand any Christianity save what
was like that which, they had left at home ; and the
Mozarabic liturgy was a sore trial to them, though
its orthodoxy had been approved by a legate from
Rome. Castille was as yet so isolated that all its
culture came from the Moorish schools ; and though
physical science was there infinitely more advanced
than anywhere else in the West, and learning and
poetry had revived under the late emirs of Seville,
such studies seemed suspicious to the northern monk
and his devout queen. They were displeased at the
king's friendly intercourse with his Moorish vassals,
and were shocked at the toleration with which Moslem
and Christian lived side by side in the cities which
owned either a Moorish or a Spanish master.

And when "the crown of Spain," Toledo, on the
seven hills above the Tagus, was gained, and Bernard
was made its first Archbishop, they could not brook that
the Alfaqui the noblest building in the city, should
remain a Moorish mosque. No sooner had the king
left the city than at night the queen gave authority to
Bernard and his monks of Sahagun to open the doors,
hang bells, erect altars, set up crosses, and summon
the Faithful to mass in the morning. The king returned,
greatly angered, and threatened punishment, but the

CHAP. XVI.] THE ALMORAVIDES. 145

Moorish inhabitants, satisfied by his indignation,
begged him to pardon the monks. The day of recon-
ciliation was consecrated to Our Lady of Peace, and
the Alfaqui became the cathedral, but little that is
Moorish remains about its architecture.

Constanza and her Archbishop continued to struggle
for the substitution of the Roman liturgy, and the
national clergy were as strongly against it. At last it
was decided to try the two service-books by ordeal.
A great pile was erected in the market-place of Toledo
for the most harmless auto da fi that ever took place
there. King, queen, court, and all the magistrates
of Toledo looked on, as well as the two parties of
clergy, while, with prayer that God would show
whether of the two He had chosen, the two books
were committed to the flames. The heavy bindings
and parchment leaves would not be very easily con-
sumed, and the Gothic liturgy came out little injured,
while the Latin was found to be illegible. But the
superiority of St Gregory's ritual was too firmly fixed
in the minds of the northern ecclesiastics for them to
allow that this trial had been decisive. They de-
manded a trial by battle ; champions were appointed
on either side, and did battle in the lists, and again
with success to the national party, and without sub-
mission from the strangers, who finally so far prevailed
that all newly-founded or conquered churches should
start with their ritual, though the elder ones were not
to be disturbed in the Mozarabic use.

Alfonso's conquest of Toledo startled the Moors.
The Spanish frontier had advanced first to the Ebro,
then to the Douro, and now. to the Tagus ; and Castilian
knights had become superior in prowess to the Moors.

L

146 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvr.

The schools of Cordova and Seville still educated men
in science and literature. Geometry, algebra, natural
history, and poetry were studied, and the houses and
gardens of the Moors were still exquisite ; but their
fiery courage and steady endurance were gone, their
emirs were disunited, and every dispute among them
was the occasion of fresh advances to the Christian.
The Castilian knights made forays up to the very
walls of Medina- Sidonia ; and when the emir of Seville,
Mahommed Aben Abed, sent to Burgos to complain,
Alfonso replied by sending his treasurer, a Jew, with
five hundred knights as escort, to demand tribute. So
much enraged were the Moors that they slew the
whole, an act so unlike the gentle poetical Aben Abed
that it was probably the work of some popular rising.

The danger thus incurred was such to the whole
Mahommedan power in Spain that a divan was held
at Seville, to which each emir came in person, or sent
a kadi to represent him, and the proposal was there
brought forward of, calling in the aid of their African
brethren.

In times beyond the ken of history the Lambounab
tribe had migrated from Yemen, or Arabia Felix, and
had taken up their abode in the desert of Western
Africa, between the Atlas mountains and Senegambia,
where they lived a wandering life, like their forefathers
in Arabia ; not mingling with other tribes, but wearing
cancels' hair, and driving their flocks wherever pasture
was abundant.

Somewhere about the middle of the eleventh century
the faith of Mahommed was brought to them by
an imaum from Fez, named Abd-Ailah-ben-Yasim,
who came as a missionary to bring the Koran and all

CHAP. XVI.] THE ALMORAVIDES. 147

its sujqxised revelations to the sons of Ishmael. He
had been bred in the schools of Cordova and Seville,
and was a man of much ability. Seventy sheiks
became his pupils, and were by him awakened to a
sense of the glories and joys destined for their race.
Those who were thus taught by Abd-Allah took the
name of Al Morbethyn^ or , devoted to Allah. The
western form of this word is Marahouts ; but the tribe is
usually called Almoravides. Abd- Allah was lost while
crossing Mount Atlas, but the impulse he had given
continued ; and the Almoravides, like the Saracens
before them, were impelled, in the freshness of their
conversion to Islam, to become great conquerors.

Yousuf-ben-Tasl^yn, under this first impulse, led
their bravest warriors from the desert, and, overcom-
ing the wild nations on the west of Africa, founded, in
1070, the city of Marrakash, or, as we call it, Morocco,
where he built the chief mosque of bricks moulded by
his own hands. He was one of those brave, temperate,
high-spirited men who were the best type of Moslem ;
and he subdued Meqtiinez, Fez, Tangier, Ceuta, Algier,
and Tunis— in fact, all the Berber portion of Africa
between the Senegal river and the site of ancient
Carthage.

It was to this Yousuf that the dejected emirs pro-
posed to apply for aid. There was only one dissentient
voice — that of the wali of Malaga — who said: " Let us
be united, and we shall be strong enough to overcome
the Christians ; but let us not call into the delicious
plains of our Andalusia the lions and tigers of the
burning sands of Africa. They will only break the
chains of Alfonso to g^ve us chains that we cannot
break."

J. 2

148 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvr.

The civilised man's instinct against his more wild
and savage neighbours was not shared. The emir of
Badajos was charged to go and ask the aid of Yousuf
against Alfonso. The Arabic historians have preserved
the actual letter of invitation :

** To the most mighty Emir, by the favour of Allah
Imaum of the Moslems, Prince of the Almoravides,
Yousuf-ben-Tashfyn, with the light of whose splendour
Allah illuminates all parts of the earth, with whose
perfection Allah adorns all creatures.

" We, the Arabs of Andalusia, have not preserved
our illustrious tribes : we have dispersed and inter-
mixed them, and have long had no fellowship with our
tribes and families who dwell in Africa. Want of union
has divided our interests ; disunion has led to discord,
and our natural enemies are prevailing against us.

" Each day becometh more unbearable — the fury of
King Alfonso, who, like a mad dog, enters our lands,
takes our castles, makes Moslems captive, and will
tread us under foot unless an emir from Africa will
arise to defend the oppressed, who behold the ruin of
their kindred, their neighbours, and even of their law.

" They are no more what once they were. Pleasures,
amusements, the sweet climate of Andalusia, delicious
baths of fragrant waters, fountains, and dainty meats
have enervated them, so that they dare not face the
toils of war.

'* We dare no longer raise our heads ; and since thou,
great lord, art the offspring of Homayr, our forefather,
we turn to thee in hope, entreating thee to hasten to
Spain to overcome our faithless and treacherous foe,
who seeks to destroy our law. He has just written us
a letter, full of thunders and lightnings, that we may

CHAP. XVI.] THE ALMORAVIDES. 149

yield our castles and towns and leave him our mosques,
that he may fill them with his monks, set up his
crosses on their minarets, and sing his mass and
requiem where prayer is made !

"Allah has made for thee, O king of true Believers,
an empire whose increase he blesses. He has made
thee his messenger, that thou mayest uphold his law
and share the brightness of his divine light.

" If thou art moved by desire of earthly wealth, here
wilt thou find rich carpets, jewels of gold and silver,
precious raiment, delicious gardens, and clear springs
of flowing water. But if thine heart seeks only to win
eternal life in Allah's service, here is the opportunity,
for never are wanting bloody battles, skirmishes, and
fights. Here has Allah placed a paradise, that from
the shadow of weapons thou mayest pass to the ever-
lasting shadow, where he rewards the deserving."

Yousuf was not insensible to the various inducements
held out to him. He required only that the Green
Isle — i.e, Al Gesira — should be placed in his hands,
and then immediately crossed, bringing with him an
enormous host of Almoravides, Berbers, and negroes.

Alfonso, at the same time, rallied all his forces from
all his kingdoms, and obtained help from Aragon and
Navarre. The two armies were encamped on either
side of the river of Badajos, at a place called Al
Zalakaltf or, the slippery.

Here Yousuf wrote to Alfonso, offering him his choice
of three measures — either to become a Moslem, to be
his vassal and pay tribute, or to give battle.

Of course Alfonso chose the last, and he further wrote
to fix. the day, saying, like Bermudo at Torm^s, that the
morrow was Friday, the Moslem holyday ; Saturday

ISO THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvi.

was the Sabbath of the Jews, of whom there were many
in both armies ; and Sunday was the Christian feast ;
— therefore the battle had better take place on the
Monday. To this Yousuf agreed ; but Aben Abed did
not in the least believe in the king's sincerity, and
fully expected a sudden attack, so he caused watch to
be kept all night and morning. Unfortunately he
seems to have been right, for, on Friday morning,
while he was at morning prayer, his scouts hurried in,
saying : ** Muley (prince), the enemy is in motion, with
an innumerable crowd like swarms of locusts."

Aben Abed sent word to Yousuf, and called an
astrologer, who drew a magic figure, and said : ** Muley,
this will be an unlucky day if the Moslems begin a
battle in this hour." Aben Abed would not, however,
tell the other emirs, for fear they should think him
cowardly and superstitious.

Alfonso, on his side, had dreamt that he was riding
on an elephant and beating a huge kettle-drum, and,
to explain this augury, he summoned, first, all the
bishops and priests, then all the Jewish rabbis, and
lastly, an Arab fakir. None of them gave favourable
answers, so that it is the more surprising that he should
have thus unfairly hurried on the tattle, if indeed it
was not an accident caused by the encounter of the
light troops on either side.

Yousuf had been up all night, and was quite ready
for battle when Aben Abed's message reached him.
He sent his chief general, Daooud-ben-Aischa, with a
great troop of archers and a vanguard of Almoravid
cavalry ; and these were met by the campeadors^ or
foremost champions of the Spaniards, who gained the
advantage. Each party then drew up in battle array.

CHAP. XVI.] THE ALMORAVIDES. 15X

and Aben Abed caused his astrologer again to consult
the heavenly bodies^ and this time heard that it was a
favourable conjunction. Being an Arab poet himself,
he sent Yousuf these four lines :

Allah's wrath is on the Christians,
By thy sword shall they fall ;
The heavens foretell victory,
And a blessed day for the Believers.

Vousuf then took courage, mounted his horse, re-
viewed his men. Daooud-ben-Aischa first led his
troops to meet the onset led by Alfonso. The lances
broke in the shock, and they fought with swords,
apparently without much advantage oh either side.
The other half of the Christian army, under Count
Garcia Ramirez of Aragon, fell on Aben Abed's Anda-
lusians, and covered them " as the shades of night cover
everything," and put them to flight in the direction of
Badajos, no one keeping the field but the horsemen of
Seville, with Aben Abed in the midst of them, all
fighting like wounded lions. Hearing of their need,
Yousuf sent to their assistance his reserve of Berbers,
and himself led his best Lamtounahs, other Almo-
ravides, to fall on the Christian camp, which they
plundered and set on fire. This brought back Alfonso,
who had thought the day his own, and there a most
terrible fight ensued. Yousuf had two horses killed
under him, but went on assuring his men : " Allah has
counted the Infidels and lessened them. Paradise
awaits you ! The slain are already enjoying it I" His
enthusiasm and generalship prevailed. Alfonso was
driven out of his camp. A negro slave wounded him
with a scimitar, and seized his bridle ; but his knights

152 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvi.

made in to his rescue, and with five hundred of them
he at length at nightfall galloped off from the un-
fortunate slippery field. Aben Abed, lying wounded
in his tent, sent off a few lines under the wing of a
carrier pigeon to his son at Seville, where there were
great rejoicings. The slaughter had been frightful.
A great lance was planted in the middle of the plain,
and Christian heads were heaped, round till it dis-
appeared. The skulls were divided between the
chief cities of Moorish Spain to serve as grisly tro-
phies, a ferocious trait new in the history of the Arabs,
and probably derived from the new-comers from
Africa.

Yousuf took the title of Chief of Believers, called
by the Spaniards Miramamolin ; soon after the battle
of Zalakah he was recalled to Morocco by the death
of the son whom he had left there to act for him ; but
he left a large body of men under his Bey, Syr-ben-
Abi-Bekr. The victory proved to have been of little
benefit to the Moorish cause. There was no central
point of union ; the^ emirs were "each man for his own
hand;" and the Almoravides in Algesiras, which had
been ceded to Yousuf, were only a fresh element of
confusion, and pillaged the whole of the west.

Alfonso had rallied his forces most vigorously after
his crushing defeat, and sent to entreat aid from the
kindred of his wife, Constanza, who had lately died,
leaving him a daughter, Doila Urraca. Raymond,
Count of Burgundy, nephew to Constanza, led a con-
siderable force of knights, and also brought a great
number of clergy and monks to fill the churches and
convents that lay along the banks of the Tagus. The
Moors were attacked on all sides, and Aben Abed

CHAP. XVI.] THE ALMORAVIDES. 153

was so distressed that he went to Morocco to entreat
Yousuf to return to the succour of Andalusia.

He came in 1088, and collected the emirs to besiege
the fort of Alid and concert operations ; but they dis-
puted so violently that he saw there was no hope of
getting them to act in concert ; dismissed them in
haste on the approach of the Castilians, and hurried
home, almost like a fugitive, but having in truth made
up his mind to subdue them all, and reign as absolute
master of Andalusia.

He came in 1090, at the head of a huge host of all
the chief Berber tribes ; and as Algesiras was already
in his hands, he effected a landing easily, and began
at onc6 by deposing the Emir of Granada, on a charge
of alliance with the Castilians. The other emirs
were then attacked one by one. Aben Abed in his
distress entreated the aid of Alfonso, and even offered
him his daughter Zaida in marriage. She was a
Christian in heart, having been converted, said the
Castilians, by a dream of St Isidoro. Her father
gave her the cities of Cucuga, Ucles, and Huate, as
her portion ; and she was conducted to Toledo, where
she was baptised as Maria Isabel, and married the
king. She only lived to give birth to his only son,
who was named Sancho.

Alfonso sent an army to assist his father-in-law, but
it was defeated, and its overthrow brought on the fall
of Aben Abed. He capitulated in 1091, and was taken
to the castle of Aginit in Africa, with his wife Zaida
Cul^ra, and her daughters, for his sons had been killed
in battle. Their maintenance was so scanty, that the
ladies had to spin to eke out their subsistence, while
the fallen emir tried to solace himself with poetry and

754 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [cilAP. xvi.

literature. The daughters all quickly pined away and
died in their exile from their lovelyhome,and Aben Abed
followed them to the grave after four years' captivity.

Meanwhile Yousuf's two Beys, Syr and Daooud, had
reduced all the other emirs to the east and west, and
not one of the former chiefs was spared except Ahmed
Abu Djafar, of Zaragoza, who was left to serve as a
sort of breakwater against the Christian force, though
still only as tributary.

This Almoravid conquest was really the Moorish
or African conquest. The first had been by true
Saracen Arabs, with a comparatively small admixture
of Moorish or Berber tribes, and Arabs had been
the dominant race, though there had been a continual
immigration from Africa to supply the Berber guard,
till these had in many parts overpowered the Arab
element But when the kingdom of Yousuf swallowed
up the emirs, the true Moorish dominion began in
1094, the year of the Council of Clermont

Yousuf, though he had begun life as a wild Moor,
encouraged the scholarship of his Andalusian subjects.
At this time lived at Cordova the great man of science,
Abd Abdallah Ibu Rosha, whose fame became so
world-wide as to have been transmogrified into the
more classical sounding Averroes, and who was the
first person to make Aristotle's writings known in the
Middle Ages, At Cordova was found a writing which
was said to contain a promise from the Jews that, if
their Messiah did not appear within five hundred
years of Mahommed, they would accept the Prophet
of Islam. Yousuf threatened to make them fulfil
their promise, but let himself be bought off by large
tribute ; and altogether the Jews fared much better in

CHAP. XVT.] THE ALMORAVIDES. 153

Spain than anywhere else, both among Moors and Cas-
tilians.

Yousuf lived a temperate hardy life, which lasted till
his hundredth year, when he died in 1107. The
popular songs of Algeria still exalt his fame. He left
his dominions to his son Ali, of whom a poet had

said :

Ali, last in age,

First in worth,

As the least finger

Wears the most precious ring.

He was by nature gentle and merciful — like his
father, who had never condemned any man to death ;
but the Almoravides were, as a people, much ruder and
more violent than thp Arabs, and craved for constant
war. In the first year of his reign Ali then sent out an
expedition against the Castilians. Alfonso VI. was
too ill to take the command of his army ; but he sent
his only son Sancho, then eleven years old, under the
care of Don Garcia de Cabra, his best captain, to
relieve the city of Ucles, which had been part of the
portion of the inheritance of the boy's Moorish mother,
Zaida. Young Sancho fell early in the battle ; his
guardian, Garcia, died defending his corpse ; and the
Christian loss was so severe that this was called the
Battle of the Seven Counts.

Alfonso was left much in the condition of his
contemporary, Henry I. of England, a little later :
his only male heir dead, and nothing left him but
an unsatisfactory daughter and several illegitimate
children. The daughter — Urraca, child of Constanza
— had been married to Raymond of Burgundy, and
early left a widow with one son, Alfonso. The Cas-

156 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvi.

tilian nobles wished her to marry Count Gomez of
Candespina, with whom she was herself in love, and
the Jewish physician Cidelio hinted the plan to the
king ; but Alfonso was so indignant that he banished
the Jew, and at once gave his daughter to Alfonso,
the brother of Pedro I., king of both Aragon and
Navarre. The death of Pedro brought the bridegroom
to the throne of that kingdom in 1 104 ; and on the
death of Alfonso VI. in 1108, Castilie, Navarre, and
Aragon were again for a short time united ; the more
direct line of Aragon from Garcia having been set
aside.

CHAPTER XVII.

DON ALFONSO, THE BATTLE-FIGHTER OF ARAGON

Urraca, the new queen of Castille, was in Aragon
with her husband when her father died. Her heart
was still with Don Gomez, and she hated Alfonso
so much as to be deeply offended that his name should
have been placed before hers in the letters sent by
her father^s minister, Peranzuelas, to inform her of her
accession.

Setting out to take possession of her new dominions,
Urraca confiscated the estates of Peranzuelas, and
took Gomez into favour that shocked her subjects.
Everything was in confusion. Alfonso of Aragon
arrived, undid all that she had done, and kept her
in restraint, filling the fortresses with Aragonese
governors. This greatly offended the Castilians, for
the nobles of these little kingdoms were apt to hate
one another worse than they did the Moors ; and this
was probably the reason that they always fell apart
after each attempt at uniting them. Urraca's illegiti-
mate sister, Teresa, had married Henry, a son of
one of the Dukes of Lorraine, whom the late king had
made Count of the North of Portugal, and who was
the guardian of the son of the queen's first marriage
with Raymond of Burgundy. Round this bov the

158 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xvir,

national spirit was disposed to rally ; but in the
universal confusion, Ali, King of Cordova, advanced
with the Almoravides in mo, sacked Talavera^
Olmos, Guadalujara, and Madrid, and tried to take
Toledo, but was repulsed by Alvar Fanez, the old
comrade of the Cid. The next year the Almoravides
again besieged the place ; but the citizens held out so
gallantly as to repulse them, though neither king nor
queen sent to the aid of the capital. They were quar-
relling too hotly to attend to anything else. Alfonso
had imprisoned the queen, and she had made her
escape, but the Castilians would not support her ; and
the Gallicians, declaring that a marriage between first
cousins was altogether invalid, renounced both her
and her husband, and charged the Archbishop of
Compostella to crown her son, Alfonso Ramon, and,
further, to anoint him — the first time that this sym-
bolical rite had been used in Spain.

Pascal II. sent a legate, who pronounced a divorce ;
whereupon Castille and Aragon, not only fell apart,
but went to war. With punctilious loyalty, Peranzuelas
came before Alfonso to be freed from his oath of alle-
giance, clad in scarlet, riding a white horse, and with
a halter round his neck. It was jealousy of Aragon,
not love for their queen, that edged the swords of the
Castilians. Two, the Counts of Lara and Candespina,
each hoped to marry her ; and her conduct towards them
so di^usted her son's guardian, the Count of Portugal,
that he deserted her cause, and at the great battle of
Espina in 1112 Lara fled, Candespina was killed, and
Aragon triumphed. After a few more years of desul-
tory and fruitless warfare, Alfonso wisely gave up the
attempt to subdue CastiUe ; and Unaca, ^ling to

CHAP. XVII.] DON ALFONSO OF ARAGON. 159

secure any support, consented to resign her crown to
her son, Alfonso Ramon, and ended her unhappy and
disgraceful life so obscurely that the date of her death
is uncertain.

Alfonso tl Batallador^ or the Battle-fighter, is the
title given to her divorced husband, the first of his
name in Aragon, and a man of considerable ability,
who was able to take advantage of the death of Aben
Houd, the Arab emir of Zaragoza. Amid-el-Daoulah^
the son of that prince, was beset on the one hand by
the Almoravides, who had regained Valencia on the
death of the Cid, and on the other by the Aragonese ;
but the city held out for four whole years against the
Batallador with the same constancy as afterwards
made its name a proverb, until, in 11 17, when half
the people were dead of hunger, Amdd surrendered
on Uie same terms as had been granted to Toledo.
Zaragoza was supposed to have been the spot where
the Blessed Virgin had appeared to St. James, standing
on her pillar of jasper ; and of course the pillar was
discovered (though it had been a dream pillar), and
is extant stilL Thus the city became the favourite
Aragonese shrine and place of pilgrimage, though
never equal in fame to Compostella ; and Alfonso
removed his court thither, so that it became a city
of tall castellated houses, each capable of making a
defence on its own account Catalayud was soon after
taken ; and thus, in 1 1 20, Alfonso was master of all
the lands forming the present province of Aragon.

Ali had in the meantime been called to Africa by
an insurrection in Morocco. In his absence the
Cordovans, unable to bear any longer the insolence
of the Almoravid garrison, rose s^gainst them, killed a

i6o THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvii.

great many, and drove the rest out of the city. Ali
hurried back, laid siege to the place, and, when it
surrendered, showed himself a wise and merciful man
by merely requiring from the inhabitants compensa-
tion to the Almoravides for the plunder of their houses,
and then placing these rude warriors under stricter
discipline. He then again crossed the strait, for he
was threatened by great dangers in Africa.

A Berber dervish, named Mouhamed-Aben-Ald-
AUah-ben-Thoumrout, who had studied in the most
noted Arabic schools of Syria, Eg^pt, and Spain, had
begun to preach in the streets of Morocco, inveighing
against the luxury and oppression of the rich and the
vices of the imaums, and accusing them of having
departed from the doctrines of the Koran. He said
there was no doctrine but the unity of the Godhead,
and that there ought to be no prayer save this : "Allah
El Allah, the most merciful of the merciful. Thou
knowest our sins — pardon them ; Thou knowest our
wants — supply them ; Thou knowest our foes — defend
us from them. This is enough with Thee, our Lord,
Maker, and our Support."

The imaums were furious against him, and Ali,
who had long refused to punish one whom he
viewed as a mere crazy fanatic, yielded at last to
their persuasions, and banished him from the city.
He betook himself to the world of tombs beyond
the walls, and crowds resorted to him, becoming so
enthusiastic that the emir became alarmed and sent
men to put him to death. Warned in time, he
fled to the deserts of Mount Atlas, accompanied
by his more devoted followers, and gathered round
him the fierce Berber tribes, who hailed him as

CHAP. XVII.] DON ALFONSO OF ARAGON. i6i

the Mdhifyy or guide. He appointed ten special com-
panions and fifty counsellors, and at the head of a
great multitude, collected in the Atlas deserts, he
burst upon Morocco just as Ali returned from Spain.
Three terrible battles took place, in all of which the
new fanaticism was too much for the older. The
followers of the M&hdy were called A I Monahedyn^ or
Unitarians — or, more shortly, Al Mohides ; and for
three years they dwelt on an almost inaccessible
mountain belonging to the Atlas range. Descending
again, they made another attack on Morocco ; but
six out of the ten chief companions were killed, the
army broken, and the remnant only saved by the
skill of Abd-el-Mounem, whom, as a lad, the Mihdy
had singled out for his intelligence and vehemence.
At the same time, the Mozarabic Christians and the
Jews, finding the Almoravid yoke much heavier than
that of the Ommeyads or the emirs, entreated Alfonso
el Batallador to come to their aid. He collected a
large army — including volunteers from France — and
marched through Andalusia ; but though many Moz-
arabic Christians joined him, they could not put any
important place into his hands. He had vowed to
fish in the Meditetrahean sea at Malaga, and this he
accomplished, for All's orders were to keep within the
fortresses and let him march on, and thus he had to
return without having gained a single castle. The
only effect of his expedition was that the Christians
were forced by Ali to leave the cities near the borders
and dwell in the interior of Andalusia. Those who
had actually joined Alfonso were deported to Africa,
for Ali, like his father, never uttered a sentence of
death.

M

i62 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvii.

Alfonso el Batallador now called himself Emperor,
meaning that he was chid" of the other kings of the
Peninsula, as Edgar the Peaceable had been Emperor
of Britain. He might well be called the Battle-fighter,
for he had fought twenty-eight battles with the Moors,
and kept them in such a state of alarm that they
proclaimed the Azala of Fear. This meant the worship
in time of danger, when all the prayers and preachings
were shortened, and men were allowed to attend the
mosques without the regular ablutions, and in their
armour. Alfonso el Batallador never married again
after his unfortunate experiences with Urraca of Castille.
He was a devout prince, and of h^ and honourable
character, and he was much attached to the two great
religious orders of knighthood, the Templars and
Hospitallers — who viewed a campaign against the
Moors in Spain as accordant with their vows as the
doing battle with the Saracens in Palestine.

In the last of his inroads into the Moorish territor>
he besieged Fraga, on the borders of Catalonia, a
strong city with the rapid river Cinca before it, and
a steep mountain behind. Here the Almoravides
attacked him in great force, assisted by reinforcements
from Morocco, and, after a desperate combat, his
troops were overpowered by numbers, and a terrible
slaughter took place. He cut his way oat with seven
hundred knights, and made his way back to Aragon a
broken-hearted man. He would not enter Zaragoza,
but turned aside with ten of his knights to the Count
of San Juan de la Pena, where, at the end of a week,
he died of grief, in the year 1134.

He had left his dominions by will to the Knights of
St. John and of the Temple ; but his subjects would

CHAP. XVII.] DON ALFONSO OF ARAGON. 163

not endure to be thus disposed of. Navarre found
Garcia Ramiro, a descendant of Garcia II. ; and
Aragon took, from a convent in Narbonne, Ramiro,
the youngest brother of the Batallador. A d ispensation
was obtained from the Pope, and the monk-king was
married to Agnes-r-or, as the Spaniards call her, liies,
daughter to the last Count of Poitiers, and sister to
the lady who, some years later, created a great scandal
by being divorced from Louis VII. of France, and
immediately being married to Henry Fitz Empress,
Count of Anjou, and soon after second of his name in
England. The claim of the knights was bought off,
with the Pope's sanction, with large grants of lands,
and the right to the homage of a vassal from each of
the three nations — Mozarabic, Jew, and Moor — in each
freshly-conquered city.

The monk-king did not turn out satisfactory. He
was unable to defend his kingdom against the Moors,
and he was very harsh at home. The Aragonese told
of him, and of his former abbot, the old story of the
advice to Sextus Tarquinius about cutting off the
heads of the poppies ; and it is also said that he told
his turbulent nobility that he would make a bell that
should ring throughout his dominions, and fulfilled the
threat by showing the city of Huesca a bell-frame
garnished with fifteen heads of hidalgos. It was the
desperate effort of a helpless man made savage by
terror, and he soon gave up the struggle. He betrothed
his baby-daughter, Petronila, to Ramon, Count of
Barcelona ; and, giving up his crown to them, retired
into the chapter of Huesca, in 1 137.

The death of the Batallador had not deprived the
Christians of all their gallant champion kings, for the

M 2

i64 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [chap. xvh.

two cousins, Alfonso Ramon in Castille, and Alfonso
Henriquez in Portugal, were both brave and victorious.
Alfonso Ramon was crowned emperor, with the con-
sent of the Pope, by the Archbishop of Toledo. His
wife was Berenguela, the sister of the Count of
Barcelona, a lady of great beauty and of a high spirit,
^n 1 1 39, while her husband was absent on an expedition
into Andalusia, a body of Moors appeared and laid
siege to Toledo. The queen came forth on the ram-
parts, and, calling for the Moorish chiefs, upbraided
them with coming to besiege a woman when their
swords were needed at home. The chiefs owned that
her reproach was just, lowered their lances in homage
to her beauty, and filed away from beneath her walls.
Some time after, when two heads of Moorish chiefs
were brought home and fixed to the palace gates,
Berenguela expressed her horror at the barbarity,
caused them to be taken down, embalmed, and sent in
mourning chariots to the famihes. Alfonso Henriquez
had succeeded his mother, Teresa, in Portugal, after
she had had a career far too like that of her sister,
Urraca, in Castille. He obtained the assistance of a
band of French and English knights, who put in at
Oporto, on their way to the second crusade in 1139,
and, mustering all his forces, marched towards the
Guadiana. The Moors had obtained accessions of force
from Africa and, when the two armies came in sight
of each other at Campo d'Ourique, the Portuguese
troops were far outnumbered. It is said that Alfonso
was much encouraged by opening a Bible at the defeat
of the Midianites by Gideon, and that a hermit visited
him and promised him a sign of victory. In truth, at
daybreak, as the matin-bell sounded, there was such

CHAP. XVII.] DON ALFONSO OF ARAGON, 165

a luminous Cross in the sky as had been seen by
Constantine ; and an assurance was given him that he
should be king, and that his children, to the sixteenth
generation, should reign on the throne of Portugal.

His army did in fact salute him king ere the battle,
and he rode forward on a white horse, followed by
enthusiastic troops, who won a most brilliant victory.
Portugal became a kingdom. Its shield was a white
field with five lesser red scutcheons arranged in the
form of a cross, in allusion to the Five Sacred Wounds;
and in 1 147, its capital, Lisbon, was won by the aid of
William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, on his way to
the Holy Land. The first Archbishop of Lisbon was
an English priest named Gilbert, whom the king per-
suaded to settle there instead of pursuing his crusade.

The emperor, Alfonso VIII., died in 11 57, again
breaking up his dominions, giving Castille to his eldest
son, Sancho, and Leon to the second, Fernando.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BROKEN CHAINS OF NAVAS DE TOLOSA.

The Almoravides had always been viewed as rude
tyrants by their own fellow Mahommedans in Anda-
lusia, and in ^/ Garb (the west), now called Algarve, a
dervish named Ahmet-ben-Kossay, holding the same
form of doctrine as the Almolides, raised a revolt
which drove them beyond the Guadiana,

His success filled the Andalusians with hope.
Cordova, Valencia, Murcia, Granada, Ronda, Xerez, all
revolted, and chose their own leaders, till nothing was
left to the Almoravides but Seville. In Africa they were
faring equally ill. Ali was dead, and his son Tashfyn,
after many defeats, was shut up in Oran on the sea-
shore. He tried to escape at night, but was killed by
a fall from the rocks.

Morocco was taken after a long blockade, and Fez,
where the last Almoravid emir, Ali, had taken refuge,
was attacked. The river that flows through it was
dammed up by the Almoravides, till a great body of
water was collected as in a reservoir. Then they
destroyed the bank, the flood rushed forth, did in
one moment the work of a hundred battering-rams,
and made the place their own, on the very morning

CHAP. XVIII.] NAVAS DE TOLOSA. 167

that the unfortunate young emir was celebrating his
wedding.

Abd-el-Moumen^ now the leader of the Almoravides,
had no sooner gained Africa than he pursued his career
of victory into Spain. The Almoravides tried to stand
by allying themselves with the Christians, but this
proved a vain expedient ; and by the year 1 1 57, all had
been exterminated except a few who had taken refuge
in the Balearic isles, while Andalusia was brought
under the dominion of the new Miramamolin, Abd-el-
Moumen. He had invented a new coinage, square,
and bearing the inscription, " Allah is our Lord ;
Mahommedour Apostle ; the Mihdy our Imim." He
was therefore call^ the Master of the Square Coin.

Abd-el-Moumen was a man of taste and culture ;
but his Almohides w^e the Puritans of Islam, and
their barbarism added to the ruin wrought by the
Almoravides. Just as Roman became a term for
the down-trodden and oppressed after the Teutonic
conquest, so an Arab was now in disgrace ; and the
proud old families carefully concealed their lineage
and sheltered themselves under the title of Moors.
It was not the fault of the Miramamolin, who tried to
foster the arts for which the Spanish Arabs had been
so celebrated. The schools of Cordova and Seville
were encouraged, and produced books of science,
philosophy, and poetry as of old ; the fields and
gardens were again cultivated; and Alhas Yahix of
Malaga must have been a most ingenious mechanic,
for he not only constructed warlike engines, but mills,
and also a wonderful pulpit and royal pew for the
chief mosque. Both were made of aromatic wood,
wrought with scrolls and flowers, and with fastenings

i68 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xviii.

and hinges of gold ; moreover, a foot on the steps of
each made their doors open noiselessly, and more
curious still, they both moved to their places, smoothly
and without sound, when the prince took his place.
He also fortified Geb-el-Tarik, or Gibraltar.

The Christians had meantime been prosperous.
Each of these African invasions always left a margin
of forts unsubdued, which were sure to fall in process
of time into the hands of the steadily-advancing
Spanish power. Calatrava was one of these. It was
taken by Sancho el Desirado, King of Castille, eldest
son of Alfonso VII. He gave it at first to the Knights
Templars, but they were hopeless of defending it from
the Moors. Then the Cistercian Abbot Raymond
came forward, and offered to keep it if he might make
his monks knights like those of St John and the
Temple. The king consented. Raymond made good
his word ; and thus arose the Order of Knights of
St. Julian, or Calatrava, at the same time as, in
Portugal, arose another similar order of chivalrous
monks of Avis; and in 1162 Fernando, King of Leon,
made a branch of the Augustinian Order into Knights
of Santiago de Compostella, with a red sword for their
badge. These orders of knights, with commanderies
on all the dangerous points, and without families or
personal estates, were a most valuable standing army
of trained warriors, and supplying garrisons against the
common enemy ; and, as long as the wars with the
Moors lasted, were far from being a mere compli-
mentary order of knighthood.

Sancho was a youth of much promise. He was
married to Blanca of Navarre, and her death in the
first year, of his reign was the more unfortunate that

CHAP. XVIII.] NAVAS DE TOLOSA, 169

he survived her only two months, dying in 1148 ; so
that his three-year-old child, Alfonso IX. was an
orphan, and a mark for the ambition of his nearest
kindred. His nobles quarrelled about him ; his uncle,
Don Fernando of Leon, claimed the custody of him ;
and the citizens of Burgos were driven so hard that
they were obliged to undertake to yield him up. But
on the way to the hall where he was to be given to his
uncle, the child, then five years old, cried bitterly,
struggled hard, and clung to the knight who was
carrying him. To pacify him he was taken into a
house, where was Don Pedro Munez of Fuente Almega,
one of the nobles who most distrusted the King of
Leon. He wrapped the little fellow in his cloak, and
rode off with him, too discreet it seems to cry again,
and took him to San Esteban ; whence he was carried
to the strong castle of Avila, where he was safely kept
till his eleventh year, though Fernando had obtained
the rest of the country. The faithfulness of the men
of Avila became a proverb in the country,

Almeria had fallen under a chief named Maimu,
whose galleys infested the Mediterranean with their
piracies. It was so rich that the saying was that the
streets were pearl, the dust gold, and the gardens
paradise, and Granada was only a sort of farm to it.
The Genoese, then the chief merchants of the western
Mediterranean, offered their aid to the Count of Bar-
celona, regent of Aragon, to root out this nest of
pirates, and it was besieged and taken in 1 147. The
Genoese accepted no part of the plunder save a great
cup, called of emerald, but probably malachite, which
they believed to be the same with the Saint Greal of
the north, the Cup of the First Communion. Almeria

C70 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xviii.

could not, however, be kept by the Christians, and was
again fortified by a Moorish garrison.

The Count ojf Barcelona died soon after ; and as
there was only a widowed queen in Aragon, and a
baby-king in Castille, with half his realm usurped by
his uncle, Abd-el-Moumcn deemed it a fit time for an
attack on the Christians ; and collected sudi a host
that the Arab historians say it numbered three hun-
dred thousand men, that the earth shook beneath their
tread, and that the camp covered the hills, the valleys,
and the mountains. In the midst of his preparations,
however, Abd-el-Moumen died in 1163; and his son,
Syd Yousuf Abou Yakoub, dismissed the army, having
to attend to the revolts that were made by his brothers.
Yakoub was a great builder. He finished the splendid
mosque at Seville which his father had begun, and
which is now, by the name of the Giralda, the most
magnificent and unique of cathedrals. He also built
a grand aihama, or court-house, and quays, and aque-
ducts ; so that Seville began to equal, if not to surpass
Cordova, which never recovered its greatness after the
faU of the Ommeyads.

In 1 170, the young Alfonso IX. being of age, Esteban
de Ulan, one of the chief men of Toledo, built a tower
and dedicated a church to San Romano, where he set
up the standard of the castles of Castille in honour of
their young king. The whole country responded to
the call, and the yoke of Leon was shaken off without
an effort, and Alfonso found himself king of all Castille.
He asked and obtained the hand of Eleanor, the eldest
daughter of Henry II. of England and Eleanor of
Aquitaine, who is said to have brought him the appanage
of Gascony, and who bore him thirteen children— of

CHAP. XVIII.] NAVAS DE TOLOSA. 171

whom all the sons died early except Ferdinand and
Enrique. Some years later Eleanor's brother, Richard
Cceur de Lion, married Berenguela of Navarre.

In 1 179 the five Christian kings of Spain had a
conference, in which they agreed to unite their forces
and drive Mahommedanism beyond the Straits, pro<
ceeding to fix what territory each should have ; but this
dividing of their bearskin before they had killed the
bear naturally led to disputes, and the Kings of Leon
and Portugal began one war with each other, and
those of Navarre and Castille another, instead of
attacking the Infidel. When Sancho of Navarre was
wasting ^he lands of Cardena, the priest of the church
of San Pedro came out with the banner of the Cid,
and such was the honour in which that champion was
held that the Navarrese at once desisted from the
attack and re^ored the plunder. The quarrels were^
however, pacified ; and while Syd Yakoub was absent,
putting down a rising of the Almoravides in Africa, the
Castilians, under Don Martin de Pisuerga, Arch-
bishop of Toledo, foraged Andalusia to the confines
of Algesiras, and Alfonso sent the following challenge
to the Miramamolin :

" Since thou canst not come and attack me, send
me ships and I will come and seek thee where thou
art."

The emir replied with a verse of the Koran :

" Allah, the All-powerful, hath said : ' I will turn
them back by armies that they have not seen, and that
they cannot escape, and I will grind them to powder.' "

The challenge and reply were read in all the
mosques, and the ghasouahy or- holy war, was pro-
claimed, after which Yakoub crossed the Straits, with

172 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xvui.

numbers such that, in oriental terms of magniloquence,
the streams could not quench their thirst Alfonso
of Castille advanced to meet him without the support
of the other kingdoms, and met him at Alarcos, on the
19th of July, 1 195. Before the battle Yakoub dreamt
of a warrior on a white steed unfurling a green banner,
and his success was equal to the promise of the vision.
The Castilians were inferior in numbers, and were
totally routed, the knights of Calatrava being cut off
almost to a man, and the king himself escaped with
difficulty. The Moors ravaged up to the very walls of
Toledo, and retook Calatrava and many other places,
after which they granted a peace for twelve years, and
the emir released all the captives — twenty thousand in
number — to the great discontent of his Berbers, who
expected to make slaves of them.

When Yakoub died shortly after, in J 197, he said
this release was one of the three things he repented of.
With him the Almohid crescent began to wane. His
son Mahommed was one of the weak harem-bred
princes, who always are tlie ruin of' oriental nations.
However, his vizier, Abou-Sayd-ben-Ghames, a fierce
treacherous man, much hated, after driving the remains
of theAlmoravides out of the Balearic isles, proclaimed,
in 1 2 10, ik\& ghazouahy and collected another immense
rabble host from Africa, swearing to root out the
Christians from Spain. The troops took three mohths
in the transport, and are said to have numbered four
hundred and sixty thousand fighting men.

The delay had given the Spaniards time to prepare.
The five kings— Alfonso IX., the Noble, of Castille ;
Fernando II. of Leon ; Pedro II. of Aragon ; Sancho
IV. of Navarre ; and Alfonso II. of Portugal— laid

CHAP. xviii.J NAVAS DE TOLOSA. 173

aside all their feuds and resolved to unite. The Bishop
of Segovia was sent to Rome to intreat the Pope to
proclaim their resistance a Crusade, and grant indul-
gences for those who should die in it ; and the Arch-
bishop of Toledo went to seek for succour in France.
Great numbers of knights were willing to join the
Christian host, and the rallying place was Toledo. In
the year 12 19 King Alfonso knighted his eldest son
Fernando in the cathedral of Burgos, and sent him to
deserve his spurs by an expedition with the knights of
Calatrava, who were very anxious to regain the city
whence they took their name. The foray did not suc-
ceed, and Don Fernando came home with a fever, of
which he died in a few weeks.

There was no time to grieve, for the troops had to
be gathered in and measures taken for the defence.
Ten thousand horse and forty thousand foot of the
Ultramontanes, as the Spaniards called their allies
from beyond the Pyrennees, had come in ; but so
narrow was the faith of the thirteenth century under
Innocent III., that these Crusaders were scandalised
at the different rites used by the Mozarabic Christians
of Toledo, and were so desirous of beginning by a
Crusade against these supposed heretics, and likewise
the Jews and the tolerated Mahommedans, that the
King of Castille was fain to send them out on a foray
under Don Diego Lopez de Hara, to keep them from
ravaging his capital. They besieged Calatrava, and
their fierce intolerance was greatly displeased at the
merciful terms offered by Don Diego. So determined
were these fanatics to exterminate the Moors that he
was forced to escort the inhabitants himself with his
Spanish troops to a place of safety, when the Crusaders

174 T^^E STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xviii.

were so indignant that they turned back to the
Pyrenees, alleging, perhaps with truth, that the
summer heats made the campaign dangerous to their
northern constitutions, leaving only two leaders —
Arnold, Archbishop of Narbonnc, and Thibaut Blacon
— ^behind thenx

The kings of Castille, Aragon, and Navarre united
their forces at Salvatierra, and decided to cross the
Sierra Morena with the thirty thousand lances which
formed their army. The Moors had in the meantime
lost the opportunity of securing the passes by useless
sieges. Moreover the captains of the garrison of
Calatrava had been publicly put to death for yielding,
by the savage vizier, Aben Ghamea ; and this had so
offended the Spanish Moors that they had drawn off
into a separate camp, and left the Africans to fi^t
alone. The whole has been closely described by
Rodrigo, Archbishop of Toledo, who was beside the
king all tlie time.

On the 1 2th of July, 12 12, the Christian host was at
the base of the Sierra Morena, or brown mountains, a
range of round-backed hills overgrown with aromatic
shrubs and gigantic thistles, and separated by deep
defiles. The higher portions are covered with pine-
woods, and the whole chain is fitted fc»: a barrier.
The Moors held most of the passes, but Don Diego
Lopez drove them from that of Muradae. This, how-
ever, was too narrow for it to be safe for the whole
army to pass, and the three kings were ia consultation
whether they must after all retreat, when a sheph^d
offered to show them a new and safer passage. Some
distrusted him, but Diego Lopez and Garcia Romero
offered to follow him and reconnoitre. He led them

CHAP. XVIII.] NAVAS DE TOLOSA. 175

to a broad but winding valley, which has ever since
been called the Puerto Real, or Royal Gate ; and thus
by the 14th of July the army had reached a broad
open space called the Plains of Navas de Tolosa, full
in sight of the enemy. Mahommed*s red tent was in
the centre upon a knoll, his green banner above it, and
around it was a great square mass of Almohides and
negroes, secured by heavy iron chains drawn round a
palisade, which were supposed to render them im-
penetrable.

Again and again the Castilians charged, but in vain.
Alfonso, trying to rally them, and intending to throw
himself on the enemy, cried : " Here we must die."
" No, seiior," said the Archbishop, ** here we conquer,"
Therewith his cross-bearer rushed into the enemy. The
Castilians flew to save their cross, and just then the
Spanish Moors, who hated the African tyranny,
wavered and fled before the Aragonese and Navarrese.
Then the King of Navarre, Sancho the Strong, suc-
ceeded in breaking through the chains with his best
troops, and fought a way to the negro g^rd of
Mahommed. All this time the Moramamolin had sat
still on his shield in front of his tent, repeating a verse
of the Koran, till an Arab chief made his way to him,
saying : '* What dost thou, conmiander of the Faithful ?
The will of Allah is done ; the Faithful are conquered !"
Mounting a fleet mare, Mahommed fled, and there
was a frightful slaughter of the Hghtly-armed Africans.
When the chase was over, Rodrigo chanted Te Deam
on the plain with all his clergy. It is said that two
hundred thousand of the enemy perished^ and only
fifteen hundred Christians. The scattered arrows and
lances were so many that they served for two days as

176 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xviii,

firewood to the whole Christian army ; and thirty-five
thousand horses were taken. The King of Navarre
decorated the shield of his kingdom with gold chains
in honour of this exploit, and the day of the battle was
consecrated a holyday as the Triumph of the Cross.
The kings ravaged as far as Ubeda, but then returned
to their kingdoms ; and Mahommed, after cruelly-
putting to death the Andalusian chiefs, fled to Morocco,
where he died the next year ; and as his son was a
child, a horrible and ferocious time of anarchy set in ;
so that, though the Christian kings did not at the time
follow up their victory, the battle of Navas de Tolosa
was in fact the deathblow to the dominion of the
Almohides. The sports with which the victory ^vas
celebrated by the kings were certainly not so elegant
as those of the Moors. Among other amusements,
there was great diversion caused by turning a pig
into the lists among a set of blind men armed with
clubs. He who killed it was to have it as a prize ;
and there was infinite sport in watching the blows
dealt at the beast and to each other.

The very civilisation of the Moors seems to have
acted unfavourably on the Spaniards. The more
worldly and the merely intellectual might be attracted
by the pomp, beauty, riches, and learning of the south,
but the religious only withdrew into greater bareness,
sternness, and severity.

A very remarkable set of warriors among them were
termed AlmogavarSy a. name by some said to mean
men of the earth. They slept, winter and summer, on
the bare ground, herded only together, seldom spoke,
and wore only leathern garments. Their arms were
pike, sword, and dagger, and sometimes a club ; but

CHAP. XVIII.] NAVAS DE TOLOSA. 177

no breastplate or shield. Their eyes sparkled with
ferocity when a battle was coming on, and they stood
with the butt end of their pikes planted against their feet
so as to meet the charge of the Moorish horsemen, by
spitting the animal in the breast, and then cutting down
the rider as he fell. In the next generation, one of these
men was made prisoner by the French,who looked at him
as a curious wild animal His dress was a short frock,
girt round him with a rope ; a cap of undressed leather,
with buskins and sleeves of the same. He was lean
and sunburnt, with bushy black hair and beard ; and
the French knights laughed at him ; but he challenged
anyone of them to fight, provided he might have his
liberty if he were the victor. A young knight mounted
his horse and charged him ; and in an instant he had
pierced the chest of the horse and cut the lace of the
knight's helmet in preparation for the death-blow, but
he was withheld. The promise was kept — he was set
free ; and his master, the King of Aragon, released
ten Frenchmen as making up his equivalent. ,

These were the men who made up the dense bodies
of Spanish foot, savages in life and )iabits, and scarcely
living save for the deadly frontier warfare which flowed
onward ever a little farther south. A professed Almo-
gavar could have been little better than a beast of
prey; but to have served among these men for a
season or two was considered a needful qualification
for a complete Spanish warrior.

An adalidy who was a sort of captain, and had the
command of these men, was always to have been one
of them, and he could only be appointed by the king
or count after twelve adalides had declared upon oath
that he had the four great qualifications of an adalid,

N

X78 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xviii.

namely, wisdom, courage, common sense, and loyalty.
The king then presented him with garments, a sword,
and a horse. Then a noble, or rico kombre^ girt him
with the sword-belt ; the king put the sword into his
hand, and he was raised, standing on a shield, by some
of the adalides, with his face to the east. He waved
his sword in the air, defying all enemies of his king
and of the Faith ; then struck downwards, and then
across, describing in the air the sign of the cross ; and
he repeated the challenge to the four quarters of the
world. Then he was lowered, the king placed a pennon
in his hand, and he thenceforth ranked as an adalid.
The ceremony and the title are both Gothic, the word
evidently being adel^ noble.

Twelve adalides chose an Almoqadetiy an Arabic
term, which gave him a higher command ; and there
was another officer also elected by jury called an .^^-
quequey who was a sort of herald, charged with the
arranging for the exchange or ransom of prisoners,
and who thus had close relations on both sides, and
had to be a man of much weight and worth.

r^r,

CHAPTER XIX.

THE CONQUESTS OF SAN FERNANDO AND JAYiCE

EL CONQUISTADOR.

Everyone remembers how King John of England de-
tached Philippe Auguste of France from supporting the
claims of Arthur of Brittany, by offering his eldest son,
Louis the Lion, the hand of one of the daughters of
Eleanor, the eldest English princess, Queen of CastiUe.
The rights that this lady might have brought with her,
seem, from an English point of view, hardly valuable
enough to be a temptation at the time, though as it
proved they almost gave Louis the crown of England ;
but probably what Philippe thought most of at the time
was the great Acquitainian inheritance in the south.
His ambassadors were sent to fetch the bride from
among Alfonso IX.'s daughters. The two elder were
equally fair and good, but one was named Berenguela
and the other Blanca ; and the messengers, with true
French hatred of an unpronounceable name, took the
lady whom they could call Blanche, and carried her
home to become one of the noblest and best of queens
of France.

Philippe must have regretted the selection, for
Berenguela was soon the nearest to the crown of
CastiUe. The peninsular kings, being all descended
from Sancho IL of Navarre, were closely related, and

N 2

i8o THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

their families could not intermarry without falling
under the stern discipline of Innocent III. Alfonso,
King of Leon, began by marrying Teresa, the daughter
of the King of Portugal ; but after she had borne him
two daughters the marriage was annulled by the
Pope, and Teresa, going into a convent, lived so holy a
life that she was canonised. Alfonso then wedded
Berenguela of Castille without asking a dispensation.
For nine years they remained together, but at last the
threat of laying the kingdom under an interdict forced
them to separate, after they had had two sons and
two daughters, whose legitimacy, however, was fully
allowed Berenguela returned to her father's court, and
was so highly esteemed, that at his death in 12 14, only
two years after the battle of Navas de Tolosa, he left
her regent for her young brother, Enrique I. ; and her
mother, the English Eleanor, dying of grief shortly
after, he was left entirely to her care.

Pedro II. of Aragon, grandson to Queen Petronila,
had married Maria of Montpellier, whose mother was
a Greek princess of Constantinople. Only one son
was born of this marriage ; and Maria, anxious that
he should have an apostolic patron, yet uncertain how
to choose, arranged, by the advice of her confessor,
Bishop Boyl, that twelve tapers should each be con-
secrated to an Apostle, and that the child should be
called after him whose candle should burn the longest,
Southey has thus depicted the suspense : •

The tapers were short and slender too,
Yet to the expectant throng,

Before they to the socket burnt,
The time, I trow, seemed long.

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. i8i

The first that went out was St. Peter,

The second was St. John,
And now St. Matthias is going,

And now St. Matthew is gone.

Next there went St. Andrew,

Then goes St. Philip, too ;
And see, there is an end

Of St. Bartholomew.

St. Simon is in the snuff.

But it is a matter of doubt
Whether he or St. Thomas could be said

Soonest to have gone out.

There are only three remaining,
St. Jude and the two Saints James ;

And great was then Queen Mary's hope
For the best of all good names.

Great was then Queen Mary's hope.

But greater her fear, I guess,
When one of the three went out,

And that one was St. James tlie Less.

They are now within less than quarter inch

The only remaining two,
When there came a thief in St. James,

And it made a gutter too.

Up started Queen Mary,

Up she sate in her bed :
" I never can call him Judas,"

She clasped her hands and said.

*' I never can call him Judas I"

Again did she exclaim.
*• Holy Mother, preserve us !

It is not a Christian name."

x8a THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

She opened her hands and clasped them again,

And the infant in the cradle
Set up a cry, a lusty cry,

As loud as he was able.

• • Holy Mother, preserve us 1 "

The Queen her prayer renewed,
When in came a moth at the window.

And fluttered about St. Jude.

St. James had fallen in the socketj

But as yet the flame is not out ;
And St. Jude hath sing'd the silly moth.

That flutters so blindly about.

And before the flame and the molten wax

That silly moth could kill.
It hath beat out St. Jude with its wings.

But St. James is burning stilL

Oh, that was a joy for Queen Mary's heart.

The babe is christened James ;
Tlie Prince of Aragon hath got

The best of all good names.

Glory to Santiago,

The mighty one in war ;
James he is called, and he shall be

King James the Conqueror.

Now shall the Crescent wane.

The Cross be set on high,
In triumph upon many a mosque.

Woe, v/oe to Mawmetry 1

The boy was called Jayme — the Aragonese form of
Jacobus or James — instead of the Castilian Diego.
Poor Maria was not '* as fair as she was good," and
Pedro neglected and wanted to divorce her. She went

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 183

to Rome to plead her cause with the Pope, and little
Jayme was placed in the care of Simon, Count of
Montfort, to whose daughter, though only three years
old, he was contracted. It was at the bidding of the
Pope, whose vassal Pedro had made himself in his
early youth, when he had received the surname of The
Catholic — a title he was strangely to bely at the end
of his life. The war against the Albigensian heretics
was raging when Pedro returned after the battle of
Navas de Tolosa. Montfort and the Archbishop of
Narbonne were driving them and all their abettors to
the last extremity. There was an appeal made to
Pedro, who was considered as the natural head of
the romance-speaking nations around the Eastern
Pyrenees ; and he, fired by the accounts of the harsh-
ness of Rome towards Toulouse, Beziers, and Carcas-
sonne, and angered at the Pope's opposition to his
divorce, eagerly took up their cause. He crossed the
Pyrenees with an army, and laid siege to Muret, one
of the cities then occupied by the Crusaders, There
Simon de Montfort surprised him, and he was slain
in his thirty -sixth year, on the 12th of September, 121 8.

Little Jayme, then six years old, was, by command
of the Pope, placed in the hands of his subjects, who
gave him into the keeping of the Grand Master of the
Knights Templars, from whom he received an excellent
education. He was a boy of wonderful ability ; and
perhaps no other prince — except William of Normandy
— ever showed such ability in his nonage, followed up
by so glorious a life ; and, curiously, both bear the
surname of Conqueror.

The boy- king of Castille, Enrique I., was killed in
1 217, by a tile falling on his head while he was at

i84 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAP. XIX.

play. His sister, Dona Berenguela, now queen in her
own right, instantly sent for her son, Don Fernando,
to Leon ; but, fearing that his father might detain him
and set up a claim to reign in her right, she bade her
messengers conceal the death of her brother, and only
ask for a visit from him. He was eighteen years old,
gallant, devout, and winning ; and as soon as he arrived
his mother presented him to her Cortes, who raised him
on their shields and proclaimed him king. Shortly
after, her youngest sister, Leonor, was married to King
Jayme of Aragon, but only to raise fresh troubles on
account of their relationship ; and Berenguela avoided
these entirely for her son by obtaining for him the
hand of Beatrix, daughter of the Emperor Philip of
Suabia.

Jayme, when a captive in the hands of Simon de
Montfort, had — mere baby as he was — made a vow
that, when he should be a man and a king, he would
endeavour to do something for the redemption of
captives. So, before he was a man in age, he insti-
tuted another religious order of knighthood, called La
Merced, which added to their other duties that of
collecting alms and using them for the ransoming of
captives to the Moor^.

Miserable indeed was the state of the Moors. The
young Miramamolin, Yousuf, soon died, and then began
a desperate civil war in Morocco among his relations, •
during which the Spanish walis of Baeza, Murcia,
Valencia, and Seville, asserted their independence.
The two young kings of Castille and Aragon were not
slow to avail themselves of the disunion of their
enemies : Fernando, the eldest of the two, was the
first. He set forth from Toledo in 1224, accompanied

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 185

by Don Alvar Perez de Castro, an able captain, who
had served among the Moors, and Rodrigo Ximenes
de Rada, Archbishop of Toledo, a great scholar, who
understood six languages, bad 'been at the great
Lateran Council, and became the chronicler of the reign.
Baeza was the first place attacked, and the wali, being
unsupported, offered to become tributary, gave up his
two chief cities, and retired to Cordova. There Al
Maimoun — who had succeeded in winning the throne
of Morocco — came across the Strait to the defence of
Andalusia, and was welcomed by the Cordovans with
the head of the recreant wali of Baeza.

Fernando retreated, but Jayme, or yacom, as the
Moors called him, was preparing a fleet against the
Balearic isles, which had become a nest of Moorish
pirates, who preyed on the shipping and harassed the
coasts of all the western bay of the Mediterranean.
Sancho the Wise, the old King of Navarre, was so
delighted with the prowess of young Jayme that he
not only greatly assisted him in fitting out his fleet,
but adopted him and promised to leave him Navarre,
to the exclusion of the rightful heir, his sister's son,
Thibault de Blois, Count of Champagne. By another
arrangement, the Balearic isles, which were supposed to
be a fief of the county of Urgel, were ceded to him, if he
could conquer them. Two campaigns gave him first
Majorca, and then Minorca and Yvica, while the
Almohides retired to add to the confusion in Africa.

The King of Leon on his side besieged and took
Merida, and defeated an army of Moors which came
to its relief. It was his last campaign. He died the
next year, 1230, on his pilgrimage of thanksgiving to
the shrine of St. Isidoro, leaving his kingdom to the

186 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. XIX.

two daughters of his first marriage. However, his
two discarded wives — Berenguela of Castille, and
Teresa of Portugal — being both women of wisdom,
piety, and public spirit worthy of a better lot than had
been theirs, met and agreed that it was for the good
of the Christian cause that Castille and Leon ^should
not be separated again, but that Berenguela's son,
Fernando, should inherit them both. Nor were they
«ver again divided.

Fernando was a good and pious man, in many
points resembling his cousin St Louis ; and he, too,
bore the like title of Saint, being pure in life, just,
upright, and single-minded like him ; and he was
•devoted to his wife, Beatriz of Suabia, who died at
Toro while he was absent at the siege of Ubeda, in
1233. His heart was almost broken, and he did not
take the field for a whole year. He was on the whole,
however, a harder and narrower man than Louis ; and
Spanish intolerance began to set in from this time.
The Albigenses, who had taken refuge in his dominions,
were hunted down, and, when they were burnt, it was
the king himself who laid the first flaming faggot on
the pile. The Mozarabic Christians were also dis-
couraged, though they were perfectly orthodox, and
the Moors who remained in conquered cities received
much less favourable terms.

Much of tliis was no doubt owing to the influence
of the Popes, who made the granting of indulgences for
crusades against the Infidels contingent on uniformity.
At the Council of Tarragona, in 1230, the Inquisition
had been introduced, the reading of the Spanish
version of the Scriptures forbidden, and the presence
cf heretics at church prohibited. Sancho of Navarre

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 187

died that same year, but the Cortes being unwilling
to accept Don Jayme, the crown passed to the Count
of Champagne, and from that time Navarre became
more connected with French than with Spanish
interests.

The Pope, Gregory IX., induced Jayme to marry
Violante, daughter of Andrew, King of Hungary, to
whom he became fondly attached, and, unfortunately,
he took a dislike to his eldest son, Alfonso, who had been
sent to Castille with his mother, Leonor. Fernando anil
Jayme were watching to advance step by step upon
the Moors. On the death of AI M aimoun at Morocco,
in 1232, confusion had become worse confounded. A
new tribe, called Beny Merques, came down from the
Atlas, and ruined the Almohides ; the connection
between Morocco and Andalusia was broken ; and,
if the Spanish Moors no longer had to dread irruptions
of savage Berbers, they also ceased to have any
foreign assistance in repelling the Christians.

Again, walls and kadis set themselves up as rulers
of their governments, each acting independently, and
therefore all those on the border speedily fell before
the three powerful Christian monarchs.

The three most really able and worthy of these walis
were, at Valencia, Djomayl-ben-Zeyan ; at Granada,
Aben Houd ; and at Jaeii, Mouhamed Aben-al-Hamar,
and if they had united they might have long kept
back the Christians ; but they were bitter rivals, always
at war with one another, whereas the three Christian
kings kept the peace towards one another.

In 1235, just after the summer campaign, when
King Fernando had returned to his capital, the
governor of the newly-conquered city of Andujar,

l88 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

Diego Munoz, learnt that the inhabitants of Cordova
reckoned on the inaction of the Spaniards, and were
keeping careless watch. He therefore set forth with
the bravest men of his garrison, and on a winter's
night scaled the walls of the little fortified suburb of
Al Scharkya, which was cut off from the rest of the
city by the Guadalquivir, and actually made himself
master of it, thence gaining the honourable surname
of De Cordova, which became the most illustrious in
Spain two centuries later. He sent tidings to Alvaro
Perez de Castro, general, or adelantado, of the army of
the frontiers, who hurried to his aid with provisions
and reinforcements. Another messenger set out and
overtook the king at Benavente. Fernando sent to
muster all his troops, and riding off himself with only
thirty knights, arrived at the newly-gained suburb and
set up his camp.

The inhabitants of Cordova had sent intelligence to
the wali, Aben Houd, and he arrived with an army
about the same time as Fernando. He could hardly
believe that the Christians were actually laying siege
to the Moorish capital with such a mere handful of
men ; and he sent a Castilian deserter, Lorenzo
Suarez, who had been banished on account of his
crimes, to act as spy, and ascertain the true numbers
of Fernando's force ; but he proved himself a double
traitor, for he went to Fernando, and purchased his
pardon by undertaking to advise the Moors to defer
the attack, thus giving the Spaniards time to collect
their forces from all parts. Meantime, an entreaty
came from Valencia for aid against Jayme of Aragon ;
and Aben Houd, thinking that the attack in that
quarter was the most dangerous to his own dominion^

Cii. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 189

set out to relieve it, but was assassinated on his way
by an emissary of the wali of Jaen.

The Cordovans, suffering at once from hunger and
from mutual dissensions, and with no hope of relief,
were forced to surrender, though on terms much harder
than the former kings had imposed on the conquered
cities. Fernando had no toleration for Islam, and the
Moors were expelled ruthlessly from their beautiful
city, taking with them no property but what they could
carry in their hands. The gloriously beautiful Aljama
mosque was purified and consecrated; and the bells
of Compostella, which were found reversed among the
lamps, where they had been hung by Al Mansour,
were taken down and sent home to Santiago on the
shoulders of Moorish prisoners. The beautiful Al
Zohra palace and the magnificent library of Abd-el-
Rhaman were both plundered and destroyed, though
how much of the desolation was owing to the Berbers
and how much to the Christians is not certain.
Fernando, a much better man in morals and in piety
than his forefathers, had none of their admiration for
Arabian learning and science, and had no mercy
where misbelief was concerned. He drove the Moors
so entirely out of the surrounding country, that rich
as is the soil round the Guadalquivir, there was such
a famine that he was forced to send corn to supply the
garrison of Cordova.

Jayme of Aragon was determined to have Valencia,
and obtained the assistance of the Archbishop of
Narbonne, as well as of a number of Crusaders return-
ing from the sixth Crusade. He bound himself by a
vow before the altar of Santa Maria de Pucli not to
return to his home till he was master of Valencia ; and

X90 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

in 1236 appeared before the walls of the city, raising
a fortress to protect his camp, Aben Zeyen, wali of
Valencia, implored for help from Africa, but no one
but the wali of Tunis attempted to send him ships or
provisions, and these were intercepted by the Catalan
fleet. Aben Zeyen offered to capitulate, and Jayme
was less hard to deal with than Fernando, and allowed
the Valencians either to carry away their goods or tore-
main with free exercise of their rehgion, and no heavier
burdens than the Christians, while Aben Zeyen was to
retire beyond the river Xucar, which was to become
the boundary. Thus did Jayme the Conqueror win
the city which the Cid had held for a brief time, and
whose valleys were so rich and fertile that the Arabs
called them the Orchard of the Charms of Spain.

Seven years' truce was granted ; but before they were
over, in 1239, while Jayme was at Montpellier, his
knights had broken the truce, and were foraging the
lands across the Xucar. Their master blamed them,
but kept the conquests, and followed them up, so that
by the end of the seven years, he had seized all the
-banks of the Xucar. Then he further broke his
engagement by expelling all the Moors who had
remained at Valencia on the strength of the treaty.
He was a high-minded, honourable man in his deal-
ings with Christians, but the whole public opinion of
the century was unfortunately against keeping faith
towards the Infidel, and toleration was regarded as a
sin.

The Moslems took refuge in the provinces of Murcia
and Granada ; and Aben-el-Hamar, called the Pillar
of Islam, who was i^ali of Jaen, made himself master
of Cadiz, Loja, Alhama, and Granada, and was

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 191

endeavouring to take Murcia. The wali preferred to
yield to a Christian rather than to his rival^ and
offered to pay tribute to the King of Castille, who
sent his eldest son, Alfonso, to place garrisons in
Murcia and the other dependent cities. Carthagena
and Lorca were also taken, and the Spanish troops
actually encamped for a few days before Granada ;
but it was too late in the season to begin the siege,
and Fernando retreated.

The next year, however, 1245, Fernando besieged
Jaen, and there was much hard fighting round the
walls. It was on the point of being taken by assault,
when Aben-el-Hamar took the desperate resolution of
going alone and unattended into the Castilian camp
to speak face to face with Fernando. He was led to
the royal tent, where he bent his knee and kissed the
king's hand in token of homage. Fernando raised
him and treated him with kingly courtesy, and it was
agreed that Jaen should receive a Spanish garrison,
but that Granada should be secured to Aben-el-Hamar,
though only a tributary to Castille. The prince
thereof was to have a seat in the Cortes, like the ricos
hombres or peers of Castille, was to pay a tribute of
one hundred and fifty thousand doubloons every year,
and to furnish troops to the army of his suzerain.

Seville was under an Almohid wali, Seyd Abou Abd
Allah, and therefore was not included in this con-
vention. Thus, in 1247, Ferdinand attacked that
province, and Aben-el-Hamar brought five hundred
picked lances to serve in the Christian army. With them
he surprised the fort of Alcala de Guadaira, where
the garrison did not suspect that their national dress
and weapons could belong to an enemy. It was a

192 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

grand fort, crowning a hill above the river, with a
mighty wall defended by nine bastions, and with
granaries excavated beneath the donjon tower, so
that it could have held out for months. The poS'
session of this fortress decided Fernando to besiege
Seville itself. He hurried to Biscay to collect ships,
and sent them round the coast to the mouth of the
Guadalquivir, while he mustered the whole of his
forces for the land attack, including all the nobles
called de pendon e caldrera (of the pennon and the
caldron — i.e, those who could gather their vassals
round their pennon, and feed them from their boiling-
pot) The caldron is a frequent bearing in Spanish
heraldry, and is akin to the kettle, which is so often
found in northern nomenclature. He further made up all
threatened disputes with Aragon by marrying his son
Alfonso to Jayme's daughter Violante, and thus con-
centrated his full strength against the lovely city.

His al emir, or admiral, Don Ramon Bonifaz,
forced the mouth of the Guadalquivir, taking or sink-
ing all the Sevillian ships, and thus cutting off all
hopes of aid from Africa. On each side of the stream
the Castilians established an entrenched camp, where
they spent the whole winter, continually reinforced by
volunteers from all quarterns, even by whole convents
of monks, who came to take their share in the victory.

The city of Seville stands on both sides of the river,
and the only connection between the two portions was
by a bridge of boats. Within, as the old wall could
not venture out, the command was given to the wali
of Niebla, Abou Djafar, under whom the Mozarabic
Christians fought, even as the Granadine Moors were
fighting under Fernando. It was a time of chivalrous

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 193

encounters, as the Christians lay encamped beside the
river. Single knights, or small bodies of men, rode
forth and broke lances together, and another cycle of
ballads has gathered around the siege of Seville. The
prime knights of all were the two brothers, Don Garcia
and Don Diego Perez de Vargas, the latter of whom
was called el Machuca, or the bruiser, because at the
siege of Xeres, when his lance and sword were broken,
he had defended himself with the trunk of a young
tree torn up by the roots. They came from Toledo,
and were unrivalled for prowess. Garcia and another
knight were riding forth, when they saw a party of
Moors. We must let the ballad speak in Lockhart's
translation.

King Ferdinand alone did stand one day upon the hill.
Surveying all his league and the ramparts of Seville ;
The sight was grand, when Ferdinand by proud Seville wjis lying,
O'er tower and tree, far off to see, the Christian banner flying.

Down chanced the king his eye to fling, where for the cause below
Two gentlemen along the glen were riding soft and slow ;
As void of fear each cavalier seem'd to be riding there,
As some strong hound may pace around the roebuck's thicket fair.

It was Don Garcia Perez, and he would breathe the air.

And he had ta'en a knight with him that had as ^icf be elsewhere ;

For soon this knight to Garcia said : ' ' Ride, ride we, or we're

lost !
I see the glance of helm and lance — it is the Moorish host."

The Baron of Vargas tum'd him round, his trusty squire was

near.
The helmet on his brow he bound, his gauntlet grasped his spear;
With that upon his saddle-tree he planted him right steady :
" Now come," said he, •' whoe'er they be, I trow they'll find us

ready."

O

194 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xix.

By this the knight who rode with him had turn'dhis horse's head,

And up the glen in fearful trim unto the camp had fled.

"He's gone," quoth Garcia Perez. He smiled, and said no

more,
But slowly with his esquire rode as he rode before.

It was the Count Lorenzo, just then it happened so.

He took his stand by Ferdinand, and with him gazed below.

"My liege," quoth he, " seven Moors I see ascending from the

wood ;
Now bring they all the blows they may, I trow they'll find us

good;
But it is Garda Perez, if his cognizance they know,
I guess it will be little pain to give them blow for blow."

The Moors from forth the greenwood came riding one by one,
A gallant troop with armour resplendent in the sun ;
Full haughty was their bearing, as o'er the sward they came,
Wliile the calm Lord of Vargas, his march was just the same.

They stood drawn up in order, while past them all rode he,
For when upon his shield they saw the red cross and the tree,
And the wings of the black eagle that o'er his crest was spread.
They knew it was Garcia Perez, and not a word they said.

He took the casque from off his head and gave it to the squire.
" My friend," quoth he, "no need I see why I myself should tire."
But as he doffd his helmet he saw his scarf was gone ;
" I've dropt it, sure," said Garcia, "when I put my helmet on."

He look'd around and saw the scarf, and still the Moors were

near ;
And they had pick'd it from the sward, and loop'd it on a spear,
"These Moors," quoth Garcia "Perez, "uncourteous Moors

they be I
Now by my soul the scarf they stole yet durst not question me.

" Now reach once more my helmet." The esquire said him nay :
" For a silken string why should ye fling perchance your life
away?

cii. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 195

" I had it from my lady," quoth Garcia, " long ago,
And never Moor that scarf, be sure, in proud Seville shall
show."

But when the Moslem saw him they stood in firm array ;
He rode among their armed throng, he rode right furiously.
"Stand, stand, ye thieves and robbers, lay dovm my lady's

pledge,"
He cried, and even as he cried they felt his falchion's edge.

That day when the Lord of Vargas came to the camp alone,
The scarf, his lady's largess, round his breast was thrown.
Bare was his head, his sword was red, and from his pommel

strung
Seven turbans green, sore hack'd I ween, before Garcia Perez

hung.

Another story declares that a knight who bore the
same coat of arms as Vargas, disputed Garcia's right
to it The next time there was a sally of the Moors
this gentleman fled, while Garcia stood and defended
the outpost. When next they met he said : " Certes,
seiior, you show more honour to these bearings than
I do ; since you have kept yours bright and clean,
while mine are all dinted and d^aced.'^ Whereat the
gentleman was much ashamed.

Don Ramon Bonifaz was anxious to break through
the bridge of boats so as to cut off the communication
between the two parts of the city ; and preparing two
ships, he sent them full against the centre, when wind
and tide were both favourable, and broke through the
chains, scattering burning pots of grease and pitch,
which destroyed the boats around. After this the two
chief suburbs were taken, and the inhabitants became
much straitened for provisions, so that, after a defence
of eighteen months, they offered to surrender. Fernando

Q 2

196 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

gave them favourable terms, giving those who wished
to leave the place means of transport for their property,
and promising toleration to those who remained No
less than three hundred thousand persons migrated
from Seville to Africa, and the king entered the city
in triumphant procession —

With many a cross-bearer before
And many a spear behind.

The magnificent mosque was purified and conse-
crated in the name of our Lady. It did not acquire its
name of Giralda till three centuries later, when the
revolving figure of Faith became its weathercock. The
saying about the Castilian churches was —

La de Toledo la rica,
La de Salamanca la fuerte.
La de Leon la bella,
La de Sevilla la grande.

Aben-el-Hamar took leave of Fernando and returned
to Granada, unwilling to witness the division of Sevillian
estates and riches among the Christian knights and
clergy. Fernando had now made himself master of
both the great capitals of the Moors, and indeed of all
the cities dependent on them, except those around
Granada. His cousin St. Louis sent him warm con-
gratulations, and relics to consecrate the newly-won
mosques. After arranging the affairs of the country he
had gained, he was about to pursue his conquests into
Africa, and Ramon Bonifaz had just cleared the seas
by a great naval victory, when the good king, the saint
of his line, died of dropsy, on the 30th of May, 1252.
He was a very noble and devout person, a lawgiver
and statesman as well as a warrior, never erring save

CH. XIX.] CONQUESTS OF CASTILLE & ARAGON. 197

by harshness towards misbelief, which was the flaw in
the religion of thp age.

Eleanor of Castille, the beloved and excellent wife
of Edward I., was the daughter of St Fernando, and
was given to him when a mere child by her brother
Alfonso X., the Wise, in 1254, when he received knight-
hood from the Castilian sword. The charter given at
her marriage is still extant in the British Museum,
signed .by Aben Hamar as a member of Cortes. It is
a Spanish chronicler who tells the story of her sucking
the poison — another Spanish princess named the holy
Sana Sancha, the daughter of Jayme of Aragon, who
went thither in disguise and became a nun of the
Holy Sepulchre.

The other great conqueror, Jayme el Conquistador,
brought troubles on himself in his latter days by
endeavouring to make Catalonia a separate kingdom
for his favourite son Don Pedro, the child of Violante.
His people would not tolerate a fresh division, and
rebelled under his eldest son Alfonso, whom he had
always disliked, and peace was only restored by his
son's death.

His private life was also stained with much of the
licence too common in Spain, coupled with much
devoutness of a certain kind. Yet he had many kingly
qualities, is said never to have been guilty of an act of
cruelty, and deserved to belong to an age wonderfully
fertile in great sovereigns, producing as it did St. Louis,
St Fernando, Jayme of Aragon, Frederick 1 1., Alex-
ander III. of Scotland, and contemporary, though
somewhat later, Edward I., and Rudolf of Hapsburg.

Jayme excelled in all kingly qualities and had few
rivals in personal prowess. He was of great height,

198 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xix.

beautiful in person, inured to hardship, never had an
illness, and was vigorous and active to the end of his
life. He had taken the cross, intending to join St Louis
and Edward of England in their crusade, and meant to
have been at the rendezvous at Carthage, where his
Moorish experience might have been of use ; but a
tempest dispersed his thirty ships, and drove him into
a small French port, where he learnt the tidings of the
French king's death. He was his own chronicler, and
kept up his active life till, in 1376, he was mudi grieved
by a defeat his sons received from the Moors. Falling
ill, he resigned his crown to his son Pedro, and assumed
the Cistercian habit, made public confession of his sins,
and lamented his ill example, and died on the
25th of July, having lived seventy-six years and
reigned seventy. No one save Louis XIV. ever had
so long a reign, and no one ever so long a period of
personal government, since Jayme took the reins into
his own hands at twelve years old.

CHAPTER XX.

THE CREAM OF THE WEST.

A NEW era had begun in the fortunes of the Moors.
Reft o( their two magnificent capitals at Cordova and
Seville, they had gathered into the extreme south,
under the able and beneficent rule of Aben-al-Hamar,
who, though a tributary to Castille, termed himself
Suhan and Emir of the Faithful, and is usually called
King of Granada.

Kamattah, as the Arabs had named it, meant the
Cream of the West. The Spaniards in later times,
deceived by the likeness of the word to Granada, a
pomegi*anate, fancied it to have been thence named,
and took the fruit as its emblem. The kingdom was a
mere fragment, and did not even reach to the Straits ;
for Algesira, the green island, and its great fortresses,
belonged to the Africans ; and it had in it elements of
no small danger, containing as it did the remnants of
no less than thirty-two Arab and Moorish tribes, many
of them at deadly fend with one another, and divided
by their nevcr-endmg national enmities. The two
great tribes of Abencerrages, or sons of Zeragh, and
the Zegris, or refugees from Aragon, were destined to
become the most feunous of these.

The king himself, Mohanm:ied-Abou-Said, was of
the old Arabian tribe of Al Hamar, by whose name
he is usually called. He was of the best old Aiabic

200 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xx.

type— prudent, just, moderate, temperate, and active,
and so upright as to be worthy to belong to this age of
great kings, and his plans for his little kingdom were
favoured by the peace in which his Christian neigh-
bours left him ; while Alfonso X. of Castille was
vainly endeavouring to become, not Emperor of Spain
alone, but Roman Emperor.

The Almohides of Algarye obeyed neither Alfonso
nor Al Hamar, and they united to subdue them. Ten
cities were surrendered by the governor on condition
that he should enjoy the estates of the King's Garden
at Seville, and the tenth of the oil of an oliveyard.
There was still a margin of petty walls who preferred
a brief independence to a secure tenure of existence
as tributaries, and these one by one fell a prey to the
Castilians, the inhabitants of their cities being expelled,
and adding to the Granadine population.

Al Hamar received them kindly, but made them
work vigorously for their maintenance. Every nook of
soil was in full cultivation ; the mountain-sides terraced
with vineyards ; new modes of irrigation invented ; the
breeds of horses and cattle carefully attended to; rewards
instituted for the best farmers, shepherds, and artisans.
The manufacture of silk and wool was actively carried
on, also leather-work and sword-cutlery. Hospitals
and homes for the sick and infirm were everywhere ;
and in the schools of Granada the remnants of the
scholarship of Cordova and Seville were collected.

Granada itself stood in the midst of the Vega, around
two hills, each crowned by a fortress : Albayzin, so
called by the fugitives from Baeza ; and the Alhimra,
or Red Fortress. The wall was extended so as to take
in its constantly increasing population, and the king

CHAP. XX.] THE CREAM OF THE WEST. 20i

began to render the Alhdmra one of the strongest and
most beautiful places in existence. Though begun by
Al Hamar it was not completed for several generations,
each adding to the unrivalled beauty of the interior ;
for, as usual in Arabian architecture, the outside has
no beauty, being a strong fortification of heavy red
walls.

The entrance was by a large, square, gateway-tower,
which still bears inscriptions showing that here, accord-
ing to Oriental custom, the king " sat in the gate " to
do justice. Beyond it lies a court, with a cloister
around it of horseshoe arches on palm-tree columns;
the walls are covered with a sort of enamelled plaster,
called azulejo, with inscriptions in Arabic, some from
the Koran, some complimentary to the king. In the
middle of the court, surrounded by beds of flowers and
walks, between two rows of orange trees, was a long
marble basin, filled with running water, for the ablutions
of the inferior servants.

Beyond was the exquisite place called the Court of
the Lions. It is surrounded by a cloister of one hundred
and twenty-eight marble columns, either in threes or
twos, wonderfully slender and graceful, the pavement
blue and white, the azulejo showing a wonderful har-
mony of scarlet, azure, and gold, in semi-natural
patterns, like those on a cashmere shawl, or sentences
from the Koran, written so that each letter was an
ornament, the spaces between the arches filled with
lovely marble filagree. Two beautiful cupolas closed
the cloister, and in the centre is an alabaster cup six
feet across, supported on the backs of twelve dignified
but exceedingly conventional lions. Four centuries of
injury and neglect have not utterly destroyed the magic

2oa THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xX.

beauty of this wonderfal place, though much has been
ruined. The halls and saloons were still more gorgeous.
The Hall of Music had a fountain in the centre, round
which the court sat on carpets, while the performers
were in tribunes above them. The seraglio shows how
through a perforated marble slab the odours of sweet
perfumes came up from the vaults where they burnt
beneath, and the arrangement for light and ventilation
show a skill that it would be well if modem science
could recover. The dados were of richest mosaic, the
gates and partitions of the most delicate and graceful
brazen lattice-work, the ceilings wondrous efforts of
mathematics and carpentry. They are combinations
of triangles, in the lesser chambers rising into conical
linings to the cupolas, in the larger halls forming sta-
lactites or pendants, all in the most delicate colouring,
touched with gold. Some of the chambers had natural
subjects on their wall-paintings, hunting ones chiefly,
but also figures showing the exploits of their kings.
The view from the terraces over the city to the Vega
and the snowy-capped mountains is still enchanting ;
and the gardens, now called the Generalife (a corruption
of yemma-Pari/, the gardens of the architect), were
also marvels of beauty, with fountains, groves, and
flowers, though little is left of their old glory but a few
gigantic cypresses and myrtles.

There was also a splendid mosque of the Alhamra,
considered by the Moors a masterpiece, but now
vanished. Even in its decay this wonderful palace is
like a dream of loveliness, and in its full beauty must
have seemed a thing too exquisite for earth. It was as
perfect in its way as the Parthenon had been, and like
that, it lacked the one thing that Christian art pos-

CHAP. XX.] THE CREAM OF THE WEST. 205

sesses,the suggestion of something higher, the yearning
for what is beyond.

As the heavy columns and low-browed vaults of the
Aljama of Cordova were of the age of the Byzantine
piUar and circular arch, so the ddicate horse-shoe arch
and palm-tree shaft of the Alhinu-a is contemporary
with the pointed arch and slender clustered column of
the earlier decorated style ; but it stopped short with
the minaret ; it never pointed upwards in the spire.

Mohammed Aben-Al-Hamar died 1273, ^^^ liis son
Mohammed II. followed in his steps. There was an
alarm that a new Berber invasion of the Beni Mcrinys
was about to take place, and as this would have
been almost as dreadful to the Andalusians as to the
Spaniards, Alfonso and Mohammed formed an alliance
against it. Mohammed came to Seville, and was lodged
in the palace, and splendidly entertained. But when
all the Christian kings were gone to the Council of
Lyons, the natural inclination of a Moor to his fellow
believers, led Mohammed to hope for the recovery of
some of the Moorish dominions, and to ally him-
self with Abou Yousuf, chief of the Beni Merinys and
Emir of Morocco, and open to him the ports of
Algesiras.

Again there was a great African invasion, and the
£rst battle was fought by Don Nuno Gonzalez de Lara,
who was overpowered by numbers, and slain. Mo-
hammed had been on tenns of kindly intercourse with.
him, and when his head was brought in, wept over it,
and said: '^Alas my friend, thou hast not deserved
this from me ! '' He sent the head embalmed, and in.
a silver urn, to be buried with the body.

Another army was led by Don Sancho, a son ol

ao4 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. XX.

Jayme of Aragon, who was titular Archbishop of
Granada. He was defeated and made prisoner, and
there was a great struggle between the Africans and
Andalusians, each of whom wanted to secure him for
their own chief, until Aben Nazir, a kinsman of Mo-
hammed, rode up, crying : " Shall true Believers slay-
one another for an Infidel dog," transfixed the unfortu-
nate prelate with his spear, and cut off his hand.
This was the grief that broke the stout heart of his
father.

Alfonso X. had hurried home from Lyons to collect
his troops, but on the way he was detained by the
illness and death of his eldest son, Fernando, called
de la Cerda, or, of the bristle, because he had been
born with a hairy chest. Though only twenty-one, he
had been two years married to a daughter of St Louis,
and left two infant sons. In the meantime the
Biscayan fleet had come round to the Mediterranean,
and the Beni Merinys, not wishing to have their retreat
cut off, came to terms with Alfonso, and peace was
restored. Three years later, however, Alfonso tried to
take Algesiras, which was still held by the African
Moors, but was defeated. Though not unjustly called
al SabiOj or the wise, Alfonso was one of those men
whose very talents injure them ; and his vacillations
as to whether his crown should be left to his infant
grandson or to his eldest surviving son, Sancho, led to
a great revolt. Alfonso, by beheading his own brother,
Don Fadrique, and causing a powerful and popular
noble to be burnt alive, alienated almost all his vassals,
among them Mohammed of Granada, and after seek-
ing in vain the aid of the Kings of Aragon, Portugal,
and France, entreated that of the Emir of Morocco,

CHAP. XX.] THE CREAM OF THE WEST. 205

who was then at Algesiras superintending the re-
building of the fortifications.

Now there was at Algesiras, a young Castilian
knight, Alonso Perez de Guzman, the illegitimate son
of Don Pedro de Guzman. The popular word for
persons thus born was de gananHa^ or of gain ; and at
a tournament a year or two before, when the king had
asked who had borne off the prize, the answer had
been Don Alonso Perez de Guzman— "Which ?"
asked the king.

^^ Mi hennano de gananciaj* answered his legitimate
half-brother, in a tone that roused the youth's ire ; and
when the king tried to pacify him, he vowed never to
return to Castille till he could be indeed called " her-
mano de ganancia." Like all disaffected Castilian
heroes, he took service with the Moors, though his
chronicler declares it was with the proviso that he was
never to serve against Castille. In his distress, when
no city was left to him but Seville, Alfonso X. resolved
to make this young man his intercessor with the emir,
and sent him all the crown jewels to offer in pledge,
together with a piteous letter dated from " Seville, my
only loyal city, in the thirtieth year of my reign, and
the first of my troubles."

Yousuf was much affected by the letter. He sent
Guzman back at once with six thousand gold doblas,
and promises of further aid ; and thus Guzman kept his
oath of returning when he could truly be called " de
ganancia." The king rewarded him with the hand of
Dona Maria Coronel, a Sevillian heiress, and set out
with him to meet his new ally.

They met at Zara, in the Moorish camp, where Aben
Yousuf received the fallen sovereign with lavish tokens

2o6 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. XX.

of honour, making him ride on horseback into his
magnificent pavilion, and placing him in the seat of
honour, with the words : ** Sit there, thou who hast
been a king from thy cradle, while I have only been a
king since God made me one."

Alfonso, in the same grand Eastern style, replied :
*' God gives nobility only to the noble, honour only to
the honourable, and kingdoms only to such as deser\'e
them ; and thus God gave thee a kingdom for thy
deserts."

** Give me an adalid " (a sort of guide or quarter-
master), said the Moor, " to lead me to the lands that
do not obey thee ; I will lay them waste, and bring
them back to thine obedience."

Alfonso did so, after having charged his adalid to
take him where he could do least hann.

Then a strange war began, in which the Andalusian
Moors fought in the cause of the son, and the Africans in
the cause of the father. It was ended by both princes
falling ill, when Sancho, in terror of death, implored
his father's forgiveness ; and Alfonso granted it, con-
firming the choice of the Cortes, which, in accordance
with old Gothic custom, gave the kingdom to the most
effective member of the royal family. Sancho re-
covered, but Alfonso died in the year 1281.

Alfonso's wisdom was somewhat of the same type as
that of our James I., more erudite than practical ; but
he had much real ability. He completed the code of
laws begun by his father, San Fernando, and had
them published, not in Latin but in Castilian, by the
name of **Las Partidas de Don Alfonso." Their
preface showed that he had the true Spanish faculty
of making proverbs, such as—'* The tyrant uproQts the

CHAP. XX.] THE CREAM OF THE WEST. 207

tree, when the wise king prunes it" He also wrote
the history of his time, and was an intense admirer of
the Cid, whose monument he built at San Pedro de
Saldanha.

He was also a great astronomer, profiting, of course,
by the labours of the Arabs, but giving much attention
to the drawing up of tables of calculations of the
courses of the heavenly bodies, and he was no mean
proficient in mathematics. A translation of a scien-
tific treatise of his from Arabic into Spanish is extant ;
and his mind was so convinced of the awkwardness of
the Ptolemaic solar system that he shocked the pious
by saying, that if he had been present at the making
of the universe, he could have given the Creator some
good advice.

In chemistry and medicine he was also skilful ; his
works still remain, and the vulgar bdieved that he had
been a Frankenstein, and had actually constructed and
animated a human creature. Of course, his astronomy
connected itself with astrology, and his chemistry
with alchemy, and there still remains a Book of the
Treasure^ namely the recipe for the Grand Arcanum,
the philosophers' stone, which he learnt from an
Egyptian sage, and recorded in thirty-five octavos of
cyphers, which no one has ever been able to read.

Two more books of his are preserved at Toledo ;
the words and music of a set of hynms to the Blessed
Virgin, and the Libro de Querelas, or laments, after
his son had rebelled. They are dignified and pathetic,
worthy of a king who could do everything — except
reign. He also caused the Scriptures to be translated,
and was enlightened enough to avail himsdf of the aid
of learned Jews in elucidatii^ the text

2o8 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xx,

Guzman followed Yoiisuf into Africa, and there re-
mained till Sancho IV. invited him to return in 1291 ;
and soon after, a naval victory over the Berbers encou-
raged Sancho to lay siege to Tarifa, one of the most
important seaports, and one which was often a landing-
place of the Moors from Africa. It was taken by
assault after six months ; but it was so exposed, and so
far from succour, that it was thought to be impossible
to keep it. However, the Grand Master of Calatrava
undertook to defend it for a year, and after that
Don Alonso Guzman took up the defence, carried his
family thither, repaired the walls, filled the stores, and
established himself there as Alcayde.

The only one of his family who had been left behind
was the eldest son, whom the king's brother, Don
Juan, had undertaken to carry to Portugal, there to
become one of the king's pages. But Don Juan, a
turbulent, worthless prince, quarrelled with his brother,
went to Tangier, and offered his services to the King
of Morocco, taking young Guzman with him. An
attempt on Spain was at once to be made, beginning
with Tarifa, and Guzman had been so much connected
with the Moors, and so often at enmity with the king,
that great hopes were entertained of buying him over.
But he was one of those men whose personal word
was inviolable, and to all their offers, he replied, that
** Good knights neither buy nor sell victory." Then
Don Juan thought of another expedient, which he is
said to have employed once before with success. He
led his charge, a boy of ten, before the walls, and called
out to the father that he should be slain unless Tarifa
were instantly surrendered.

Guzman stood on the walls white and resolute. " I

CHAP, XX.] THE CREAM OF THE WEST.. 209

did not beget this son," said he, " to be my country's
foe. I gave a son to my country to withstand its
enemies. If Don Juan slays him, he will give to me
honour, to my son true life, and to himself eternal
infamy in this world, and condemnation after death.
And to show how far I am from yielding the place, and
failing in my duty, there goes my knife, in case he
needs a weapon for his cruelty."

So saying, Guzman left the walls and sat down to
table with his wife, commanding his countenance so that
she should guess nothing. Presently there was a great
shouting of horror and dismay. He rose, but presently
came back saying : " I thought the Moors were in
Tarifa." But he had seen the bloody head of his first-
born. The Moors were however horrified, and like-
wise hopeless of overcoming such a man. They raised
the siege, and all Spain rang with praise of the" loyalty
of Guzman, who has been ever since known as el
Bueno, or the good. He was the founder of a noble
family from whom sprang the Dukes of Medina-
Sidonia. His constancy was sung in ballads, and he*
became one of the great examples of Spanish loyalty.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE BATTLE OF SALADO.

Sancho the Brave died in 1295, leaving the regency
to his widow, Maria de Molino, since his eldest son,
Fernando IV., was a young child. She was the only
queen-regent who ever obtained the title of Great, and
she had a hard task, for the Infants de la Cerda, now
grown to man's estate, put forward their claim, and
the wretched Don Juan gave her much trouble ; but
she met all perplexities with manlike wisdom and
courage. She does not seem, however, to have been
equally successful in educating her children, for her
son grew up weak, violent, and distrustful of her.

Meantime Aragon was fully engaged. Pedro III.
had married the daughter of Manfred of Sicily, and
it was to him that the glove was carried which Conradin
threw down among the people as an appeal to the
justice of his cause, w^hen he, the last of the Hohen-
stanfen, was perishing by the axe of Charles of Anjou.
Pedro bided his time till the brutality of the Provencals
had occasioned the revengeful massacre known as the
Sicilian Vespers, and then accepted the invitation of
the Sicilians to become their defender. The. great
Jayme had diligently fostered the navy at Barcelona
and Valencia, and under Don Roger de Lauria, the

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SAIJVDO. 211

greatest man of his time, Sicily was gained, and Aragon
became a great maritime power.

Juana I., heiress of Navarre, had married Philippe IV.
of France. For two generations the kingdoms were
divided, and as Navarre had long ceased to have any
Moorish border, it wholly ceased from concerning itself
in these wars. Portugal had likewise long ago made
up its frontier, and the Moors of Granada were left
at peace both by their Spanish neighbours and the
Africans. In 1298, Mohammed III. was able to pur-
chase Algesiras from the Emir of Morocco, and thus
reigned over the whole country to the south of the
Sierra de Comares, between Carthageiia and Almeria.
He was said to have been the handsomest man then
in existence, until he injured his eyesight by studying
through the greater part of the nights, and became
too blind to catty on the government at any critical
moment

When young Fernando IV. of Castille came of age,
he called on Jay me IL of Aragon to unite with him
in a grand attack on the Moors. Jayme besieged
Almeria, and Fernando attacked at the same time
Algesiras and Gibraltar. The importance of the
latter place depending on the use of cannon com-
manding the Straits, it had not then been so fortified
but that Fernando was able to take it by surprise, and
according to the Castilian fashion, expelled all the
inhabitants. One poor old man, who had been driven
from his home twice before, stood lamenting in the
streets before the young conqueror. " Woe is me ! I
am banished again in my old age. Thy great-grand-
father Fernando drove me out of Seville, and I fied to
Xeres. Thy grandfather Alfonso banished me from

p 2

2ia THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxr.

thence even to Tarifa. Thither came thy father Sancho,-
and with my people I fled from him hither as to a
place of distant refuge ; but thou hast found me out,
and in the latter days of my life, where must I again
seek a home?" "Cross the sea," was all the king
answered.

Fernando was pressing on the siege of Algesiras,
when his brother, the Infant Don Juan, on some offence
left the camp, carrying off a number of nobles, and so
weakening the army that Fernando consented to accept
a large sum of money from Mohammed for the ransom
of the town. This mode of saving the city was viewed
by the Granadine chiefs as a disgrace, and rising against
their blind king, they dethroned him in favour of his
brother Al Nassir, who had just forced Jayme of Aragon
to raise the siege of Almeria. The Moorish revolutions
were seldom bloody, and Mohammed was allowed to
retire to one of the lovely palaces on the slopes of the
Nevada, where he used to wander about the gardens
with poets and scholars, listening to their compositions
or reciting his own, until, venturing to cross the gardens
without a guide, he fell into one of the marble basins
of water, and was drowned.

Those sworn foes of Islam, the Knights Templars,
were at this time under the cruel persecution of
Philippe IV. of France, and his miserable tool. Pope
Clement V. In 131 1, the peninsular sovereigns re-
ceived the papal mandate, commanding that the
Templars should be arrested, their property confiscated,
and their persons tortured, to make them confess the
horrible crimes laid to their charge. The Spaniards
were by no means inclined to carry out this dreadful
decree. The Templars were their fellow-soldiers and

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SALADO. 213

brave champions, and many were of the,_iM)blest
families in the Peninsula. Besides, the Cortes of
Aragon had declared torture to be unworthy of any
Christian country ; and so, though in obedience to the
Pope, a council was held at Tarragona, to which the
knights were cited, none of them were put to the rack.
A few of the more fierce and lawless members of the
order were put to death to save appearances, but the
others were allowed to enjoy their estates till they
died out, when the property was divided between the
crown and the local military orders. In Portugal, Dom
Diniz formed the knights into a new Order, which he
called that of Christ.

It is well known that when in 13 14, three years after
the murder of the great body of the Templars, their
Grand-Master, Jaques de Molay, was led out to execu^
tion, he appealed to the tribunal of Heaven, and sum-
moned both Pope and King to meet him there, and
that both died at the very time he mentioned. Two
years previously such an awful summons had been
made to Fernando of Castille, and he had obeyed it.

One of his favourite nobles had been assassinated
while leaving his chamber at Palencia, and the sus-
picion of the guilt had fallen on two brothers named
Carvarel. They had, however, joined the army with
which the Infant Don Pedro, brother to the king, was
besieging the Moorish town of Alcandera, and there
Fernando found them. Enraged at their insolence,
he commanded that they should be hurled from the
top of a precipice ; and though they protested their
innocence, and demanded a fair trial, the cruel sentence
was carried out. Their last words were a summons
to Fernando to meet them within thirty days before

214 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxi.

the Judgment-seat. He treated it lightly at first, but
when after a few days he fell ill of a fever, his spirits
gave way ; and though he was revived by the surrender
of the town, and an offer of peace from the Moors, he
died on the thirtieth day from the summons, when his
attendants had left him asleep on his couch, on the
17th of September, 1312. The Spaniards distinguish
him as Don Fernando el Emplazado, or the summoned.
He was only twenty-eight years old, and his son
Alfonso XI. was but two ; and after a few struggles
the old queen, Maria the Great, resumed the govern-
ment of Castille.

The Granadine Moors were a turbulent race, always
dangerous to their sovereign ; and when Al Nassir's
vizier was too despotic to please them, they demanded
his dismissal. When the king refused, his sister's son,
Ismael Ben Farady, headed a revolt and besieged him
in the Alhimra. He sent to ask aid from Castille,
and Don Pedro set forth to his assistance, but came
too late, for he had already been forced to surrender,
and had resigned his throne and retired to Cadiz.
Thenceforth there was a divided interest between the
lines of Al Hamar and Farady.

Pedro continued his friend, and sent him a present of
provisions with so large an escort, that Ismael's sus- .
picions being aroused, he sent troops to intercept it
They were beaten off with severe loss, and Pedro con-
tinued to make forays on the Moorish dominions,
surprising and taking many lesser forts, and at last,
with his brother Juan, appearing beneath the very
walls of the Alhimra. The spirit of the Moors was
aroused ; Ismael* reproached them with their supine-
ness which had allowed the Christians to make so

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SALADO. 215

much progress, and led them out to battle. It was an
St John's Day, 13 19, that the great combat took place
in the Vega of Granada, in which the Castilians were
routed, with the loss of both their Infants, though, by the
Spanish account, neither died by a Moorish scimitar ;
but when Don Juan sent to his brother for reinforce-
ments, Pedro, after trying in vain to make his horsemen
move, was so enraged at his failure and exhausted by
his efforts that he dropped dead from his horse ; and
the tidings, being carried to Juan, had an equally fatal
effect upon him. Be that as it may, the corpses of the
two brothers were found on the battle-field, and the
Castilians were forced to ask a truce of three years.

At the end of that time Ismael became the invader,
and attacked Baeza, with what his Arab chronicler
calls "engines which projected globes of fire, with
great explosions, in all respects like the thunder and
lightning of the tempest" The powder was brought
from Damascus. The like engines were used many
years later by Edward III. at Crecy. They however
failed to take Baeza, and Ismael went on to attack
Martos, where he was more successful In the partition
of the spoil, one of his kinsmen obtained a beautiful
maiden, but not until she had been seen by the king,
who caused her to be carried to his harem. She proved
a very Briseis, for her disappointed master revenged
himself by poniarding the king in the midst of the
rejoicing for his victory; and the crown fell to a young
child, Mohammed IV.

At fifteen this young king made his first campaign
by attacking Baeza. In a combat before the walls,
he pierced a Spaniard with his lance, the handle of
which was set with gold and precious stones ; but he

I

216 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxi.

could not withdraw the weapon, and the man rode oif
with it sticking in the wound. " Hold back!" cried the
king to the attendants, who would have given chase to
recover the lance ; " we will leave him the means of
paying for his cure."

Baeza was taken, and likewise Gibraltar; but the
Beni Merinys were again casting jealous eyes on Spain ;
and the Emir of Fez, Aboul Hacem, claimed the rock
and put in a garrison. In 1330 the Castilians besieged
it by land and sea, until Mohammed brought relief to
the Beni Merinys, and drove the Christians back.
Proud of his prowess, the young king boasted that the
Castilians had been courteous to their countrymen of
Granada, coming to break a lance with them and to
leave them the honours of the field. His wit affronted
the savage Africans, and they murdered him as he was
riding up the face of the hill to visit Aboul Hacem.

That emir resumed Algesiras, and treated Yousuf
Aboul Hedjaz, the new king of Granada, as his vassal.
In an inroad upon the Christian territory, a favourite
son of the emir was killed, and his fall brought upon
Spain a tremendous invasion. In 1310 Aboul Hacem,
swearing vengeance, collected an enormous host from
the wild tribes of Fez and Morocco, and transported
them across the strait in two hundred vessels, which
plied between Gibraltar and (Teuta, bringing not only
the warriors but their wives and families, since the
emir intended not conquest merely but settlement.

The alarm of the Christians was great. A crusade
was proclaimed, and the three kings of Castille,
Aragon, and Portugal mustered their forces, and were
joined by many of the clergy, with the Archbishops of
Toledo and Compostella at their head, as well as by

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SAIADO. 217

all the knights of the military orders, and likewise by
a little band of Scots under the good Lord James of
Douglas, on their way to lay the heart of Robert Bruce
in the Holy Sepulchre. As there was no fighting to be
had at Jerusalem, and they had learnt, on putting in at
Lisbon, that so grand an opportunity of striking a blow
at the Infidel was to be had, they thoughj: that to join
in the combat was an excellent mode of fulfilling their
vow.

Pedro IV. of Aragon, remained in reserve, but the
two Alfonsos — the Eleventh of Castille, and the Fourth
of Portugal — united their forces and marched to relieve
Don Juan Alonso de Benavides, who had for five
months been holding out Tarifa with constancy worthy
of Guzman el Bueno himself, and detaining the enemy
before the walls, in spite of the cannon of the Moors
brought from Damascus, and of the loss of many of the
Castilian ships, which had been taken by the Africans,
while endeavouring to bring him provisions.

The city is on a rocky islet, between which and the
mainland flows the river, called El Salado, from its
brackish waters. On the farther side were encamped
the Moorish host ; and on the 29th of October, 134a,
the two Christian kings endeavoured to force their
passage to the beleaguered city. The ford was
defended by the troops of Granada, who fought so
bravely that the Castilians were driven back ; and
James of Douglas, thinking all was lost, took from his
breast the case containing the heart of Bruce, and
crying " Go first, as was thy wont," flung it into the
thickest of the foe, dashed after it, and fell, lying over
it, so as to cover it with his body.

Meantime two brothers, Garcias and Gonzalo

ai8 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxi,

Leisso, had found a little bridge, by which they led
another division of the army across the river, and
attacked Aboul Hacem and the Ben! Merinys. While
they were engaged, Don Alonso de Benavides saw his
opportunity, made a sally from the town, and fell on
the unguarded camp. This decided the fortune of the
•day. The Africans turned headlong from the fight
to protect their camp, but were not in time to save the
harem of their emir. Their confusion broke up the
resistance of the Granadine Moors, and the rout
Tsecame total. Spanish historians reckon their slain
enemies at two hundred thousand, and only twenty
on their own side. The first number is probably mere
hyperbole ; the second, no doubt, means twenty gentle-
men, and these being sheathed in armour, were not very
pervious to Moorish weapons ; while the Berbers were
lightly clad, and closely massed together, so that those
-who could not gain their ships, were penned in like
sheep for the slaughter. Still the number is probably
much exaggerated. James Douglas was found among
the few of the Christians who fell, and his companions
had no spirits to pursue their pilgrimage, but carried
the heart back to Scotland.

Aboul Hacem reached Gibraltar, and took ship for
Africa that same night Yousuf fled to Algesiras, with
the victors following close on his heels to lay siege to
the city. The king escaped by sea, and the Alfonsos,
finding that the place was too strong to be taken by an
immediate assault, returned to Seville. The rejoicing
was ecstatic ; processions of all the dignitaries — eccle-
siastical and secular — came forth with banners displayed,
the streets were hung with tapestry and illuminated at
•night, and the two kings were greeted as defenders of

CHAP. XX r.] THE BATTLE OF SALADO. 219

the Faith and preservers of their country. Of all
the spoil, Alfonso of Portugal would accept nothing
but some Moorish trappings, swords and spurs, with
which trophies he returned home ; while Alfonso XI,
sent an embassy to Avignon to present the Pope with
the horse he had ridden in the battle, the standard of
the emir, twenty-four Moorish banners, and a hundred
richly-caparisoned steeds, each with a helmet and shield
hung from the saddle-bow. All the cardinals came out
in procession to meet the ambassador, and the Pope
himself sang the mass of thanksgiving.

The Christians might well rejoice, for so important
a battle had not been gained since Navas de Tolosa.
Alfonso was resolved to profit by his success to endea-
vour to cut the Granadine Moors off from reinforce-
ments from Barbary. He summoned the Cortes to ask
for supplies, and their enthusiasm was such that they
granted him a larger amount than he chose to accept,
saying that he only took as much as was required for
his necessities and left the rest for them. The money
was raised by an impost called the alcavala, on every
article of food consumed in the kingdom. His first
attack was on Alcala de Benazyde ; and Gil de Bocca-
negra, brother to the Doge of Genoa, brought a large
lleet to his assistance, and kept watch in the Straits to
hinder succour from being sent from Morocco. Yousuf
attempted to relieve the city, but failed, and It sur-
rendered on honourable terms. Several other successes
were gained, and Yousuf began to sue for peace, but
Alfonso made it a condition that he should again
become a vassal to the crown of Castillc, and renounce
his alliance with the Emir of Morocco ; and to this he
would not consent.

220 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxr.

Aboul Hacem was preparing another armament to
come to his relief, but Gil de Boccanegra totally defeated
^he whole Berber fleet, and destroyed twelve galleys
in his very port All Europe was beginning to take an
interest in the* Moorish war, and as the wars around
the Holy Sepulclire had ceased, many knights satis-
fied their desire for a crusade by coming to the sup-
port of the Spanish Christians. These warriors carried
their swords to the assistance of Alfonso, among them
Henry, called Wr}*neck, Earl of Derby, of the English
blood-royal, and William Montague, Earl of Salisbur>^,
husband of the fair Katharine, the supposed heroine of
the Garter. Froissart mentions the siege of Algesiras,
or, as he terms it, "the strong town of Africa ;" and in
one of his illuminations, omnon are represented as
firing at the walls. They are wonderful things, con-
structed of bars of iron, with a large ball coming out
of each of their mouths in the midst of a great star of
flames.

Alfonso had a great entrenched camp, almost
another city, blockading the place, while the King of
Granada hovered about endeavouring to bring it relief ;
and the emir also was striving to collect forces, but
was hindered by the rebelUon of one of his sons.
Alfonso found his means run short, and sent orders
that all his plate should be melted down and coined.
This so moved his subjects that the large cities at
once subscribed a great sum to prevent it, and he also
received aid in money from the Pope and Philippe VI.
of France ; and Philippe Count of E^Teux, the husband
of Juana II., Queen of Navarre, joined the army with
a body of her subjects.

Chains and booms were thrown across the harbour.

k

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SALADO. 221

but still the place held out The foreigners were
wearied out, and the Genoese threatened to go home
if the siege were not soon ended. At last it was dis-
covered that on dark nights, about once a month, a
clever Moorish seaman was wont to conduct into the
harbour fifty small boats laden with provisions, and
had thus enabled the place to hold out for a whole
year. On this the king closed the harbour more
completely, and the fleets of Aragon and Portugal
came up and cut off all hope of succour by sea. But
the winter rains had brought disease into the be-
sieging camp, and the Counts of Foix and Evreux
both died, so that Alfonso was the more willing to
listen when Yousuf, by order of Aboul Hacem,
offered to yield the place on condition of all the in-
habitants being allowed to march with their property.

A truce for ten years was granted, and Alfonso
returned to Seville in triumph, when the first thing he
did was to send all the ladies of the emir's harem,
whom he had taken at Salado, back to Fez, splendidly
equipped with robes and jewels, an act of courtesy
which Aboul Hacem requited with magnificent gifts.

Yousuf spent the interval of peace in further deco-
rating his beautiful city of Granada, and furthering
all arts and sciences, as well as in arranging the
government on the system which continued to the end
of the Moorish rule in Granada. Mechanics throve
as much as ever, and the great astronomer, Abu
Abdallah Ben Aracam, made curious clocks, and drew
up astronomical tables, while experiments were made
on the polarity of the magnet, and the use of the
mariner's compass established.

Before the truce was over there was a great civil

922 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxu

war in Morocco, between Aboul Hacem and one of his
sons ; and Alfonso XI. thought this the fit opportunity
for making himself master of Gibraltar. It was an
unfortunate moment for assembling an army, for it
was in 1350, the year of the pestilence called the
Black Death, which raged all over Europe. The
young Queen of Aragon died of it, also Joan, daughter
to the English Edward III., on her way to marry
Pedro, the son of Alfonso ; and in Tarragona the
deaths were said to be at the rate of a hundred a day.
When Alfonso had been a whole year engaged in the
blockade, and had almost starved out the garrison, the
deadly scourge, appeared in his camp, and he was
strongly advised to break up his army. " No," he
said ; " Gibraltar had been lost in his nonage, and he
was bound to recover it ; besides, the pestilence could
strike him in the court as well as in the camp."

It did seize him in the camp, and he died on Good
Friday, March 26th, 1350. He had been a gallant
soldier, and his generous enemies put on tokens of
mourning, and abstained from all hostilities while the
mournful plague-struck army broke up and escorted
the corpse of their king to its burial-place at Cordova.
Alfonso el Justiciero, or el Cor/ese, was only thirty-
eight years old, and had been one of the ablest and
most upright, as well as the bravest of Castilian kings,
stained only by one defect — that licence of morals so
frequent in Spain. When a mere lad of seventeen he
had first loved the beautiful Dona Leonor de Guzman,
of the same family as the great Guzman el Bueno.
Though only a year older than himself she was already
a widow ; and though the policy of his grandmother
had decreed that he must marry the Infanta Maria of

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SALADO. 223

Portugal, he never gave her his heart. When for
three years she remained childless, he had almost
made up his mind to plead his kinship -with her
and obtain a divorce, but was dissuaded by Leonor
herself. Even when two sons were at last born to the
queen, the other lady remained far more truly the head
of the court, and the prime source of influence. She
even established a sort of order of merit, marked by a
red ribbon, whence its members were called Caballeros
de la Banda. It was for the promotion of courtesy,
for it seems that the habits of the Castilians were still
rough and rude ; and the ceremonious Arabs declared
that they were brave men, but they had no manners,
and entered each other's houses freely without asking
permission.

In twenty years Leonor had borne ten children ; but
after the battle of Salado, though her charms were
unimpaired, Alfonso was induced to repent, and to
part with her forever. He gave her the strong city of
Medina-Sidonia, and endowed her children richly.
Of the two eldest, one had died, and the other was
imbecile ; but the twins, Enrique and Fadrique, who
were nearly of the same age as his only surviving
legitimate son Pedro, were endowed, as mere boys,
with the county of Trastamara and the Grand- Master-
ship of Santiago, and provision was made for all, so
as much to impoverish the royal patrimony.

Alfonso^s Warden of the Marches deserves men-
tion. He was Don Juan Manuel, the grandson of
St. Fernando, and husband to a daughter of one of the
Infants of La Cerda. Though for twenty years he was
fighting with the Moors, hp was able to find time
to make a considerable collection of stories and

aa4 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxr.

apothegms, which he put together in a book called
" Count Lucanor," in which that nobleman is supposed
to ask advice of his friend Patronio in all emergencies,
and to receive it couched in the truly Eastern form of
proverb or anecdote. Here is a specimen :

Quien te alabare con lo que non has in ti,
Sabe que quiere relever lo que has de ti.

He who praises thee for what thou hast not,
Wishes to take from thee what thou hast.

" There was a Moorish king at Cordova called Al
Hakem, who thought his kingdom prosperous enough,
and cared not to do anything honourable or famous, as
kings ought to do ; for kings are not only bound to
guard their realms, but to do some great deed, for
which they are made famous in their lives and after
their deaths. But this king cared only to eat, drink, and
sport, until one day he heard a man playing an
instrument called albogon, which is much esteemed
by the Moors. The sound was not good, so the king
took the albogon and made another hole in it opposite
to the other, so that the sound came out better. It
was a good invention, but not worthy of a king. The
people commended in scorn, and used to call any
slight improvement ^ Vahedezes Alhakime^ meaning
Al Hakem's invention. The king heard of it, and was
grieved. As he was a good king, he did not punish
those who spoke thus, but he resolved to do something
which should win worthy praise from them. The
Mosque of Cordova was not finished, and he caused it
to be completed ; so that it was the most beautiful and
noble mosque that the Moors had in Spain. Praise

CHAP. XXI.] THE BATTLE OF SALADO. 225

be to God that it is now a church, and called Santa
Maria de Cordova, for it was oflfered by the holy King
Don Fernando to St Mary when he won Cordova
from the Moors. And when this was done, the proverb
was altered ; and when an addition is made which is
better than the thing itself was before, the Moors call
it * Al Hakem's' addition/'

V!

CHAPTER XXII.

«

THE AGE OF TYRANTS.

The unfortunate Peninsula was afflicted in the middle
of the fourteenth century with a combination of the
worst set of kings who ever reigned at one time.

With Pedro el Cerimonioso of Aragon, a fierce but
upright man, this history has little concern, and still less
with Charles the Bad of Navarre, whose wickedness
was chiefly displayed in France. Over the strange wild
romance of liies de Castro, which seared the heart and
crazed the intellect of her husband, Pedro the Severe
of Portugal, we must also pass ; but the stories of
Pedro the Cruel of Castille, and of Ismael of Granada,
must be dwelt upon.

Maria of Portugal had bred up her son in the bitterest
hatred to her rival, and in schemes c{ vengeance to be
carried out as soon as the power should be in his hands.
His father's death, when only thirty-nine, placed him
on the throne at sixteen, and at once the mother and
son took their measures. Leonor was invited to Seville
to attend to the interests of her children. Two noble-
men pledged their honour for her safety ; but she had
scarcely entered Seville before she was made a prisoner,

CIUP. XXII.] THE AGE OF TYRANTa aa/

and her son Enrique received timely notice that he
was to be arrested, and fled into the Asturias.

The unfortunate Leonorwas dragged about after the
court to Burgos, and then sent to Talavera, still called
de la Reyna^ because it was an appanage of the queen-
dowager, by one of whose servants she was strangled.

There Maria would have rested. She had ho ill-will
to the sons of her husband, and she instructed her son
to treat them as brothers ; but she did not know what
a tiger she had nurtured on plans of revenge. He was
£aiir and handsome, and (like Tiberius), had a profusion
of beautiful flaxen hair; but after this taste of blood his
savage cruelty soon became utterly unbridled.

Pedro's first love was his cousin Juana, the daughter of
Don Juan Manuel, the author of "Count Lucanor ;'* but
the maiden, who was good, wise, and fair, already knew
enough of him to fear him, and was besides in love with
his half-brother Enrique, Count of Trastamara. In
secret the young pair were married ; but Juana was
instantly thrown into prison, while her bridegroom
made the best of his way to Portugal.

Most likely the queen-mother and her father were
glad of this marriage, for they made Pedro recall
Enrique, and arranged for him a marriage with
Blanche, daughter of the Duke of Bourbon, and sister to
Jeanne, wife to Charles, the heir of France. But while
Blanche was being fetched from her home by his brother,
the Master of Santia^, Pedro fell in love with a bright-
«yed dark girl, Dona Maria de Padilla, one of the well-
borfl damsels who attended on Doiia Isabel de Albu-
querque. So passionate was his admiration that he
was by some held to be bewitched, and he could hardly
be persuaded to learve her to go to Valladolid, where

Q 2

«28 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxri.

his ill-starred wedding with Blanche took place with
great ponjp. The two other brothers, Enrique and
Tello, walked on either side of the bride's palfrey, and
figured in the ensuing tournament ; but Fadrique was
absent, and it seems that Pedroj being resolved to get
rid of his unhappy wife, had fixed on .him the im-
putation of acting like Sir Tristrem towards Yseulte,
and having gained her affections on the road.

Popularfancy declared that poor Blanche had obtained
from a Jewish sorcerer a belt, which she was told. would
bind the love of the wearer to her, but that this wizard
had been bribed by Maria de Padilla, and as soon as
the king put it on it became a serpent, and that his
hatred to Blanche was thus caused by terror. There
were, however, numerous legends and ballads about the
tragedy of the poor lady's history; and all that is certain
is that a few days after his marriage he rode back to
Montalvao, where Maria was, and left Blanche alone.
Don Alfonso of Albuquerque, who had first made the
lady known to Pedro, tried to take her away; but this
roused the king's savage temper, and a secret warning
from the Padilla herself to her former lord and his
friends just enabled them to escape death by flying
into Portugal.

This seems to have caused a quarrel with her royal
lover, who returned to his wife at Valladolid ; but after
two days quitted her, declaring that nothing should
ever induce him to see her again. He had taken a
fresh passion for Dona Juana de Castro, who was
foolish enough to let the marriage ceremony pass
between them on his oath, before two bishops, that he
had made a secret protest against Blanche, and that
the wedding was therefore invalid. However, he left

CHAP. XXII.] THE AGE OF TYRANTS. . 229

Juana the next day, and never came near her again,
though he gave her the city of Duefias, and let her call
herself Queen for the rest of her life.

He then returned to Maria de Padilla, who seems
to have been nothing but a helpless frightened being,
fluttering in the hands of the savage who had fastened
his brutal affections on her. He afterwards declared he
had married her before his wedding with Blanche ; but
this was probably to legitimatise her children, for no one
could believe his word. Meanwhile, Blanche was sent as
a sort of prisoner to the Alcazar of Toledo ; but on the
way she asked leave of her escort to pay her devotions in
the cathedral, and when there, she claimed the privilege
of sanctuary, and refused to leave it with her guards.

The clergy would not give her up ; the ladies flocked
round her and brought their husbands. The old
mosque with its heavy arches and large columns was a
wonderful scene, as the young French queen, not yet
twenty, stood on a step, telling them of her cruel
wrongs and imploring succour, while ladies wept for
her under their black veils, and men's swords flashed,
and oaths were taken to uphold her cause. She was
taken to the Alcazar in triumph, and there soon
hastened to her Don Alfonso of Albuquerque, and
the twin-brothers ; Fadrique, bringing seven hundred
knights of his order to her aid, and swearing to devote
his sword to her. After rifling the treasury, they all
repaired to Medina del Campo, and sent their terms
to the king — namely, that he should take back his wife
and dismiss Maria de Padilla and her relations. He
made no answer ; but his mother and half the kingdom
joined them, so that he was forced at last to put himself
into their hands.

a30 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxii.

For four years he was kept somewhat as the barons
kept the English Henry III. and his son, and was
never allowed to take the air without a guard of a
thousand men ; but at last, when out hawking, he took
advantage of a heavy fog to elude his guaid and ride
off to Segovia* There he sent to his mother for the
great seal, declaring that if she refused it, he had metal
to cast another. She sent it ; and the nobles being all
scattered to their estates, he was able to deal with
them separately. Terrible executions took placse, and
the whole country was in a state of deadly terror. The
queen-mother, with Enrique and Fadriqiw, tried to
hold out Toro against him, but finding it impossible,
and distrusting the citizens, Enrique retired into
Galicia, and Fadrique threw himself on Pedro's
mercy, coming forth to him with a £ew attendants,
while the citizens delivered up the place, the queen-
dowager taking refuge in tiie Alcazar with Enrique's
wife.

Her son summoned her to come forth, and when
she endeavoured to stipulate for the lives of the gentle-
men who were with her, he replied that come out she
must, and he would do what seemed best to him. She
came down, endeavouring to protect them by walking
between two, leaning on their arms ; but no sooner ^
were they in the court than Pedro made a sign to his
ballestero men, who immediately fell upon them, and
despatched them with their clubs, so that their blood
was spattered on the queen's dress, and she fainted
away. Indeed, one was reported to be her lover ; and
she was held in very low estimation. On her recovery,
she uttered frightful curses against her son, of which
he took no notice, except to order her to be removed.

CHAP, xxn.] THE AGE OF TYRANTS. 231

She soon repaired to Portugal, who-e her life was so
disgraceful that her father, Pedro the Severe, caused
her to be privately pirt to death. Yet Pedro had
spared his brother Fadrique, and another younger one
who was in the city ; bwt every year was adding to his
ferocity, satd his cruelties were terrible.

In Toledo he commanded the massacre of all the
Jews, but finding it dangerous to proceed, stopped it
after one thousand had perished — ordering, however,
the execution of several knights and twenty-two citizens
for having fovoured tike rebdlion. One was an old
goldsmith of eighty. His son of eighteen ofiered to
die in his stead, and was accordingly led out to execu-
tion, amid die tears and sobs of all the people.

The next brother, Don Tello, had married the heiress
of Biscay, and to him the Count of Trastamara had
fled, trusting to the mountains for defence ; but finding
himself in danger there, he escaped to France, where
he served in the army of Du Guesclin • against the
English, until, a war breaking out between Aragon and
Castille, he accepted the invitation of the king of the
former country to join him. He was anxious about
his wife, Dona Juana Manuel, who had been in prison
almost ever since their hasty secret marriage. No one
could tell what Pedro might do if forther provoked ;
and one of his friends, Pedro Carillo, undertook to
bring her to him. Going to the king, he promised to
bring his brother to hkn, dead or alive, if he might
have the command of a troop of horse. With this
troop he entered Toro, and obtaining access to the
imfMrisooed countess, disguised her, and took her safely
with him to her husband in Aragon. The successes of
the Castilians, however* alarmed Enrique into the fear

232 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxii.

that he might be given up on the making of peaCe, and
he fled with his wife to his old friends in France.

On this Pedro grew more violent against his unfor-
tunate family. He invited the Master of Santiago to
keep Easter at Seville with him, and Fadrique arrived
with many of his knights, who kissed the king's hand.
The king received him affectionately, and asked if he
had met with good inns ; to which the Master answered
that he had only come from Cantilena, five leagues off,
and did not know if the inns were good The king
gave orders that his suite and niules should be lodged
in the inns, and that he alone should be in the Alcazar,
and he then went to %isit Dona Maria de Padilla and
her little children. She looked very unhappy, knowing
what was intended, but not daring to warn him. On
going into the court, he found that all the mules had
been sent away, and this alarmed one of the few
knights who were still with him, who advised him to
escape at once by an open gate ; but at that moment
he was told the king was calling him, and entered the
dining-hall, followed by the Master of Calatrava and
four knights. There stood the king with his ballesteros,
or body-guard of club-men, of whom Pedro Lopez de
Padilla, Maria's brother, was the leader.

" Pedro Lopez, take tlie Master."

"Which?" said PadiUa.

'' The Master of Santiago," said the king.

''Be taken," said Padilla, laying his hand on the
Grand-Master.

" Ballesteros, kill the Master !" then cried the tyrant ;
and as they hung back, one of the chamberlains cried
out : " Traitors ! do you not hear? The king bids you
kill the Master."

But as they advanced with their maces, Fadrique

CHAP, xxri.] THE AGE OF TYRANTS. 233

broke from Pedro Lopez, and rushing out into the
court, tried to draw his sword ; but the handle was so
entangled in his tabard that he could not succeed, so
he could only run from one end of the court to another,
trying to escape by the closed doors, till the ballesteros
came up with him, knocked him down with a blow on
the head, and despatched him. His attendants were
also pursued and slain, though one of them ran into
the very apartment of Dona Maria, and catching up
her little daughter Beatriz, held her up before him ;
but the king snatched the child away, and struck him
with a dagger before his ruffians came up.

Other murders ensued, and Pedro then set forth
for Biscay; but Tello, getting timely warning, em-
barked at Bermeo. Pedro, following close upon him,
pursued ; but the sea was rough and the king was
forced to land, while his brother safely reached
Bayonne, and he could only murder the wife, who had
been left behind.

There is a ballad on Fadrique's death, describing
Maria de Padilla as looking on with fiendish delight,
and throwing his head to the dogs ; but this was only
from the spirit of popular execration. The poor woman
was most miserable, and died that very year, 1359, ^^
a broken heart, leaving four young children — a son,
who died shortly after ; Beatriz, who took the veil ;
Constanza, and Maria. It was the very year of poor
Blanche's death, in her prison at Medina-Sidonia,
though whether she died by Pedro's cruelty is un-
certain. A touching ballad, which of course makes
her die by the hand of a ballestero, makes her say :

" The crown they put upon my head was a crown of blood and

sighs.
God grant me soon another crown, more precious, in the skies !"

834 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxir.

Granada was not much better off. Yonsuf had been
m ordered while praying in the mosque, in 1350 ; his
eldest son, Mohammed V., was dethroned by another
brother, Ismael, and escaped with difficulty in the dis-
guise of a slave of the harem. Ismael, in his turn, was
dethroned by Abou Sayd, one of the other raoe— that
of Al Hamar — and murdered with his young brother.

Mahanuned V. had fled to Africa, and dience came ta
implc»« the aid of Castille. Pedro lent him some
troops, but they were so savage that the Moorish
prince, unable to bear the s^ht of the devastation
committed by the Almogavars, dismissed these fero-
cious allies and retired to Ronda, intending to live in
disguise rather than ruin his country. His arrival,
however, had led to a universal revolt against the
tyranny of Abou Sayd. Malaga rose on behalf of
Mohammed, and Abou Sayd, finding himself in danger
of bang desert3ed by everyone, resolved to throw him-
self on the favour of the King of Castille, whom he
hoped to buy over by sfdendid gifts oi high-bred horses,
rich robes, jewels, and gold.

With a splendid train he arrived at Seville, and thus
addressed Pedro : " King of Castille, blood enough
has been shed in the quarrel between the Ben Farady
and the Al Hamar. Judge between us which ought to
be king. If the Ben Farady, let me return safely to
Africa ; if myself, receive my homage and aid me to
obtain my lands."

Pedro received him courteously and entertained him
at a banquet ; but that night he had him arrested,
together with thirty-six noble Moorish cavaliers. They
were placed on asses and driven out to the tablada
meadow, where they were tied to olive-trees. Abou

CHAP. XXII.] THE AGE OF TYRANTS. J135

Sayd himself was paraded half-naked all over the city,
and then taken to the same place, where he beheld
them all murdered by the ballesteros, and finally was
killed himself by the king, uttering these last words
of reproach : "Oh Pedro, Pedro, what a deed for a
knight ! "

Pedro's thirst for blood had become a passion, like
nothing bat &e frenzy of the Caesars at Rome ; and
like them, has cruelty was chiefly directed towards the
nobles, so that he was not hated by the populace, as
might have been expected from his savage nature.

After hearing of the slaughter of his twin-brother,
Enrique of Trastamara resolved no longer to leave the
tyrant unmolested on his throne. It was a favourable
moment, for the peace of Breteuil had lately been
made with England, and thousands of free companions
were roaming over France, the pest of the miserable
country. The great Breton knight, Bertrand du
Guesclin, offered King Charles V. to rehe^'e the
kingdom of them, by leading them to avenge the
misery of the queen's sister, and to set Don Enrique
on the throne of Castille.

Froissart has told the story of their march. The
first tidings brought Pedro's savage cruelty on the only
two ctf his brothers still within his reach — boys of
fourteen and ten. These he murdered ; and then,
before a Cortes at Seville, declared that he had been
married to Maria de Padilla, and caused her boy
Alfonso to be declared heir to the throne ; but the
child died soon after, and Pedro found his nobles
falling fast away from him.

They, with the knights of Aragon, had repaired to
Calahorra, where Enrique of Trastamara, arriving with

236 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxii.

Sir Bertrand du Guesclin and the English Sir Hugh
Calverley, and all their free companions, was pro-
claimed king, second of his name, in 1366. He
marched towards Burgos, and Pedro fled to the
south, whence he made his way with his daughters
through Portugal to Galicia. At Compostella, the
archbishop kindly received the fugitives; but partly
because he rebuked the crimes that had caused their
misfortunes, ^d partly because of his riches, Pedro
had both him and the dean murdered, and then made
his way to Bordeaux.

When apart from his own kingdom, where he could
not employ his ballesteros in slaughter, Pedro could
comport himself like a knight and a king, and he
warmly interested the Black Prince in his cause. To
Edward his was the cause of legitimacy against ille-
gitimacy, and of the ally of England against the
protdgd of France ; and Pedro had moreover brought
a great amount of treasure, the prey not only from
Compostella, but from many a murdered and rifled
Jew, especially an unhappy old merchant of Toledo,
one Samuel Levi, whom he had tortured to death.
Nor indeed had he been a bad king as far as the
citizen and artisan class were concerned ; he had done
them even-handed justice, and improved their condi-
tion, and it was only the Jews and nobles, and his own
kindred who had suffered from his savage violence,
which had almost the character of a monomania. His
servants were attached to him ; and there was much
about him to lead Edward to regard him rather as the
victim of plot and calumny, than as a wild beast
deserving to be hunted down.

To tell the story which has been minutely and per-

CHAP. XXII.] THE AGE OF TYRANTS. 237

fectly told by Froissart would be vain ; so it will be
enough to follow King Enrique, instead of tracking the
steps of the Prince of Wales across the Pyrenees.
Enrique had been crowned at Las Huelgas, and had
rewarded his allies by giving Du Guesclin his own
county of Trastamara, and bestowing on Sir Hugh
Calverley the old title, dear to romance, of Count of
Carrion ; but no sooner did Sir Hugh and all his free
lances hear that their favourite leader, the Black Prince
of Wales, was going to take the field against him, than
they immediately set off to join in the invasion.
Bertrand du Guesclin — or, as the Spaniards called him,
Mosen Beltran Claquin — however, stayed by Enrique,
and tried to persuade him to follow the tactics of
Charles V., and let the climate reduce the strength
of the English before giving them battle. Enrique,
however, was afraid of the desertion of his troops,
and decided on giving battle between Najara and
Navaretta, where, chiefly through Tello's impetuosity,
his army was immediately broken, and he himself
obliged to fly — first into Aragon and then into France
— while Du Guesclin and many other persons of high
rank were made prisoners.

Pedro began to butcher his captives till prevented
by Edward, and then left his allies to waste away in
their unwholesome camp, without paying them the
sums he had promised, till they returned in despair,
the Prince bearing with him the seeds of his lingering
but fatal malady. Still, with a view to future claims, his
two brothers, John of Gaunt and Edmund of Langley,
married Pedro's two younger daughters, who both
appear to have been ^ood and gentle women, es-
pecially the Duchess of Lancaster. The eldest girl,

338 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxn.

Beatriz, had been left in Portugal, where she became
a nun.

Enrique had by no means resigned his hopes. He
made his way to Avignon, where the schismatical Pope
did all that in him lay to remove the stakt of his
birth, and he obtained promises of aid from France
and Navarre. He is even said to have gone to
Bordeaux in disguise, and to have had an interview
with Du Guesclin, whose ransom he partly paid with
some of the money granted him by the French king.
Meanwhile Pedro was proceeding in his old course —
destroying all whom he viewed as partisans of his
brother, of however high rank or influence they might
be, and even killing a noble lady because he could not
seize her son. All this was but preparing the way for
Enrique, who had assembled an army, chiefly of free
companions, in the south of France, and entered Spain
through Aragon. There, in order to be safe with both
parties, the king sent to deny him a passage, but not
till he was nearly beyond the domains of Aragon. No
sooner had he crossed the Ebro, and found himself
once more in Castille, than he fell on his knees and
gave thanks for his return. The nobles flocked to his
standard, Burgos opened her gates to him, and he was
welcomed with delight throughout the north.

The south, however, held out for Pedro, and his
vassal Mohammed V. came to join the Castilian army,
and made ample reprisals for what had been done by
the Spaniards in his cause by destroying Jaen and
Ubeda. Disgust at his proceedings s«it furdaer sup-
porters to Enrique, who laid siege to Tdedo, where
Pedro had a strong garrison. Marching from Seville to
ireUeve them, the king still expected safety, for a sooth-

CHAP. XXII,] THE AGE OF TYRANT3. 239

sayer had told him that it would be from the tower of
Estrella that he would go forth to die, and he knew of
no such tower. The brothers and their armies met at
Montiel, and as Du Guesclin was always victorious
whenever he was not opposed to the English, Pedro
was routed and forced to shut himsdf up in the castle
of Montiel, which was closely besieged by the whole of
his brother's army.

Seeing that his fall was only a question of time,
Pedro caused one of his knights. Men Rodriguez de
Sanabria to call to Du Guesclin over the walls and
offer him five cities and a huge sum of money if he
would enable the king to escape. Du Guesclin's
answer was : " I am the vassal of France ; I have
been sent to uphold King Enrique, and as a knight
will I do so in a knightly manner."

But after making this public refusal, either he
treacherously listened to these proposals and warned
his king, or — what, considering the honourable cha-
racters of both himself and Enrique, is more likely —
Pedro expected more mercy from him than from any
Spaniard ; for at night, when the castle was reduced
to extremity for want of water, the unhappy king came
forth with three attendants, and rode towards the tent
marked by the Du Guesclin eagle. It is said that as
he left the castle he looked up, and read over the
gateway, " El Torre de Estrella."

He dismounted and entered the tent, and while
Bertrand delayed him, Enrique entered in full armour.
Someone called out : "Your enemy is here !"

"I am he! I am he!" shouted Pedro in a rage,
and sprang forward^ Enrique throwing a dagger in his
face. They grappled together, and fell rolling on the

240 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxit.

floor, Pedro uppermost, and Enrique was on the point
of perishing when a man named Roccaberti stabbed
Pedro in the back, at the moment when Du Guesdin's
nervous arms were dragging him back ; and the half-
strangled Enrique rose dizzy from the ground to find
the blood of his mother and his three brethren avenged,
and Pedro a corpse.

The unhappy king, whose savage passions had
ruined fair abilities and high courage, was only thirty-
five years of age when he thus perished, in the year
1362, caught like a wild beast in a trap.

UnlTMrsityorj

CHAPTER XXII I.

THE LAST BRIGHT DAYS OF GRANADA.

Mohammed V. was a prosperous king. While affairs
were still unsettled in Castille he seized Algesiras, and
knowing he should not be able to keep it, destroyed its
fortifications before he concluded with Enrique II. a
truce which lasted for twenty years.

This period was the most prosperous of the Grana-
dine kingdom, when, small as it was, it almost recalled
the splendours of Cordova. Almeria was no longer a
nest of pirates, but a great port of merchandise brought
from Italy, Syria, Egypt,'and Morocco. The Genoese
themselves had a counting-house at Granada. Chivalry
had always been congenial to the Arabs, and there
was an interchange of friendly rivalries between them
and the Christians, which led to romantic challenges
and adventures, and polished the manners of the
Spaniards ; while both sides adopted a high code of
mutual truth, honour, and courtesy. The Abencerrages
and Zegris, and their kindred tribes, had warriors who
were regarded as knights as much as if they had gone
through all the ceremony of the vigil, the accolade,
and the spurs, and who were the originals of the
Rodomontes, and other gallant Saracen knights of
Boiardo — nay, and of Othello himself. The Arab love

R

242 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxrir.

of story-telling was fully developed in the numerous
romances and poems which the Christians learnt from
them ; and many a ballad sung of the perilous love-
stories of Christian and Moor, ending in the abduction
of the lady by the side of her lover, or mayhap in his
slaughter and her death.

When Aben Abd Allah Yousuf, the son of
Mohammed V., married the daughter of the Emir of
Fez, a succession of feasts and tournaments were
given, to which knights came, not only from Christian
Spain, but from France and Italy; and they were
lodged by the Genoese in their factory.

Enrique of Trastamara was a thoroughly gallant
and noble prince, and was commcmly called by his
people. El Caballero, or the knight It was under
him that the Spanish character began to assume that
grave stately courtesy, and punctilious honour that
ennobled it He died of gout in his forty-seventh
year, in 1379 $ and there were not wanting accusers
who declared that he had been poisoned by a pair of
embroidered buskins^ sent to him by Mohammed, but
no one credited the absurd story ; and Juan I. lived in
the same amity with this prince. Thit illegitimate
birth of Enrique II. had caused his ftunily to be so
insecure on the throne, that they were continually on
their guard against pretenders, and could not afford
to quarrel with their Moorish vassals. The profound
peace led to increased luxury at Granada^ and a kind
of mixttire of the gallantry of the Arabispi Nights and
of the chivalrous romance of the Christians had even
invaded the harem ; and men, instead of in the
Eastern fashion, holding woman as a being not to be
mentionedi wore the devices of their lady-loves on the

en. xxni.] LAST BRIGHT DAYS OF GRANADA. 243

rich housings of their steeds — such as hearts pierced
with arrows, a sail guiding a ship, an initial, and in
colours, denoting their state of mind : yellow and black
for grief, green for hope, blue for jealousy, violet and
flame for ardent love. Large assemblies were held in
the lovely houses and gardens, where hunting, poetry,
music, and dancing were the occupations ; but the
grave learning and earnestness of Al Hakem's days
had passed away, and the enjoyments had become fax
more sensual and voluptuous than in his time.

There prevailed all the vices of high civilisation and
luxury closely packed The high-born sons of the old
Arab and Berber tribes did indeed preserve their per-
sonal courage, but the implicit obedience to the head of
their Faith had been lost in revolutions. The treachery
of the Berber had overcome the simplicity of the Arab,
and the Moorish nobles were vain, unstable, and insub-
ordinate ; while the mass of the nation had the ordinary
defects of manufacturing peoples, and were at once
clamorous, vicious, and weak ; their weahhy merchants
indolent, the woikpeople tumultuous and violent. The
law devised by the rude Koreishite prophet had no
elasticity to make it palatable to a state of advanced
culture. It could not be a ** living oracle,** and there
was no revivifying power within the body of Islam.

Mohammed would hardly have owned the graceful,
luxurious pleasure-lovers of Granada, for the stern,
hardy children of Islam ; and Omar would have de-
clared they were taking their paradise beforehand.
The Koran was explained away into mysticism, and
toleration was carried to the fullest extent of liberality.
It is likely that the Spanish captive women in the
harems had much leavened the character and feelings

R 2

244 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [cHAP. xxiri.

of these Moors, and made some Christian realities
esteemed.

Juan I. was a good and brave man, but died in
1390 from a fall from his horse, when he was galloping
over some ploughed fields with some horsemen
newly returned from learning Berber fashions of
fighting. His son, Enrique III., el Enfermo, or the
sickly, came to the throne in the same year with
Mohammed's son Aben Abd Allah Yousuf. Soon after
the peace was interrupted in a curious manner. The
Portuguese were at that time in a ver}' fierce and
eager state of religious zeal, and among them a hermit
arose named Joao Sago, who went to the Grand
Master of Alcantara, Don Martin Yanez de Barbuda,
and assured him that he had had a revelation that, if
he would attack the Moors merely in the name of the
1 Gospel, not with any views to worldly advantage, he
would drive them out of Spain without losing a
man.

Don Martin believed him, and sent two squires to
defy the King of Granada, and challenge him to a
combat wherein one hundred Christian knights should
maintain the cause of the Gospel against two hundred
Moslems in defence of the Koran. The whole nation
of the vanquished was then to embrace the religion of
the victor.

The squires stood before Yousuf and gave this
wonderful message. The age of ready faith was over
with the luxurious Granadines ; they treated the
message with contempt, and Yousuf could hardly
prevent them from offering violence to the squires.
Don Martin, who was quite in earnest, set forth with
his own knights and all he could collect in Castille, in

cii. XXIII.] LAST BRIGHT DAYS OF GRANADA. 245

spite of the opposition of King Enrique, who tried to
prevent the truce from being broken. With about
three hundred horse and a rabble of Almogarves and
peasants, he entered the Granadine kingdom, and
attacked the first fort he came to. He was beaten off
with the loss of three men, and with a slight wound in
his own hand. He called for the hermit and asked
how this was, if the victory was to be a bloodless one.

The hermit said his promise did not relate to little
castles, but to the great battle. Accordingly Barbuda
and his troop hopefully awaited the army of five thou-
sand Moors who attacked him. Not one of his knights
survived to tell the tale, but, to the admiration of the
* Moors, everyone of them fell where he had stood ; not
a single wound was in the back.

Viewing the expedition as mere frenzy, Yousuf did
not consider the peace to have been broken, and
allowed the bodies to be carried honourably home.
On tRe Grand-Master's tomb was the inscription :

** Hie situs est Martinus Yanius, in omni periculo
experti, timoris animo."

It is said that the Emperor Charles V. on seeing the
tomb and hearing the story said : " I wonder whether
he would have snuffed out a lighted torch with his
fingers !"

It was a time of great progress in literature in Spain,
likewise partly caught from the Moors, partly from the
Italian revival. The ballads of the Cid took their pre-
sent form in this age, and hosts of songs were current,
in a language whose sweet stately flow made the mere
repetition of the words musical, as in the song called

Fonte frida, fonte frida,
Fonte frida, y con amon

34^ THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxiii.

Magically sweet in sound, though most foolish, since
it purports to be the love-song of a dove to a nightin-
gale ! Hundreds of romantic ballads were current,
such as the famous cycle about the knight Don-
Gayferos carrying off his Moorish love, the fair
Mcdisendra ; or the savage one of Count Alaicos, who
is required by the king to kill his wife, because he had
deserted die Infanta to marry her.

Long romances in prose also began to be written,
^Amadis de Gaul" being the chief and first, the book
of all others which set the fashion in Europe of the
long tales of adventures of knights-errant. And more
serious writings also were made. Don Juan Ayala,
who was present at the battle of Najaia, and made
prisoner by the English, wrote a spirited chronicle of
the times, translated Livy into Spanish, and wrote a
long rhymed satire on the corruptions of the Church
and State. Treatises on government, science, and
politics were produced or translated from the Arabic ;
and, while the Moors stood still, the Christians had
entered on the march of improvement
/ Yousuf died in 1 396, as his people believed, of poison
' conveyed in a mantle sent him from the King of Fez,
which ate into his flesh and separated it from his
bones, so that he died in great torment

His eldest son, Yousuf, was set aside by his brother
Mohammed VI., and shut up in the castle of Schal-
obanyah, where he remained for the ten years of his
brother's reign. In 1408, when Mohammed found
himself fatally ill, he intended to secure the throne
to his children, and sent the following letter to the
Alcayde of Schalobanyah :
" My servant, so soon as thou reccivest this letter.

cii. XXIII.] LAST BRIGHT DAYS OF GRANADA. 847

thou shalt take the life of my brother, Syd Yousuf^ and
send me his head by the bearer."

The letter was given to the Alcayde while he was
playing at chess with the prince.

"What ails thee?" said Yousuf. "Does the king
want my head ? "

The Alcayde handed him the letter. " Only let us
finish our game," said Yousuf ; " I am losing."

The Alcayde was bewildered and made false moves.
The prince was coolly setting them right when two
knights came galloping from Granada with tidings that
Mohammed was dead and he was king ; and a wise
and prudent king he made.

Enrique the Sickly was likewise an able prince, and,
among the remarkable events of his reign, was the
interchange of civilities between him and Tamerlane,
whom he admired as the conqueror of Bajaiet The
Tartar made him the welcome present of two Hungarian
maidens of noble birth, who had been found captives
in the camp of Bajazet, and whom, no doubt, he sup-
posed the Spanish king would welcome to his harem.
Their Giristian names were Maria and Angelina, but
the Spaniards understood no more, nor did they
attempt to send them to their remote home, but gave
them in marriage to Castilian nobles. Enrique's own
wife was Dona Catalina, or as we know her, Catherine
of Lancaster, daughter to Pedro the CruePs daughter
Constanza, wife to John of Gaunt, and thus direct
legitimate heiress. She was a good-natured, fat,
foolish woman, not thought of highly by her husband,
but a great favourite with the people.

Enrique III. died in 1406, leaving his young son
Juan II., not quite two years old, under the care of his

Z48 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxin,

brother, the Infant Don Fernando. A dispute about
the tribute led to a short war in which he took the city
of Antequera. He was soon after called to the throne
of Aragon, where- King Martin died in 1414 without
children, leaving his kingdom to the second son of his
sister Leonor, since the jealousies between the rival
kingdoms still ran too high for their union under the
direct heir^ the little Juan.

Queen Catalina became regent^ and she continued
in such close alliance with Yousuf that she constantly
wrote for his advice in affairs of state, and the gentle-
men, both of Castille and Aragon, continually came to
adjust their quarrels on Moorish ground, either in the
lists or by his wise arbitration. Catalina's sister,
.Philippa of Lancaster, was the noble wife of King
Joao I. of Portugal, the first of the gallant house of
Avis ; and it was in 141 5 that the Portuguese actually
carried the war into Africa itself, and gained the city
of Ceuta. But of their conquests and discoveries this
history must not treat, and we return to the Spanish
I Moors, whose fall began to be prepared from the
death of Yousuf III. in 1425, being in truth only
J delayed by the want of vigour in Castille, where
Juan II. grew up a gentle, poetical, indolent prince,
leaving his affairs to that splendid knight, Don Alvaro
de Luna, to whom he gave the French title of Constable,
or commander of the army.

Mohammed X., called Al Hayzari, or the Left-handed,
made himself much disliked. He was meek and
humble with the Christians and Africans, whom he
dreaded, but rude and arrogant towards the Granadine
Moors. He denied them audience for months, and
angered them above all by refusing permission for

CH. xxiii.] LAST BRIGHT DAYS OF GRANADA. 249

those combats in the lists which they enjoyed above
measure^ and where his wiser forefathers had allowed
the rivalry of the thirty-two tribes harmlessly to expend
itself.

An uproar arose. Al Hayzari escaped in the disguise
of a fisherman^ and his cousin Mohammed XI.^AlZaquia^
or the younger, became king ; but he persecuted the
Abencerrages as having been favourable to his pre-
decessor, and they, taking refuge at the court of
Castille, persuaded Juan II. to embrace the cause of
.Al Hayzari. He had likewise won the favour of the
King of Tunis, and the Alhimra was besieged by
both Spaniards and Africans, till the usurper was
delivered up by his own soldiers, and put to death by
"his rival in 1429.

The restored Al Hayzari profited by the weakness of
the King of Castille to refuse his tribute, and a fresh
war began, in the midst of which Yousuf, one of the
Al Hamar, grandson to him whom Pedro the Cruel had
assassinated at Seville, offered through a Mozarabic
knight to restore Granada to its allegiance if he would
espouse his cause. Juan consented ; the Zegris,* the
chief tribe opposed to the Abencerrages, took his part,
and defeated his enemies in a great battle, putting his
rival to flight. He undertook to send Juan fifteen
hundred horse to assist in all his wars, and to appear
as a crown vassal at the Cortes of Castille whenever jt
sat south of Toledo.

Alvaro de Luna commanded the Castilian army, and
defeated Mohammed the Left-handed at Caveca de los
Guinetes, further making prisoner a large division of
the army who were encamped on the top of a mountain.
The army was in view of Granada, and a spirited

250 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxiii.

ballad give« this dialogue between the king and a
prisoner.

Aben Amar, Aben Amar,
Mero de Moreria —

ivhich we can only render —

Aben Amar, Aben Amar,

Of Moordom mighty Moor,
They say upon thy natal day

Of omens there was store.

The sea was lying in a calm,

And wax'd the moon on high.
The Moor who with such signs was born

Must never tell a lie.

Then made reply that gallant Moor

(His answer thou shalt know) :
*' Nor would I tell thee one, my lord,

Though I my life forego.

I am the son of Moorish sire

And captive Christian maid,
And when I was an infant boy

'Twas thus my mother said :

No falsehood ever should I speak

Great villainy 'twould be ;
Whate'er thou askest, senor king.

The truth I'll tell to thee."

** Well likes me, Aben Amar,

This courtesy of thine :
Tell me, I pray, what castles fair

On yonder mountains shine."

" 'Tis the Alh&mra, seiior,

The Mosque you next behold ;
The third's the Alijovous,

Of wondrous work untold.

CH. XXIII.] LAST BRIGHT DAYS OF GRANADA. 251

They paid the Moor who built it

A hundred crowns a day ;
The day he did not labour,

The like he had to pay.

There spreads the Generalife,

Garden unmatched on earth ;
There are the Crimson Towers,

Fortress of mighty worth."

Tlien spoke out King Don Juan

Of Leon and Castille :
'* ril wed thee, fair Granada,

Thy dower shall be Seville ! "

*' I thank tliee. King, I'm wedded,

I am no widow lone ;
The Moor who is my husband,

^He loves my every stone."

It is rather disappointing that Aben Amar's truth
was put to so very slight a test ; but the secret of some
of the nobleness of the Moorish knight is here
betrayed by the mention of the Christian mother
teaching her child that falsehood was " great villainy."

It was really deliberated in the council whether to
lay siege to the city, but the nobles would not consent.
They bitterly hated the Constable, as royal favourites
were always hated in the Middle Ages, and did not
choose that he should have the glory of driving the
Moors out of Spain, so they would only consent to
devastate the country ; yet no sooner was the army
on its way back to Cordova, than a report was spread
Chat the Constable had been bought over by a bribe
sent in a basket of figs. Yousuf, however, obtained

252 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxiir.

• the crown, but died at the end of the first half-year, in
I45f , and Al Hayzari once more regained the throne.

' There was a truce of two years between the two
kings ; but at the same time there was a continual
border war, carried on by the Algarades on either side^
and consisting in forays and the surprise of fortresses.
The Christians gained Huesca, but the Grand Master
of Alcantara was made prisoner by the vizier in an
ambuscade in 1438. Granada and Castille were alike

f rent by discords : the one by the struggles of the Ben

\ Zeregh, or Abencerrages, and the Zegris, who brought
about a revolution and counter-revolution about once
in two years ; the other by the revolts of the nobles
against Alvar de Luna, headed by Don Enrique, the
king's eldest son, the first heir-apparent to bear the title
of Prince of the Asturias. In 1453 they succeeded in
the overthrow of that brave and able man, and the poor
craven helpless king could not save him from being
beheaded by his jealous and factious people ; exactly
as, at that very time, old Douglas Bell the Cat was
hanging Cochrane for being too faithful a minister to
the feeble James III. of Scotland. The unfortunate
Juan II. did not survive his faithful friend a fliU year ;
and in 1454 was succeeded by Enrique IV., one of the
weakest and most helpless of men.

In the meantime the unfortunate old left-handed
Mohammed could not restrain the contentions of his
nephews ; and while one Aben Ismael retreated into

I Castille with a great number of Abencerrages knights,
the other, Aben Osmin, overcame his uncle, who was
dethroned for the fourth and last time. Osmin's rule,
however, was distasteful, and Ismael was invited back
in 1454. Osmin escaped to the mountains, and Ismael

CH. XXIII.] LAST BRIGHT DAYS OB' GRANADA. 253

began his reign with higher hopes, because the tidings
had arrived of the conquest of Constantinople by the
Turks. Believing that this was an omen of success
to Islam, Ismael refused to renew the truce with
Enrique IV., and there was a renewal of the terrible
warfare. The Spanish borderers were continually
bursting on the Vega and carrying off the rich plunder
from the beauteous country houses, burning the vines,
driving off the flocks, and lighting fires, which the
king could only behold from the terraces of the Al-
hamra without bringing any aid. Enrique himself
commanded one inroad, and put to the sword all the
people of Mena, after which there was a truce, in the
midst of which Aboul Hacem, a son of the king, with
two thousand five hundred horse and ten thousand
foot, made an inroad on the city of Estepa, and was
returning with a great booty, when the eldest son of
the Count of Arcos, Don Rodrigo Ponce de Leon,
vowed to intercept him ; and collecting one hundred
retainers of his own family, rode towards the enemy,
gathering up brave men as he went till his force
amounted to two hundred and sixty horse and six
hundred foot. With these he attacked the Moors near
Peiiarubia, and after a sharp fight put them to flight,
as they evidently thought that this was but the van-
guard of an army. Don Rodrigo had lost only one
hundred and eighty men and they fourteen hundred ;
but the next morning the victors were alarmed by
huge columns of dust, which they thought the heralds
of their returning enemies. Happily before they had
charged the foe, they found the dust was caused by
the flocks of cattle and sheep making their way, as
best they might, back to their pastures.

254 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxiii.

That same year the Duke of Medina-Sidonia be-
sieged Gibraltar, and one of the commanders betrayed
it to him, so much to Enrique^s delight that he added
King of Gibraltar to his titles, while Ismael, becoming
convinced that the prosperity of Mahommedanism in
the East did not affect Spain, sued for peace. The
two kings met on the Vega, spent some days in feasts,
and concluded a treaty which was signed in 1465, and
was observed even after the death of Ismael. The
Moorish and Castilian knights entered each other's
cities freely; several Castilian gentlemen lived at
Granada ; and one, Diego de Cordova, became for
some years the king's counsellor.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS.

Enrique IV. was one of those wretched princes whose
misrule is only endured in hopes of its ending at their
death. He was little better than an idiot, and his wife,
Juana of Portugal, lived so as to be a public scandal ;
but as long as they were childless, public hope fixed
itself on the king's younger brother, the Infant Don
Alfonso, a promising high-spirited boy, bom of the
second wife of Juan II.

But when after eight y'ears the queen gave birth to a
daughter, Juana, whom the people were required to
acknowledged as heiress, they could not endure the
prospect of her reign, or of her mother's regency ; they
utterly denied her to be the king's child, called her
La Beltaneja, after her supposed father, the unworthy
favourite, Don Beltran de la Cueva, and at Avila,
raised young Alfonso on thetr shoulders, proclaiming
him king. He died, however, in 1464, in the midst of
the war with his brother ; and the insurgents then
turned to his sister Isabel, a noble, wise, and devout
maiden of sixteen, whom they would fain have pro-
claimed as ^eh* queen. She refused, however, to
accept the crown while her brother lived; but she
claimed to be acknowledged as heiress by the title of

2S6 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxiv.

Princess of the Asturias; and to this Enrique was
forced by dire necessity to consent

Many princes sought her hand, but she had made
up her mind to bring together the two chief peninsular
kingdoms by wedding no one save Fernando, the heir
of Aragon. Fernando was the second son of Juan IT.
of Aragon, and had only become the heir through the
crime of his mother, Juana Henriquez, and of the cruel
step-mother who had most conduced to bring the
term into disrepute.

Juan's first wife had been Blanca, queen in her own
right of Navarre, who had died early, leaving three
children, Carlos, Blanca, and Leonor. Carlos, though
de jure king of Navarre, is always known as Prince of
Viana, /V. B^am, as his father refused to give up the
crown matrimonial to him. He was slandered, perse-
cuted, and goaded into rebellion, overpowered, im-
prisoned, and though released, he died shortly after,
with strong suspicions of foul play. His sister Blanca,
after a no. less miserable history, perished in the hands
of her brother-in-law, the Count of Foix, to whose
family the kingdom of Navarre passed ; but Fernando
was acknowledged heir of Aragon.

It had been at one time proposed that Carlos should
marry the Infanta Isabel, and the plan held good for
his young brother, and though Enrique did all in his
power to prevent it, Isabel was resolute, and Fernando
set forth from Aragon in disguise, and arrived in the
middle of the night at Valladolid, where Isabel was
residing under the guardianship of the Archbishop of
Toledo. He was seventeen and she eighteen, when J

the prelate led him into the Infanta's presence, and \

Don Guherre de Cardenas exclaimed ^^Ese es^ ("This is

ft

I

cn. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 257

he,") in memory of which the Cardenas shield was
enriched by the letters SS. The young pair were fair
with the old Gothic complexion of Spanish royalty —
Isabel small, slight, but queenly, and Fernando tall
and manly. How much superior to him she was, was
never known till her death. They were married in
the presence of Isabel's little court at Valladolid, in
1467. Four years later, Enrique IV. died in 1471,
and after a brief struggle the partisans of Juana were
forced to consign her to a convent. Juan II. lived till
1479 ; but on his death Castille and Aragon became
united under Fernando and Isabel — los Reyes, as
their subjects called them, ios Reyes Catolicos as
subsequent history named them, for the sake of Isabel's
deep devotion to the cause of religion. She was one
of those high-minded women who have the power of
inspiring men with their own lofty ardour and enthu-
siasm.

The days of the Moorish kingdom were already
numbered when, in 1466, Aboul Hacem succeeded
Ismael ; but the disturbances in Castille emboldened
him, and when, in 1476, the regular demand for tribute
was made, he answered : " Those who coined gold for
you are dead. Nothing is made at Granada for the
Christians but sword-blades and lance-points."

Such was the last proclamation of war from the
Moors. Even the Imaums disapproved and preached
in the mosques of Granada, "Woe to the Moslems in
Andalusia 1 '' " The end is come," they said ; " the
ruins will fall on our heads!" Nevertheless, Aboul
Hacem surprised the Aragonese city of Zahara with
sixty thousand inhabitants, and put them all to the
sword or sold them into slavery; but he was not

S

258 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxiv.

welcomed, evil was predicted, and he became more and
more hated when he put four of the Abencerrages to
death.

The king and queen now began to prepare the
whole strength of their kingdom for a final effort, not
to be relaxed till Spain should be wholly a Christian
land. Meantime the Adalides kept up an outpost
war, fuU of wondrous adventures. Don Rodrigo Ponce
de Leon, who had become Marquis of Cadiz, made a
sudden night attack upon Alhima, only eight leagues
from Granada, and though the inhabitants fought from
street to street he mastered it He little knew that he
had missed a troop of six hundred Moorish lances, who
were besieging his wife in his own castle of Arcos, and
would have taken her, if the Duke of Medina-Sidonia
had not hurried to the rescue. There had long been
a feud between the houses of Ponce de Leon and
Guzman, which Queen Isabel had in vain attempted
to end, until this gallant action made them friends for
life.

Alhima was a terrible loss to the Moors ; and was
bewailed in the ballad, ''Ay de me Al Hima," which so
moved the hearts of the people that it was forbidden
to be sung in the streets of Granada. It has been
translated by Byron, who has in fact united two ballads,
one with the refrain ^Ay de me, Alhama," in the
original.

The Moorish King rides up and down
Through Granada's royal town ;
From Elvira's gates to those
Of Viyarambla on he goes.

Woe is me, AThama !

CH. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 259

Letters to the monarch tell
How Alhama's city fell :
In the fire the scroll he threw,
And the messenger he slew.

Woe is me, Alhama !

He quits his mule and mounts his horse,
And through the street directs his course :
Through the street of Zacatin,
To the Alhambra spurring in.

Woe is me, Alhama !

When the Alhambra walls he gained,
On the moment he ordain'd
That the trumpet straight should sound
With the silver clarion round.

Woe is me, Alhama I

And when the hollow drums of war
Beat the loud alarm afar,
That the Moors of town and plain
Might answer to the martial strain.

Woe is me, Alhama !

Then the Moors, by this aware.
That bloody Mars recall'd them there ;
One by one, and two by two.
To a mighty squadron grew.

Woe is me, Alhama !

Out then spake an aged Moor
In these words the king before :
"Wherefore call on us, O King?
What may mean this gathering ? "

Woe is me, Alhama I

" Friends, ye have alas to know
Of a most disastrous blow ;
That the Christians, stern and bold,
Haye obtained Alhama's hold."

Woe is me, Alhama !

S 2

a6o THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAP. xxiv.

Out then spake old Alfaqui,
With his beard so white to see :
•' Good King 1 thou art justly served,
Good King I this hast thou deserved.

Woe is me, AUiama I

By thee were slain, in evil hour.
The Abenearrage, Granada's flower ;
And strangers were received by thee.
Of Cordova the Chivalry.

Woe is me, Alhama 1

And for this, O King ! is sent
On thee a double chastisement :
Thee and thine, thy crown and realm,
One last wreck shall overwhelm.

Woe is me, Alhama 1

He who holds no laws in sp/fe.
He must perish by the law ;
And Granada must be won.
And thyself with her undone,"

Woe is me, Alhama t

Fire flashed from out the old Moor's eyes ;
The Monarch's wrath began to rise
Because he answered, and because
He spake exceeding well of laws.

Woe is me, Alhama I

** There is no law to say such things
As may disgust the ear of kings : "
Thus, snorting with his choler, said
The Moorish King, and doom'd him dead.

Woe is me, Alhama I

Moor Alcayde, Moor Alcayde,*
Though thy beard so hoary be,

♦ On the authority of the ballad in Perez de Hyta, I have
ventured to alter Alfaqui into Alcayde, as the person who was

CH. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 261

The King hath sent to have thee seized.
For Alhama's loss displeased.

Woe 'is me, Alhama

And to fix thy head upon
High Alhambra's loftiest stone,
That this for thee should be the law,
And others tremble when they saw.

Woe is me, Alhama I

Cavalier and man of worth !
Let these words of mine go forth I
Let the Moorish monarch know.
That to him I nothing owe.

Woe is me, Alhama J

But on my soul Alhama weighs,
And on my inmost spirit preys ;
And if the King his land hath lost.
Yet others may have lost the most.

Woe is me, Alhama 1

Sires have lost their children, wives
Their lords, and valiant men their lives ;
One, what best his love might claim,
Hath lost, another wealth or fame.

Woe is me, Alhama !

put to death was the Alcayde, or governor, who lost the town,
not the Alfaqui, or priest, who blamed the king, and at whom
the king snorted, without doing anything worse :

Eso dice el Key Moro
Relinchando de colera.

The Alcayde in Perez de Hyta's version pleads that the king
had given him licence to go to his sister's wedding, and further
tells how, when he sent to ransom his daughter, he was told that
she was a Christian — Dofia Maria de Alhama.

a6a THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxm

I lost a damsel in that hour»
Of all the land the loveliest flower ;
Doubloons a hundred I would pay
And think her ransom cheap that day.

Woe is me, Alhama !

And as these things the Alcayde said.
They severed from the trunk his head.
And to the Alhamhra's wall with speed
'Twas carried, as the King decreed.

Woe is me, Alhama !

And man and infants therein weep
Their loss, so heavy and so deep ;
Granada's ladies, all she rears
. Within her walls burst into tears.

Woe is me, Alhama !

And from the windo\vs o'er the walls
The sable web of mourning falls ;
The King weeps as a woman o'er
His loss, for it is much and sore.

Woe is me, Alhama !

Alhama had once before been taken by St. Fernando,
but could not then be kept, and a council was held
by the Reyes Catolicos, in which it was declared that
it would take five thousand mules' burthen of pro-
visions, sent several times a year, to support a garrison
thus in the heart of the enemy's country. The high
spirit of the queen, however, carried the day. She
declared that the right thing to do was to take Loja to
support Alhdma, and, after causing the three chief
mosques to be purified as Christian churches, she
strained every effort to equip an army with which
Fernando was to besiege Loja. On the day before he
set out Isabel gave birth to twins— one dead, the other

CH. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 263

a daughter ; and this was viewed as an ill omen. The
knights who carried the standards to be blessed looked
dispirited, and all expected reverses. Most probably
from the queen's illness, the expedition was not
properly provided with good and tried warriors, and
Ali Atar, one of the bravest of the Moors, defeated
Fernando and forced him to retreat with the loss of
his baggage.

Aboul Hacem was prevented from following up his
success by the struggles of the women in his harem.
His favourite wife was a Christian by birth, named
Isabel de Solis, the daughter of the Alcayde of Bedmar ;
but she had become a renegade, and was commonly
called Zoraya, or the Morning Star. Childless her-
self, she was vehementiy set on the promotion of
• Abou-Abd-Allah, son of another wife, Ayescha, who is
generally known by the Spanish contraction of his
name, Boabdil ; also in Arabic as Al Zaquir, the
little, and in Spanish as el Rey Chico. Such disaffec-
tion was raised that Aboul Hacem was forced to return
home, where he imprisoned Ayescha and her son ; but
they let themsdves down from the window with a rope
twisted oi the veils of the Sultana's women, and,
escaping to the palace or Albaycin, there held out
against him, supported by the Abencerrages. The
Zegris held by Aboul Hacem, and the streets of Granada
ran red with the blood shed by the two factions till, in
1482, while the elder king was gone to relieve Loja,
the younger one seized the Alh^mra ; and Aboul
Hacem, finding the gates closed against him, was
obliged to betake himself to Malaga, where his brother
Abd Allah, called Al Zagal, or the young, was the
Alcayde.

\

264 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxiv.

Again Fernando and Isabel prepared an expedition
to Ktack Malaga. It was led by the Grand Master of
Santiago, Don Alfonso de Cardeiias, and victory was
thought so certain that numerous merchants followed
the army to seize or purchase the huge plunder that
was expected in jewels, and the rich silks woven at
Malaga. The way lay through the hills of Axarquia,
thickly set with farms and villages, which the army
harried as it marched, and on the third day arrived
before the walls of Malaga.

But the light of the burning villages had served as
beacons to warn the old king and his brother. They
had sent forth a party, who, taking another road, occu-
pied the passes, and El Zagal, together with a gallant
warrior named Reduan, sallied out and gave battle to
the Castilians before they had time to encamp. Their
ranks were broken, and, when they tried to fly, they
found their retreat cut off. The mountains they had
ravaged bristled with avengers. Eight hundred
perished in the field, sixteen hundred were made
prisoners, and of the others many died an inglorious
death by the hands of the enraged mountaineers, while
only a few struggled home to tell the tale of disaster.

So high was the courage, so great the resources, of the
Moors, that their fall was chiefly owing to their want
of union. Boabdil, jealous of his father's success,
resolved to eclipse it by a still greater victory ; and
with the able old captain, Ali Atar, whose daughter
he had married, set forth for an attack on the city of
Lucena, a rich but not well-fortified place.

No good auguries followed him. His title of " The
Unlucky " was whispered as he mounted his horse, his
lance-point was broken against the top of the gateway,

en. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 265

and a fox was started by his troop, and made its escape
untouched by darts.

The Governor of Lucena was Don Diego de Cordova
de Aguilar, known by the curious title of Alcayde de
los Don9eles, Master of the Pages. On the first alarm,
he sent for help to his uncle, the Count of Cabra, and
his two nephews Alfonso and Gonzalo, sons of a
brother who had died early. The count arrived before
the Moors were in sight, but the nephew came up while
Bbabdil was encamping. He thought himself sur-
rounded by a huge force, and his infantry in terror
began to fly. The horse fought gallantly, but Ali Atar,
who was nearly ninety, fell mortally wounded from his
horse. The Castilians closed in on the Moors, and
Boabdil, finding that his snow-white war-horse, with its
splendid caparisons, attracted attention to him, leapt off,
and tried to hide himself in the willows that bordered the
river Xenil. Here, however, he was attacked by three
soldiers, and, after trying to defend himself with his
dagger, he disclosed his name to save his life, and was
taken to the Count of Cabra. Hosts of his best cava-
liers were slain or perished in the river, and the sur-
vivors who reached home filled Granada with mourning
and lamentation, for hardly a noble house but had lost
a son.

Aboul Hacem was recalled and replaced in the
Alhimra, while Boabdil was carried to Cordova,
where Fernando, knowing that his freedom would be
much worse for the Moorish cause than his captivity,
released him on condition of his freeing four hundred
prisoners* paying twelve thousand doubloons a year,
and attending Cortes as a vassal of Castille, as well as
allowing free passage and supplying food to any troops

a66 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [aiAP. xxiv.

sent against his father. On these terms el Rey Chico
obtained his liberty and a truce for two years, giving
his eldest son as a hostage. He and fifty Moors were
then releasedywith magnificent gifts of horses, brocades,
and silks ; and the bribes of Zoraya prepared some of
the citizens of Granada to admit him into the Albaycin
palace.

Then began ^n unnatural war in the streets, and for
a whole day there were skirmishes from house to house
between the partisans of the father and the son.
Night ended the conflict ; and in the morning before
it could begin again the wise old Imaum Macu stood
forth, and thus addressed the chiefs : ** Why do ye
thus strike one another like deadly enemies ? For whom
do ye shed your brother's blood, which ought only to
flow in defence of your wives, your children, your
country, and your God? Ye, for a headstrong old
man, unable to wield a sword or lead you forth against
the enemy ; ye, for a womanlike youth, without
courage, virtue, or luck — a bad son, raled by a woman,
and the slave of the Christian. Give up both, and
seek among the warriors of the royal race for one to
whom we can safely entrust the safety of the kingdom."

The chiefs listened to his advice, and Al Zagal was
at once chosen. Aboul Hacem gave way without
contest to his brother, and soon after died ; but
Boabdil still tried to reign in the Albayein, so that
there were two rival Abd Allahs, uncle and nephew,
both kings in the one city. The uncle, wishing at any
cost to prevent the civil war, proposed to his nephew
to divide their power. Zoraya pretended to consent,
but only to gain time, and the divisions were nearly as
dreadful as ever. The nobles ivcre chiefly for the

\

cii. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 267

uncle ; but the poor, bought over by Zoraya's largesses,.
were for the nephew.

It is at this time that tradition and romance place a
terrible incideat^ which probably has some foundation^
though the most trustworthy Arabic histories do not
mention it. In one of the great festivals, which the
kings continued to give, one of the Zegris was killed
by Zaide Aben Serady, an Abencerrage, both being
lovers of the same lady— the fair Zayda — ^the subject
of endless ballads. The feud becoming more deadly
every day, the Zegris at last persuaded Boabdil that
Hamet, the chief of the Aben Serady clan^ had been
lifting his eyes to one of BoabdiFs own nieces. They
had seen him, said two of the Zegris, meeting the
queen at the fount of laurels ; and tliey persuaded the
king that his vengeance ought to fall on the entire tribe»

The Abencerrages were accordingly summoned to
the Alhamra, and admitted into the hall still called
by their name. A well-armed band of Zegris and an
executioner awaited them in the Court of Lions ; a
page was sent to summon them ; and one by one they
were beheaded over a huge vase of alabaster. Aben
Hamet and thirty-five more had thus perished before
one of the doomed men was followed by his page,
who, seeing the horrible work that was going forward,
dashed out at the door when the next was called in,
and rushing down into the town met a band of warriors
returning from a foray and brought them to the rescue.
Others hurried up on the alarm, and there was a terrible
fight, in which two hundred of the Zegris were killed.
Aben Hamet's wife, the king's own sister, going to
implore protection from Boabdil, was murdered by him
with his own hand.

a68 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxiv.

The places of these murders are still shown in the
Alhimra, and many a ballad sings of them ; but their
date is so uncertain that the best authorities disbelieve
the facts, especially as Boabdil did not occupy the
Alhimra after his return from captivity. Romance
further declares that the queen's innocence was to be
proved by ordeal of battle ; and that as no Moor was to
be found to maintain her cause, four knights — namely,
the Alcayde de los Don^eles, Don Juan Chacon, Don
Alfonso de Aguilar, and Don Manuel Ponce de Leon
— went in the disguise (or what was supposed to be
such) of Turkish knights. Perez dc Hyta even tells
all their devices. Don Juan's was a wolf in a green
field tearing a Moor, and above it a lily and the words,
" For his crime he is devoured." Don Manuel had a
lion also despatching a Moor, with the verse :

A harder death would serve him right

Who sins against the truth ;
For him it is scarce cruelty

To die by lion's tooth.

Alfonso de Aguilar bore a golden eagle flying away
with another unfortunate Moor bathed in blood, and
the motto :

I'll raise him to the skies

That worse may be his fall.
That the remorseless crime

He did, be known to all.

And Diego de Cordova had a sword transfixing another
Moor, with this legend :

By my good sword's sharp edge

Truth clearly shall be known ;
The good queen's freedom shall be won,

Her good fame all shall own.

CH. XXIV.] THE ABENCERRAGES AND ZEGRIS. 269

Of course the four knights gained a brilliant victory,
and the king reinstated the queen in her honours. She
sent a secret promise to her defenders to become a
Christian, and assist them in the siege of Granada ;
and almost all the surviving Abencerrages went over
to the Spaniards, three of them being baptised.

All this is pure invention. If civilisation, and,
above all, • printing, had not been so far advanced,
these popular songs and tales would have formed the
material of a magnificent epic, when the siege of
Granada would have been as magnificent a centre for
myth and legend as the sieges of Troy and of Paris ;
but though all the heroes and their stories are floating
about in the world of fable, no one ever could believe
in them enough to work them up into a poem of force
sufficient to live and hold the imagination.

CHAPTER XXV.

TliE SIEGE OF MALAGA.

Two years* truce from the Christians only enabled the
uncle and nephew to struggle against each other more
uninterruptedly. Indeed, as the truce only professed
to be with the younger king Abou Abd Allah al Zaquir,
or Boabdil, it hindered no one from making algarades
on the country obeying Abou Abd Allah al Zaquir (also
called AlZagal), the uncle ; and the unhappy Moors were
robbed of their cattle, their harvests, and their vintage.
In 1484, the Cortes of Castille and of Aragon were
convoked by their sovereigns, and each made a grant
for the Moorish war to be pursued even to the end.
Fernando de Talavera, the queen's confessor, when
offered the Bishopric of Salamanca, answered that he
would have no Bishopric but Granada. The war was
preached as a crusade, and volunteers came from all
parts — English Lancastrians banished by the House of
York, French knights weary of the strict rule of
Louis XL, Swiss and Italians, besides the great
military orders, and the Hermandades or brother-
hoods, a sort of voluntary mounted police which had
lately arisen in Spain for the protection of the roads.
There were ten thousand horse and forty thousand foot,
artillery with all the latest improvements, and thirty

CHAP. XXV.] THE SIEGE OF MALAGA. 271

thousand gastadores or taladores, whose systematic
business was to destroy villages and mills, root up
olives and vines, burn the crops, and make a wilderness
of the fertile land so as to cut off all supplies from
the cities, w^hile the fleets of Biscay and Barcelona
cruised round the coast

Several places were taken ; but when Loja was
threatened, Boabdil sent to declare that it was his
city, and the war was with his uncle, not himself,
recommending him rather to attack Malaga ; but
Fernando replied that Loja was not included in the
terras of the treaty. Whereupon Boabdil, knowing
that he was suspected of cowardice, hastened to throw
himself into the city. The siege was, however, carried
on so steadily that he was soon in despair ; and re-
membering that young Gonzalo de Cordova had been
very courteous to him in his captivity, he sent for him
and offered to make his submission. Fernando there-
upon permitted the inhabitants to depart with what they
could carry, giving them permission to settle in Aragon
or Castille on the same terms as other " Mudejarres,"
or Moors among the Christians, who were at this time
allowed toleration on condition of paying a tribute.
Boabdil further engaged to deliver up Granada to the
Spaniards whenever it should be possible, and to con-
tent himself with the title of Duke of Guadix ; but this
was kept secret, and he was escorted to Granada with
the whole of the Lojans, none of them choosing to
accept Femando's terms. He found his uncle gone to
reheve Velez, and thus was able to enter the AlhUmra,
where he abstained from succoariag lUora and Moclm,
which were called the two eyes of Granada, and which
were easily taken by the Christian army.

273 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [cHAP. XXV.

Al Zagal had gained a victory over the Count of
Cabra, but had then been twice defeated. Reduan
threw himself into Velez, and made so gallant a defence
as to become the theme of many ballads and at last
to obtain a favourable capitulation, and Al Zagal
returned to Granada, but only to find that his nephew
had closed the gates against him. On this he retired
to Guadix, where he made a small kingdom of that
city, together with Baeza and Almeria. So ended the
campaign of 14S6.

The next attack was upon Malaga. This was one
of the richest and best-fortified of the Moorish cities.
The walls were flanked by eighty strong towers and
four huge citadels— the Gibalfaro and Alcazaba
towards the land, and the Geneves and Atarazanas on
the harbour protected it, all communicating with one
another by underground passages. The two kings
had each appointed a separate governor; but while
BoabdiFs was gone to treat with Fernando, Al ZagaFs
closed the gates, and manned the walls with a troop
of Africans under Ibrahim the Zenete, a brave and
merciful man. Fernando sent to try to buy him and
the other defenders over by promises of lands and
honours ; but was answered by Achmet the Zegri :
" My countrymen have shown by choosing me that
they think me worthy. Thou wouldst make me base.
If the insult be renewed, the messenger shall be treated
as an enemy."

Fernando then tried to bribe the inhabitants, think-
ing the rich merchants and Jews would never endure
the rigours of such a siege ; but Achmet, finding out
what was going on, threatened to turn his cannon on
them if he saw any signs of treachery. It was a most

CHAP, xxv.j THE SIEGE OF MALAGA, 273

gallant defence. Achmet and Ibrahim vied with one
another in bravery ; and the latter made several sallies
on the Christians. In one of these, when he had
driven in the outposts, he came into a field, where a
number of the little dongeles or pages were at play ; but
he only patted them gently with his lance, and bade
them run away to their mothers.

" Why not let them taste the point ? " said a fierce
warrior.

" Because I saw no beards," answered the generous
chief.

Sickness broke out in the villages round, provisions
became scarce, and a report became current that the
queen had written to beg that the siege might be raised.
Fernando knew that nothing but her presence would
restore the spirit of the army. He wrote to her, and
she soon arrived with her eldest daughter and a train
of ladies ; and as the Marquis of Cadiz and the Grand
Master of Santiago escorted her into the camp, the
troops were filled with joy and courage by. her brave
and gracious countenance. Fernando again offered
favourable terms, adding that if these were not now
accepted he would make everyone within a slave ; but
his proposals were again rejected, and the gallant
Africans made sallies up to his very tents, in one of
which the Marquis of Cadiz had nearly been made
prisoner. The Granadines would fain have succoured
them, but were prevented by Boabdil, who sent on his
side servile messages of submission to the sovereigns,
and presents of Arab steeds and rich raiment.

Isabel regarded the war as holy, and regulated her
camp so as to prevent as much as possible all vice,
licence, and profanity. She established hospitals for

T

374 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxv.

the sick and wounded, and watched over them her-
self, kept up strict discipline, and arranged patrols to
prevent disturbances, fires, or surprises.

The blockade thus established soon began to tell
on the city. The armed men roamed the streets in
search of food and pillaged the houses, and the popu-
lace began to die of hunger. Despair began to prompt
strange deeds. A party of some hundreds of famishe(l
men dashed out upon the besiegers, to try to cut their
way through, and perished to a man.

On the other hand, a fierce Dervish named Ibrahim
Algerbi, of the tribe called Gomeres, became possessed
with the idea that he was destined to save his country
by slaying the king and queen. His fiery eloquence
gathered together four hundred Moors, who set out
from Guadix under an oath to cut their way through
the enemy to the relief of the city. Half succeeded ;
the other half remained dead where they had fought ;
and in the midst knelt the Dervish, apparently un-
armed and immovable, in the attitude of prayer. When
questioned by the soldiers, he declared that he was
Allah's messenger to the Christian king and queen^
and must perform the bidding of Heaven.

Struck by his wild gestures and inspired mien, the
men led him to the tent of the Marquis of Cadiz, who
reported the occurrence to the queen. Fernando was
then sleeping during the noontide heat, and Isabel said
that the Dervish should be taken to the tent of Dona
Beatriz de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Maya, where he
might wait until the king awoke.

The tent was a very richly-adorned one, and m it
vrere not only Doiia Beatriz but Don Alvaro of
Portugal, his wife. Dona Felipa, and several other

CHAP. XXV.] THE SIEGE OF MALAGA. 275

persons of high rank. Ibrahim supposed himself in
the royal presence, and in one instant his poniard
flashed forth. He sprang like a panther upon Don
Alvaro, stabbed him^ and then flew upon Dona Beatriz ;
but in his wild haste, his weapon stuck fast in the
heavy gold embroidery of her bodice, and, ere he could
withdraw it, his arms were close pinioned by Don
Lopez de Toledo, the queen's secretary. The guards
dashed in, and, without any attempt at securing the
man, absolutely cut him to pieces with their swords in
a nK)ment, and then in their fury hurled his mangled
limbs into the town from their catapults. The besieged,
who had learned his purpose from the two hundred
who had come with him, gathered up the remains,
did them all honour, and laid them in a splendid tomb,
and then, by way of reprisals, killed a Galician prisoner
and sent the body out of the gate on an ass.

After this no Moor was allowed to come near the
royal tents, and a guard of the noblest young Castilian
knights watched constantly round the tent of their
beloved queen. Desperate fighting still went on ;
mines were met by countermines, and underground
combats took place, while the famine became more
terrible ; children starved on pounded vine-leaves fried
in oil ; and boiled leather, and all the other wretched
resources of the besieged eked out the subsistence of
their elders ; sickness and death thinned their numbers,
and many citizens came forth and sold themselves for
slaves to obtain a RKHithfiil of food.

Yet Ae garrison fought with undiminished energy,
till at last Achmet, moved by the sight of the deplorable
misery of the inhatwtants, withdrew into the Gebalfaro
fortress, kavi«g the citizens to make the best terms

T 2

276 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxv.

they could for themselves. A merchant named
Durdax was sent to offer terms of surrender, but the
king sternly declared that the time of mercyavas gone
by ; he would make no terms, but they must surrender
at discretion. The reply filled the wretched people
with despair, and they sent back again a message
threatening that unless their lives and freedom were
secured to them, they should hang from the battle-
ments every one of their five hundred prisoners of war,
shut up their women and children in the citadel, set
fire to the town, and sally forth to kill every Christian
they met, so as not to die unavenged.

Fernando sternly answered that if the hair of the
head of one Christian should be touched he would not
leave a Moor alive in Malaga.

There was agitation and tumult, but Durdax per-
suaded his fellows to trust to the king's pity, and a
letter was written imploring him to act as his ancestors
had done by the inhabitants of Cordova, Antequera,
and the rest, and grant his supplicants at least life and

freedom.

But the attempt at assassination had incensed

Fernando, and the constancy of those who hold out a
fortress without hope of relief is always viewed by a
victor as an obstinate waste of his time and strength,
exciting his wrath rather than his admiration. The
petition was disregarded ; Fernando could not forgive
his five months^ detention ; and when Malaga surren-
dered on the 1 8th of August, 1489, and the Gebalfaro
two days later, it was to slavery and destitution. The
streets were so choked with dead that the king and
queen could not at first make their public entry, to
give thanks in the purified mosque. The brave leaders.

CHAP. XXV.] THE SIEGE OF MALAGA. 277

Achmet and Ibrahim, were thrown into a dungeon, and
the whole of the inhabitants, about fifteen hundred in
number, and all- the soldiers, were collected to be por-
tioned out for slavery. First, however, fifty maidens
were chosen as a gift to the Queen of Portugal, another
fifty for the Queen of Aragon, and a hundred of the finest
men to serve in the Pope's guard, where, it is said, that
in a year's time they had all become zealous Christians.
The rest were then divided into three lots. The first
were to be exchanged for Christians in captivity in
Africa ; and with this view all persons who had rela-
tions captured or supposed to have been captured by the
African pirates, were called upon to send in their names
that they might be recovered. Another third was dis-
tributed to work as slaves among the nobles, as part
of their spoil, each duke obtaining a hundred, each
count fifty, and- so on ; -and the last third was sold to
pay the experises"of the expedition. The severity was of
course meant as a warning ; but Fernando was a man
of sordid and avaricious nature, and his nobler-minded
wife had only been able to keep his cruelty in check by
appealing to his greed ; and when a wholesale butchery
had been proposed, she had represented that to enslave
the unfortunate men would be more profitable.

The Jews, four hundred in number, hoped to ransom
themselves, but found their property was part of the spoil.
However, their brethren ransomed them, and the other
Malagans hoped likewise to buy themselves off by
giving up all their treasure ; but in this they were
cruelly disappointed. None of them were released,
save those who were exchanged with the Africans ;
and there was no mercy for renegade Christians who
had become Mahometans, or Moors who had professed

278 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxv.

Christianity for a time and then fallen away. They
were delivered over to the Inquisition, and were either
burnt or served for marks for the djerid.

The Inquisition, established to extirpate the Albi-
genses, had only recently been introduced into Spain.
The Cortes both of Castille and of Aragon had been
loath to accept it, and Queen Isabel had resisted it ; but
her confessor, Tomks of Torquemada, had pressed it
on her as a duty until she had yielded.

The world had yet to learn that matters of faith cannot
be brought under secular jurisdiction ; and the duty of
a sovereign towards his country was thought to extend
to the belief as well as the actions of men. To extir-
pate false doctrine was viewed as incumbent on every
Christian prince ; and Spain, which had begun with
unusual toleration, was in each generation becoming
more and more imbued with the spirit of persecution.

Malaga was to be a Christian city; the mosques
were purified ; the beautiful houses and lands of the
unhappy Moors were freely given to settlers from
Aragon and Castille ; Don Garcia Fernandes was ap-
pointed alcayde, and attempted to restore the pros-
perity of the place ; but it was long before its commerce
returned. The mosques have been pulled down and
modern churches erected ; and the chief remains new
left are the great citadel of GebalCsiro, and a beautiful
marble horse-shoe arch, the entrance to the Moorish
dockyard, but now left far inland by the retreating
of the sea. On th« i8th of August, the anniversary of
the victory, the great bell of the Cathedral sounds three
times.

" We must devour the pomegranate {granata) grain
by grain," was the Spanish saying ; and after a year's

CHAP. XXV.] THE SIEGE OF MALAGA. 279

delay, caused chiefly by a pestilence that was desolat-
ing Andalusia, the Reyes Catolicos, in 1488, prepared
for a fresh attack on the small kingdom of £1 Zagal.
The brave old Moor once more defeated Fernando's
attempt on Almeria ; but, in the spring of 1489, the
queen herself repaired with the army to Jaen — the
mountain city, lying like a dragon, with its tall castle
and solid walls, to command the passes into the south.
Baeza was her object ; and to raise funds for the war
she had pawned her jewels and mortgaged her lands
to the merchants of Barcelona, who trusted her perfect
good faith as they did not trust that of her husband.

It was while she lay there that, according to ballad-
lore, the young Moorish hero Reduan felt himself
obliged to fulfil a hasty boast once made that he could
easily make himself master of Jaen. Lockhart thus
gives the ballad :

Thus said, before his lords, the king to Reduan :
*' 'Tis easy to get words, deeds get we as we can ;
Rememb'rest thou the feast at which I heard the saying,
* 'Twere easy in one night to make me lord of Jaen ? ' "

" Well in my mind I hold the valiant vow was said —
Fulfil it, boy, and gold shall shower on thy head ;
But bid a long farewell, if now thou shrink from doing.
To bower and bonnibell, thy feasting and thy wooing."

" I have forgot the oath if such I e'er did plight ;
But needs there plighted troth to make a soldier fight ?
A thousand sabres bring ; we'll see how we may thrive."
"One thousand!" quoth the king, "I trow thou shalt have
five."

They passed the Elvira gate, with banners all displayed,
They passed in niickle state, a noble ca'valcade ;
What proud and praRcing horses, what comely cavaliers,
What bravery of targets, what glittering of spears,

28o THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxv.

WJiat caftans blue and scarlet, what turbans pleached of green.
What waving of their crescents and plumages between,
What buskins and what stirrups, what rowels chased in gold,
What handsome gentlemen, what buoyant hearts and bold.

In midst, above them all, rides he who rules the band :
Yon feather white and tall is the token of command ;
He looks to the Alhamra, whence bends his mother down :
" Now Allah save my boy and merciful Mahoun."

But 'twas another sight, when Reduan drew near,
To look upon the height where Jaen's towers appear ;
The fosse was wide and deep, the walls both tall and stron|^,
And keep was watched with keep the battlements along.

It was a heavy sight, but most for Reduan.
He sighed, as well he might, ere thus his speech b^^n :
" Oh Jaen, had I known how high thy bulwarks stind.
My tongue had not outgone the prowess of my band.

But since in hasty cheer I did my promise plight
(What well might cost a year) to win thee to a night,
The pledge demands the paying. I would my soldiers brave
Were half as sure of Jaen as I am of my grave.

My penitence comes late, my death lags not behind,

I yield me up to fate, since hope I may not find."

With that he turned him round : " Now blow your trumpets

high!"
But every spearman frown' d, and dark was every eye.

But when he was aware that they would fain retreat,
He spurr'd his bright bay mare — I wot her pace was fleet ;
He rides beneath the walls, and shakes aloft his lance.
And to the Christians call, if any will advance.

With that an arrow flew from o'er the battlement —
Young Reduan it slew, sheer through the breast it went ;
He fell upon the green : " Farewell, my bonny bay !"
Right soon, when this was seen, broke all the Moor array.

CHAP. XXV.] THE SIEGE OF MALAGA. 281

Baeza was a very strongly-fortified place on the banks
of a little river flowing from the Sierra Nevada, which
was conducted through an elaborate system of canals
to water the beautiful gardens that filled the valley.
All these had to be laid waste, and the mere prelimi-
naries of the siege occupied four months of constant
labour, and perpetual fighting with the light squadrons
of Moorish horse. The place was provisioned for
fifteen months, and Fernando, finding that there was
no hope of its yielding before the winter, would have
given up the siege but for his wife, who not only kept
up the ardour of the troops by her personal influence,
but took care that they should be well supplied with
all that could preserve their health in their winter
quarters. Huts were built instead of tents to keep out
the rain, in streets regularly laid out ; pioneers were
kept at work to render the mountain roads passable
and to build bridges over the swollen torrents ; fourteen
thousand beasts of burthen were constantly going to
and fro with supplies ; and agents were everywhere
employed to buy up com for the army.

Even then sickness could not be averted, nor dis-
content. The gentlemen were especially disappointed
that the king forbade them to accept those challenges
to single combat with Moorish cavaliers which were
their special pride and delight ; and the infantry, who
were suffering severely, began to murmur. On this,
the queen herself, with her young son and daughter,
came to the camp to share their perils and attend to
their wants ; and with her, as usual, the courage and
perseverance of the army received a new impulse.

The Baezans began to despair, and Syd Yah-yah,
El ZagaPs nephew, began to treat with the sovereigns.

28a THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAF. xxv.

They were very gracious to him, and granted the most
favourable terms they ever gave the conquered ; per-
mitting the inhabitants to retain their property and
to settle in the suburbs as Mudajarras, while the
troops were allowed to retire with arms, horses, and
baggage. Syd Yah-yah himself seems to have been
won over by the queen to become a Christian ; and,
indeed, there seems to have been a troop of Christian
Abencerrages in her army, who had been alienated by
BoabdiL On the surrender of Gaeza, many of the
small cities in the Alpujarras offered to yield on the
same terms, which were readily granted ; and, indeed,
most of them were bought from their governors for
large gifts. Only the Alcayde of Purdiena showed a
nobler spirit, and when gifts were offered to him on
his surrender he answered : ** I am a Moor oPMoorish
lineage. I come not to sell what is not mine, but to
yield what destiny has made yours. Had I not been
weakened by those who should have strengthened me,
you had gained the castle with my blood, not your
gold. But as this may not be, I resign the place I
cannot guard. AH I ask is that the people may dwell
in peace in their own religion, and all I will accept
for myself is a safe conduct to Africa for me and my
men !"

Syd Yah-yah then repaired to his uncle at Guadix,
and showed him how irresistible was the Spanish force,
and how the attempt to withstand it ended only in
utter ruin and slavery, as at Malaga ; while submission,
while yet it was time, did save something for the
unhappy race. The old man listened in silence, and
did not move an eyelid while his nephew spoke. Then
fvith a deep sigh he said : '^ Had not Allah decreed

CHAP. XXV.] THE SIEGE OF MALAGA. 283

the fall of Granada, this arm would have saved her.
The will of Allah be done."

It must have been very bitter to him to be shut
out from the beloved city by the unworthy Boabdil,
who had prevented him from making the resistance
that might have saved the country for a time ; but
he resigned himself to yield up Almeria and Guadix,
on retaining for his life the district of Andarax and
the Alpujarras, with half the salt-pits of Malcha^
and the title of King; just as, eight hundred years
before, Theodemir had retained the title of King of
Murcia. The brave old man was courteously treated
by Fernando, who would not allow him to humble
himself in homage.

CHAPTER XXVI.
THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR.

Only Granada remained of the kingdom of Al Hamar,
and by treaty, Aboul Abd Allah al Zaquir, or Boabdil,
was bound to surrender it to Fernando and Isabel
when they should have overcome his uncle.

This, however, was impossible to him. The Moors,
who refused to live under the Christians, had flowed
in from all the places that had been taken, and were
furious with him for not having stirred to assist them.
Representatives of every Arab and Berber tribe were
homeless fugitives in the streets of Granada, mourning
for their lovely homes, raging against the king as a
traitor and enemy to the Faith, and hardly withheld
by the imaums from storming the Alhimra. In the
midst came the messengers from Fernando and Isabel
to claim the performance of his promise. It was
utterly impossible, and the ambassadors were forced
to retire; but Boabdil — always a double traitor — sent a
private message to invite the Count of Tendilla to
appear with his troop in the Vega, assuring him that
this would lead to its surrender. Then, when the
count had arrived with the few forces at his disposal,
Boabdil headed the best cavalry of the Zegris and drove
him back with heavy loss. This was followed up by

CHAP. XXVI.] THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR. 285

the surprise of the little fortress of Alhendin ; and in
the general delight at this success, the mountaineers
of the Alpuj arras and the inhabitants of the towns on
the coast rose upon the Spanish garrisons, and the
Moors began to hope to recover their old boundaries.

It was only, however, bringing on the final struggle.
The Marquis of Villena, warned by one of the Moors,
put down the insurrection in the mountains, and the
citizens were soon reduced, and found that they had
forfeited the conditions on which they had surrendered.
They were expelled from within the walls of their towns,
though they were still allowed to live in the suburbs.

In the April of 149 1 Fernando set forth from
Cordova, with an army consisting of all the bravest
warriors of Castille and Aragon together, with a troop
of Moors under Syd Yah -yah — in all, numbering
fifty thousand men. The city itself held altogether
about two hundred thousand persons, of whom seventy
thousand were fighting men. These were told off into
two chief bodies, one to guard the gates and walls,
the other to make sallies and fetch in convoys. The
chief commander was Mousa Aben Abil Gazan, a
Moorish knight of immense courage, skill, and agility,
whom the romances of the siege make half-brother to
the king.

Early in the month of May, Queen Isabel and her
children arrived, to the extreme delight of the army,
who believed that she always brought victory with her,
and were enchanted to see her ride through their ranks
in helmet and cuirass. Wishing to obtain a com-
plete view of the Alhimra, Isabel was escorted by
the noblest cavaliers in the camp to the village of La
Zerbia, where, mounting one of the flat roofs, she could

286 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. xxvi.

have a fuller view of the palaces and mosques than her
father, Don Juan, in the ballad. But the Moors on
the walls saw her, and at once a large number hurried
forth, hoping to secure such a prize, and fell on the
guard of horsemen below, whom they at first scattered ;
and Isabel, kneeling on the house-top, saw her mailed
warriors flying before the white - turbaned Moors.
Before, however, the enemy could turn back to over-
power the few who guarded the house, the Marquis of
Cadiz, coming up with twelve hundred lances, broke
them, and chased them back to the gates, then returned
to escort, the queen safely back.

About a month later, just as all had gone to rest, a
lady chanced to hold her lamp too near the hangings
of her tent ; a fire broke out and quickly consumed all
that quarter of the camp, with no loss of life, but of
much of rich garments. All the queen's wardrobe was
lost ; but that same night Don Gonzalo de Cordova
sent to Illora for a supply from the stores of his bride.
Dona Maria Manrique, and so splendid and numerous
were the robes and all the toilette necessaries which
arrived, that Isabel jestingly told him that the fire had
done the most damage in the coff(^s of Illora.

This accident led to the erection of a more solid
town, by way of camp, than that which had been erected
before Baeza. The buildings were of stone and mortar,
and were so permanent that tlie army thought it
deserved a name, and wanted to call it Isabel, but the
queen begged that it might rather be known as Santa
F^. Between its trenches and the walls of the city
endless encounters took place, and many a gallant
deed was done. The following ballad, translated from
Perez de Hyta, describes one of these encounters :

CHAP. XXVI.] THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR. 287

The camp oi Santa Fe is g^trdled round with trench and palisade,
And, spread within, axt tents of curtained silk, of gold, and of

brocade;
There dukes, and counts, and captains bold, the nobles of the

land,
And all the gallant men of war obey King Ferdinand.

It was at nine one morning that a horseman came in sight,
Mounted upon a charger, black, with a few spots of white ;
Upon his haunches rose the steed, his master reined him in.
And showed the Christians all his teeth, displayed with mocking

grin.

Scarlet and white and azure was the raiment of that Moor,
And over that gay livery a corslet strong he wore ;
A double-pointed lance he bore, of steel most finely wrought,
An exiled Moor in Fez his buckler light had wrought.

And oh ! the Pagan dog, behind his horse's tail he drew
The holy Ave Mary, fidl in the Christians' view ;
And when he came before the tents he uttered thus his boast :
" Ha ! is there any lord or knight, in all this warlike host

" Who'll come and prove his valour in this plain yoiu: camp

before?
Come out, then, one or two, come out by three or four ;
Alcayde of the pages come, thou art a man of fame.
Or Count of Cabra, come thou out, for mighty is thy name.

" Come out, thou Don Gonzalo, whom Cordova they call ;
Or Martin of Galindo, brave soldier 'mong them alL
Portocarrero, come, of Palma the great lord ; /

Manuel de Ponce, come and try on me thy sword.

" Or if these will not come, then come, King Ferdinand,
And soon my might and valour I'll make thee understand."
The king's best knights stood listening the palisade before,
And each was begging licence to combat with the Moor.

There was young Garcilaso, a gallant stripling fair.
And hard he pleaded with the king that he the fight might dare.
" Nay, Garcilaso, for such work thou art yet over young,
There's many another in the camp to stop that Pagan's tongue."

^8 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [CHAP. XXVI.

Young Garcilaso took his leave in trouble and in pain,
That to attack the Moorish foe he could not licence gain ;
Then all in secret did he arm, and took a coal-black horse,
And rode forth from the camp unknown, disguised from all the
force.

He went towards the champion, and thus defied the foe :
"Whether the king has valiant knights, oh Moor, thou now

may'st know ;
Behold me here, the least of all, yet ready for the fight."
The Moorish champion turned him round, and rated low his

might.

"Go back, my child, I never fight except with bearded men ;
Go, call thy bravest knight, my boy, and go thou back again."
Then Garcilaso in his wrath his steed with stirrup pressed,
And at the Moorish champion came with his good lance in rest.

Then swift as lightning wheeled the Moor, the combat is begun,

And, young as Garcilaso is, the victory he has won.

He gave a lance-thrust to the Moor that through his corslet

sped,
And even as on the field he dropped, already was he dead.

While Garcilaso from his charger's back upon the ground hath

sprung.
He hath cut off the grisly head, and to his saddle hung j
Then from the horse's tail he took the Ave reverently.
And kissed the sacred words, and knelt on bended knee,

While to his lance' he bound the scroll as banner of his pride.
Mounted again his steed, and led the Moorish horse beside.
Thus to the camp he came, and found the knights and warriors

there,
All marvelling who had wrought that deed of prowess rare.

Great honour then both king and queen hath to that stripling

shown,
And Garcilaso de la Vega, is the name by which he now is known ;
Since where he slew the pagan was in the Vega's field.
And the king bade that "Ave Mary" should for ever grace his

shield.

CHAP. XXVI.] THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR. 289

This David and Goliath battle really gave the name
to the De la Vega family. It is also said that one of
the Castilian knights in return rode up to the gates of
Granada, in the face of the enemy, and nailed a cartel,
bearing the words " Ave Mary,*' to the door with his
dagger.

At first the city was too well supplied from the
mountain district in its rear to be straitened for pro-
visions ; but as autumn came on, parties of Spanish
soldiers were sent to ravage the country and prevent
convoys from coming in. Then, in desperation, Mousa
collected all his bravest men for an attempt on Santa
F^ ; but this sort of fighting necessarily depended
chiefly upon infantry, and these were always the
weakest point with the Moors. They fled on the first
alarm, the cavalry could only charge ineffectually, and
they were chased back even beyond their watch-towers,
which were immediately occupied by the Christian
archers.

The city was now entirely invested on all sides^
famine began to be felt, and there was no hope oif
succour. The mob began to clamour for a surrender
in time to save them from the rigours suffered by
Malaga. Boabdil assembled his council, and all
recommended a capitulation except the brave Mousa,
who declared that defence was still possible, and that
they had better still trust to their valour. The others
all were resolved to capitulate, and a suspension of
arms was agreed on ; hostages were given on either
side, and a spot between the two armies was appointed
where the Vizier Aboul Hacem met Gonzalo de Cordova
to agree on the conditions of peace.

If in two months' time the beleaguered city was not

U

390 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. [C3IAP. X3CVI.

succoured, Boabdil was to yield up Alhimra and the
Albayan, with all the other towers, gates, bastions ;
and all the sheiks of the tribes were to swear faith and
homage to the King of Castille, who would become
King of Granada ; that all Christian captives should
be released without ransom, that the Moorish prisoners
of war should also be set free ; that Granada should
be a place of freedom for the Moorish slaves of the
other provinces ; that Boabdil should have an estate in
the Alpujarras ; that the inhabitants, even Christian
renegades, should keep their wealth, houses, arms, and
horses, and only deliver up their firearms ; that they
should retain their laws, customs, language, and dress,
the exclusive use of their mosques and liberty of
worship, and be tried by their own kadis, who should
be assessors to the Spanish governors ; that they
should thenceforth pay the King of CastiUe such taxes
as they had paid dieir native sovereign, but that for
three years they should be wholly free from all im-
posts while they were recovering from the war. The
convention was signed by the Vizier and by Gonzalo
on the 2.5th of November, 1491.

The tidings filled Granada with misery. The streets
were full of wailing, and the very people who had been
crying out to be delivered from the pangs of hunger
and the horrors of an assault, accused their chiefs of
treason and apostasy, and insisted on burying themr
selves in the ruins of their city.. Mousa, in the last
divan : " Leave regrets to women and diildren," he
said. " Let us show ourselves men, by shedding not
tears, but blood to the last drop. I will lead you to
find on the battle-field either an independence or an
honourable death. Were it not better to be counted

CHAP. XXVI.] THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR. 291

among those who died for their country than among
those who looked on at its death ? If you think that
the Christians will keep their promises, and that you
will find a generous conqueror in the king, you are
mistaken. They thirst for our blood. Death is the
least of the ills that threaten us. The pillage of our
homes, the profanation of our mosques, cruelty to our
wives and children, oppression, injustice, intolerance
and its flames await the cowards who fear a glorious
death, for I swear by Allah I will not endure them."

This speech met no response. The old spirit had
died out of the wealthy and luxurious Granadines, and
they had ceased to think— like their forefathers— that
death in fight with the Giaour was an absolute boon, as
a passport to paradise. Even Mousa's own speech was
the speech of a patriot, but not the speech of one of
the fiery fanatics whom his namesake had led against
Don Rodrigo the Goth. Aggression is easier than
defence, and the Moor was a very different being from
the Arab. There was no assent from any member of
the divan, and, after lookmg round upon them in vain,
this last of the Moorish captains rose up, left the
assembly, rode out at the Elvira gate in full armour,
and was never seen again. The surrender then was
agreed upon, and the king and his viziers decided
against taking advantage of the two months' delay, since
it was probable that a popular insurrection might take
place and cut them off from all benefits of the treaty.
So they offered to deliver up the city at the end of
sixty days, and the capitulation was signed by the
sovereigns and the chief nobles of the Cortes.

On the 2nd of July, 1492, Fernando and Isabel put
off the mourning they had been wearing for their son-

U 2

992 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap. zxvi.

in-laW) the Prince of Portugal They advanced to
within half a mile of the city, where the army was
drawn up in full and glittering battle array, with every
warrior in full armour and banners displayed, fresh
pennoncels fluttering from the lances, and long files of
clergy with crosses and pastoral staves. It was the
final day of victory and compensation for the battle of
Guadalete eight hundred years before, and well might
the hearts of the son and daughter of Pelayo swell
with thankful joy as they were thus borne in on the
crest, of the last triumphant wave of the tide which had
advanced slowly, but steadily, from the Penameiella
crags to the fair slopes of the Nevada.

In the meantime,, from the deep horseshoe gate*
way of those strong walls came a dejected train —
Boabdil first, then the ladies of his harem in their
veils, and an escort of fifty horsemen*. As they met,
these riders dismounted, and Boabdil was about to
do the same, but Fernando would not permit it,
nor would the queen. On horseback, then, Boabdil
kissed the king's right ann, saying : " High and
mighty lord, we are thine ; we yield thee this city
and this kingdom, since such is Allah's wilL Allah
grant that thou may'st be merciful" With these
words he yielded up the silver keys of the Alhimra.
Fernando handed them to the queen, and she gave
them to their son, Don Juan, by whom they were d
transferred to Don Inigo de Mendoza, who was to be
alcayde of the city.

The dispossessed Moorish royal family could not
brook the sight of the Christians in their city, but rode
on towards Purchena, the place he retained in the
Alpujarras. When he came to the height of Padul,

CHAP. XXVI.] THE LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR. 293

the last whence he could see the red towers of the
Alhimra, he drew his rein, sobbed out ^^ Allah akbar**
(God is merciful), and was for some minutes convulsed
with weeping.

The spot has ever since been known as El ultimo
sospiro del Moro (the last sigh of the Moor).

Zoraya turned on him in anger, exclaiming, " It
befits thee to weep like a woman for what thou couldst
not defend like a man."

'' Hadst thou spoken thus at Granada," said the un-
happy man, ** I would have been buried under its ruins
rather than surrender ! "

"Remember, O King," said his -vizier, by way of
consolation, ''that great misfortunes make men as
famous as great good fortune."

The reproach was so far true that had Boabdil been
like his uncle, and able to take advantage of the courage
and patriotism of the Moors, he might have postponed
the fall of Granada for another generation or two ; but
it had come to be only a matter of time that the
Mohammedan power in Spain should perish. Not
only did the union of the crowns array the whole
Christian force against it, but the influence of the
Koran as a ruling power was worn out The whole
elaborate Moorish civilisation was inconsistent with
the patriarchal scheme of Mohammed; and when
it becomes needful to explain away a religion, its
constraining force is at an end.

While Boabdil paused weeping on the hill, the
fourteen gates of Granada were thrown open, and the
king and queen rode up the hill, their eyes fixed on
the Alhimra, whither the new governor had gone
before them. Presently a huge silver cross, between

294 THE STORY OF THE MOORS. . [chap. xxvi.

the banners of Castille and of Santiago, was seen on
the highest tower, and a shout was heard : '^ Granada,
Granada, for King Fernando and Queen Isabel ! "
Then king, queen, and all the army dropped upon
their knees, and a glorious " Te Deum " was sung, led
by the singers of the royal chapel.

Tears of joy were shed by many a brave captain,
who had inherited the struggle from his forefathers, as
he came up to kiss the hand of Isabel as Queen ot
Granada. .

Then they rode into the city. It was as a city of
the dead. Not even a child looked from the balconies.
The broken-hearted people were wailing in their
houses while the tramp of the horse sounded through
their streets, and Fernando and Isabel entered the
Al}idmra as conquerors.

CHAPTER XXVI r.

WOE TO THE VANQUISHED.

A FEW piteous pages must complete the history of the
Moors in Spain. There are two ways of looking at
everything, and to a devout queen it seemed her first
duty to have a Christian realm, nor could the zeal of
the fifteenth century understand that the wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God.

The two races had hated one another too long to
understand one another, and it was impossible not to
give dire offence. When Syd Yah-yah, now Don Pedro
de Granada, was made governor, it was no doubt
thought that the people would be gratified ; but they
regarded him as an apostate and traitor, and were
gready incensed. One mosque was also consecrated
as a cathedral, and this was regarded as a violation of
the treaty. The Jews, who had not had terms made
for them, were also expelled, and this produced much
misery and impoverishment

The elder Abd Allah sold his Spanish lands and
retired to Oran, where he was pointed at as the
unfortunate Moor, and where his descendants are
said still to exist.

The unfortunate Boabdil could not bear to continue
in Spain. He sold his lands and followed his uncle to

296 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxvii.

Africa, where, in less than a year, he died a soldier's
death in a battle on behalf of the King of Fez.

Missionary priests preached diligently ; but Chris-
tianity, as popularly understood in the Spain of the
fifteenth century, was in the form most repellent to a
Moslem, especially to a philosophical and scientific
one. The essential points of Christianity are startling
enough to a mind trained to the brief Moslem creed,
and when to these were added the passionate adoration
of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, the teaching
seemed to the Moors degrading in itself as well as
hateful because coming from the conquerors. In old
times the Mozarabic liturgy and the free use of the Scrip-
tures, had made conversions far less difficult than since
the strictest uniformity with Rome had been enforced,
and with the more ardour in consequence of the distant
echoes of the Reformation in Germany.

The preaching had little efiect, and, in 1499, ^^
greatest man in Spain — Francisco XimenesdeCisneros,
Archbishop of Toledo — came to assist He advised
claiming the families of all whose forefathers had fallen
away from the faith and become Mohammedans. These
he held to belong to the Church, and he thought that
they might be constrained to conform ; but the attempt
raised a popular tumult He was besieged in his house,
and only extricated with great difficulty by the Count
of Tendilla, who had to employ soldiers and cannon.
This disturbance was held to forfeit all the immunities
promised, and the Moors were threatened with the
utmost penalties of rebellion, though those who became
Christians were assured of pardon. Terror had its
effect, and on the i8th of December, 1499, no less
than four thousand Moors received baptism. It was

CHAP, xxvn.] WOE TO THE VANQUISHED. 297

reckoned that if the parents came hypocritically, the
children might at least be saved Much of the Arabic
literature, which no doubt was of the immoral nature
sure to be found among a sensual people like the later
Granadines, was destroyed, the more valuable manu-
scripts being preserved ; and the Scriptures, the
Breviary, and the Liturgy were translated into Arabic

The villages in the Vega followed the example of
the capital ; but in the Alpujarras there was a terrible
revolt, in which Don Alfonso de Aguilar was killed.
Fernando blockaded the mountaineers in their hills,
and at last came to terms. All who chose to continue
Moslems might go to Africa on paying a ransom of ten
doubloons a head ; the rest must embrace the Christian
faith. This was carried out, but, unfortunately, the
larger nimiber were unable to raise the ransom, and
remained either as absolute slaves or nominal Chris-
tians — Moriscos, as. they were called, in opposition
to those who proudly called themselves Old Chris-
tians. The Valencian Mudajarros were forced into the
same appearance of Christianity in the early days of
Charles V., and in 1526 the whole Peninsula had
become so entirely Christian in appearance that the
byword for seeking something impossible was : " It is
looking for Mohammed in Spain."

But the Moriscos were thought to be still Moham-f
medans at heart ; they still spoke and wrote Arabic, •
wore their own national dress, and secretly followed '
their own rites and customs. This lasted till the time
of Philip II., when, on the complaint of the Inquisition,
they were conunanded, within three years, to speak
nothing but Spanish, leave off all Arabic customs,
dress like the Christians, and send their women abroad

398 THE STORY OF THE MOORS, [chap, xxvir.

unveiled. Even baths were destroyed and forbidden,
lest ablutions should there be made religiously.

All this, as an old Moor named Francisco Nunez
Muley argued before the Council at Granada, was very
hard, since what the Moriscos were required to give
up might be quite consistent with Christianity ; but no
mercy could be met with in Philip, and another dreadful
insurrection took place in the Alpujarras. There was
a desperate war lasting four years, ending in the
deportation of all the Moriscos of the Alpujarras to
Africa.

Those of Granada had been dispersed in the other
provinces of Spain ; but though no external signs of
difference were permitted, they were hated and avoided
by the other inhabitants, and in 1611 were finally
banished. The happiest took refuge in France ; those
who were driven to Africa were despised and viewed
as apostates by the Berbers, and made slaves. Some,
escaped from their chains, returned to Spain, and
entreated with tears to be allowed to live there as
slaves ; but the hatred of a thousand years was too
strong, and not even as genuine Christians were they
tolerated. , Spain had been growing more and more
harsh, narrow, and unmerciful, and could not forgive
the last descendants of those who had once trodden
her down. The sense of the abilities of the Moors no
doubt added to the vague fear and distrust of them. So
much were they still esteemed the leaders of romantic
fiction that Cervantes chose, as the supposed author of
Don Quixote, the Moor, Cid Hamet Beneageli.

Thus perished the brightest blossom Mohamme-
danism had ever produced. The Christian perse-
verance had triumphed at last, but with the removal

CHAP. XXVII.] WOE TO THE VANQUISHED. 299

of the constant demand for watchful courage and
resolution, the Spanish character began to lose all
that was best in it, and deteriorated from the hour
of the conquest of Granada.

c THE END.

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