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As the fugitives came flying in headlong terror down the mountain, it was with difficulty the count kept his own troops from giving way in panic, and retreating in confusion across the brook. He succeeded, however, in maintaining order, in rallying the fugitives, and checking the fury of the Moors: then, taking his station on a rocky eminence, he maintained his post until morning; sometimes sustaining violent attacks, at other times rushing forth and making assaults upon the enemy. When morning dawned, the Moors ceased to combat, and drew up to the summit of the mountain. It was then that the christians had time to breathe, and to ascertain the dreadful loss they had sustained. Among the many valiant cavaliers who had fallen, was Don Francisco Ramirez of Madrid, who had been captain-general of artillery throughout the war of Granada, and had contributed greatly by his valor and ingenuity to that renowned conquest. But all other griefs and cares were forgotten, in anxiety for the fate of Don Alonzo de Aguilar. His son, Don Pedro de Cordova, had been brought off with great difficulty from the battle, and afterwards lived to be marques of Priego; but of Don Alonzo nothing was known, except that he was left with a handful of cavaliers, fighting valiantly against an overwhelming force.

As the rising sun lighted up the red cliffs of the mountains, the soldiers watched with anxious eyes, if perchance his pennon might be descried, fluttering from any precipice or defile; but nothing of the kind was to be seen. The trumpet-call was repeatedly sounded, but empty echoes alone replied. A silence reigned about the mountain summit, which showed that the deadly strife was over. Now and then a wounded warrior came dragging his feeble steps from among the clefts and rocks; but, on being questioned, he shook his head mournfully, and could tell nothing of the fate of his commander.

The tidings of this disastrous defeat, and of the perilous situation of the survivors, reached king Ferdinand at Granada; he immediately marched, at the head of all the chivalry of his court, to the mountains of Ronda. His presence, with a powerful force, soon put an end to the rebellion. A part of the Moors were suffered to ransom themselves, and to embark for Africa; others were made to embrace christianity; and those of the town where the christian missionaries had been massacred, were sold as slaves. From the conquered Moors, the mournful but heroic end of Alonzo de Aguilar was ascertained.

On the morning after the battle, when the Moors came to strip and bury the dead, the body of Don Alonzo was found, among those of more than two hundred of his followers, many of them alcaydes and cavaliers of dis tinction. Though the person of Don Alonzo was well known to the Moors, being so distinguished among them both in peace and war, yet it was so covered and disfigured with wounds, that it could with difficulty be recognized. They preserved it with great care, and, on making their submission, delivered it up to king Ferdinand. It was conveyed with great state to Cordova, amidst the tears and lamentations of all Andalusia. When the funeral train entered Cordova, and the inhabitants saw the coffin containing the remains of their favorite hero, and the war-horse, led in mournful trappings, on which they had so lately seen him sally forth from their gates, there was a general burst of grief throughout the city. The body was interred, with great pomp and solemnity, in the church of St. Hypolito.

Many years afterwards, his grand-daughter, Doña Catalina of Aguilar and Cordova, marchioness of Priego, caused his tomb to be altered. On examining the body, the head of a lance was found among the bones, received without doubt among the wounds of his last mortal combat. The name of this accomplished and christian cavalier has ever remained a popular theme of the chronicler and poet, and is endeared to the public memory by many of the historical ballads and songs of his country. For a long time the people of Cordova were indignant at the brave count de Ureña, who they thought had abandoned Don Alonzo in his extremity; but the Castilian monarch acquitted him of all charge of the kind, and continued him in honor and office. It was proved that neither he nor his people could succor Don Alonzo, or even know of his peril, from the darkness of the night. There is a mournful little Spanish ballad or romance, which breathes the public grief on this occasion; and the populace, on the return of the count de Ureña to Cordova, assailed him with one of its plaintive and reproachful verses:

Count Ureña! count Ureña! Tell us, where is Don Alonzo!

(Dezid Conde de Ureña! Don Alonzo, donde queda ?)*

Bleda, L. 5, c. 26.

LEGENDS OF THE CONQUEST OF SPAIN.

PREFACE.

have transcended the cooler conceptions of their neigh. bours, and their reckless daring has borne them on to achievements which prudent enterprise could never have accomplished. Since the time, too, of the con

Few events in history have been so signal and strik-quest and occupation of their country by the Arabs, a

into the national character, and rendered the Spaniard strong infusion of oriental magnificence has entered distinct from every other nation of Europe.

ing in their main circumstances, and so overwhelming and enduring in their consequences, as that of the conquest of Spain by the Saracens; yet there are few where the motives, and characters, and actions of the ventured to dip more deeply into the enchanted fountIn the following pages, therefore, the author has agents have been enveloped in more doubt and contradiction. As in the memorable story of the Fall of ains of old Spanish chronicles, than has usually been Troy, we have to make out, as well as we can, the done by those who, in modern times, have treated of veritable details through the mists of poetic fiction; the eventful period of the conquest; but in so doing, yet poetry has so combined itself with, and lent its he trusts he will illustrate more fully the character of magic colouring to, every fact, that, to strip it away; throw these records into the form of legends, not the people and the times. He has thought proper to would be to reduce the story to a meagre skeleton and rob it of all its charms. The storm of Moslem inva- claiming for them the authenticity of sober history, sion that swept so suddenly over the peninsula, silen-yet giving nothing that has not historical foundation. ced for a time the faint voice of the muse, and drove the sons of learning from their cells. The pen was thrown aside to grasp the sword and spear, and men were too much taken up with battling against the evils which beset them on every side, to find time or incli

nation to record them.

All the facts herein contained, however extravagant some of them may be deemed, will be found in the works of sage and reverend chroniclers of yore, growing side by side with long acknowledged truths, and might be supported by learned and imposing references in the margin.

THE LEGEND OF DON RODERICK.*

When the nation had recovered in some degree from the effects of this astounding blow, or rather, had become accustomed to the tremendous reverse which it produced, and sage men sought to inquire and write the particulars, it was too late to ascertain them in their exact verity. The gloom and melancholy that had overshadowed the land, had given birth to a thousand superstitious fancies; the woes and terrors of the past were clothed with supernatural miracles and portents, and the actors in the fearful drama had already assumed the dubious characteristics of romance. Or if a writer from among the conquerors undertook to touch upon the theme, it was embellished with all the OF THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SPAIN-OF wild extravagancies of an oriental imagination; which afterwards stole into the graver works of the monkish historians.

Hence, the earliest chronicles which treat of the downfall of Spain, are apt to be tinctured with those saintly miracles which savour of the pious labours of the cloister, or those fanciful fictions that betray their Arabian authors. Yet, from these apocryphal sources, the most legitimate and accredited Spanish histories have taken their rise, as pure rivers may be traced up to the fens and mantled pools of a morass. the authors, with cautious discrimination, have discarded those particulars too startling for belief, and have culled only such as, from their probability and congruity, might be safely recorded as historical facts; yet, scarce one of these but has been connected in the original with some romantic fiction, and, even in its divorced state, bears traces of its former alliance.

It is true,

CHAPTER I.

THE MISRULE OF WITIZA THE WICKED.

SPAIN, or Iberia, as it was called in ancient days, has been a country harassed from the earliest times, by the invader. The Celts, the Greeks, the Phenecians, the Carthagenians, by turns, or simultaneously, infringed its territories; drove the native Iberians from their rightful homes, and established colonies and founded cities in the land. It subsequently fell into the all-grasping power of Rome, remaining for some time a subjugated province; and when that gigantic empire crumbled into pieces, the Suevi, the Alani, and the Vandals, those barbarians of the north, overran and ravaged this devoted country, and portioned out the soil among them.

Their sway was not of long duration. In the fifth century the Goths, who were then the allies of Rome, undertook the reconquest of Iberia, and succeeded, after a desperate struggle of three years' duration. They drove before them the barbarous hordes, their predecessors, intermarried, and incor

To discard, however, every thing wild and marvellous in this portion of Spanish history, is to discard some of its most beautiful, instructive, and national features; it is to judge of Spain by the standard of probability suited to tamer and more prosaic countries. Spain is virtually a land of poetry and romance, where every-day life partakes of adventure, and where the written in quaint and antiquated Spanish, and professing to be a *Many of the facts in this legend are taken from an old chronicle, least agitation or excitement carries everything up into translation from the Arabian chronicle of the Moor Kasis, by Moextravagant enterprise and daring exploit. The Spani-hammed, a Moslem writer, and Gil Perez, a Spanish priest. It is ards, in all ages, have been of swelling and braggart supposed to be a piece of literary mosaic work, made up from both Spanish and Arabian chronicles: yet, from this work most of the spirit, soaring in thought, pompous in word, and vali- Spanish historians have drawn their particulars relative to the for ant, though vain-glorious, in deed. Their heroic aims tunes of Don Roderick.

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porated themselves with the original inhabitants, court. The violence of Witiza reached him even in and founded a powerful and splendid empire, com- his retirement. His eyes were put out, and he was prising the Iberian peninsula, the ancient Narbon-immured within a castle at Cordova. Roderick, the naise, afterwards called Gallia Gotica, or Gothic youthful son of Theodofredo, escaped to Italy, where Gaul, and a part of the African coast called Tingi- he received protection from the Romans. tania. A new nation was, in a manner, produced Witiza now considering himself secure upon the by this mixture of the Goths and Iberians. Sprang throne, gave the reins to his licentious passions, and from a union of warrior races, reared and nurtured soon, by his tyranny and sensuality, acquired the amidst the din of arms, the Gothic Spaniards, if they appellation of Witiza the Wicked. Despising the may so be termed, were a warlike, unquiet, yet high-old Gothic continence, and yielding to the example minded and heroic people. Their simple and ab- of the sect of Mahomet, which suited his lascivious stemious habits, their contempt for toil and suffer- temperament, he indulged in a plurality of wives ing, and their love of daring enterprise, fitted them and concubines, encouraging his subjects to do the for a soldier's life. So addicted were they to war same. Nay, he even sought to gain the sanction of that, when they had no external foes to contend the church to his excesses, promulgating a law with, they fought with one another; and, when en- by which the clergy were released from their vows gaged in battle, says an old chronicler, the very of celibacy, and permitted to marry and to entertain thunders and lightnings of heaven could not separate paramours. them.*

The sovereign Pontiff Constantine threatened to For two centuries and a half the Gothic power re- depose and excommunicate him, unless he abrogated mained unshaken, and the sceptre was wielded by this licentious law; but Witiza set him at defiance, twenty-five successive kings. The crown was elect- threatening, like his Gothic predecessor Alaric, to ive, in a council of palatines, composed of the assail the eternal city with his troops, and make bishops and nobles, who, while they swore allegiance spoil of her accumulated treasures.* "We will to the newly-made sovereign, bound him by a re-adorn our damsels," said he, "with the jewels of ciprocal oath to be faithful to his trust. Their Rome, and replenish our coffers from the mint of choice was made from among the people, subject St. Peter." only to one condition, that the king should be of pure Gothic blood. But though the crown was elective in principle, it gradually became hereditary from usage, and the power of the sovereign grew to be almost absolute. The king was commander-inchief of the armies; the whole patronage of the kingdom was in his hands; he summoned and dissolved the national councils; he made and revoked laws according to his pleasure; and, having ecclesiastical supremacy, he exercised a sway even over the consciences of his subjects.

Some of the clergy opposed themselves to the innovating spirit of the monarch, and endeavoured from the pulpits to rally the people to the pure doctrines of their faith; but they were deposed from their sacred office, and banished as seditious mischief makers. The church of Toledo continued refractory; the archbishop Sindaredo, it is true, was disposed to accommodate himself to the corruptions of the times, but the prebendaries battled intrepidly against the new laws of the monarch, and stood manfully in defence of their vows of chastity. "Since The Goths, at the time of their inroad, were stout the church of Toledo will not yield itself to our will," adherents to the Arian doctrines; but after a time said Witiza, "it shall have two husbands." So saythey embraced the Catholic faith, which was main-ing, he appointed his own brother Oppas, at that time tained by the native Spaniards free from many of the archbishop of Seville, to take a seat with Sindaredo gross superstitions of the church at Rome, and this in the episcopal chair of Toledo, and made him unity of faith contributed more than any thing else primate of Spain. He was a priest after his own to blend and harmonize the two races into one. heart, and seconded him in all his profligate abuses. The bishops and other clergy were exemplary in It was in vain the denunciations of the church their lives, and aided to promote the influence of the were fulminated from the chair of St. Peter; Witiza laws and maintain the authority of the state. The threw off all allegiance to the Roman Pontiff, threatfruits of regular and secure government were mani-ening with pain of death those who should obey fest in the advancement of agriculture, commerce, the papal mandates. "We will suffer no foreign and the peaceful arts; and in the increase of wealth, ecclesiastic, with triple crown," said he, "to domiof luxury, and refinement; but there was a gradual neer over our dominions." decline of the simple, hardy, and warlike habits that had distinguished the nation in its semi-barbarous days.

The Jews had been banished from the country during the preceding reign, but Witiza permitted them to return, and even bestowed upon their synaSuch was the state of Spain when, in the year of gogues privileges of which he had despoiled the Redemption 701, Witiza was elected to the Gothic churches. The children of Israel, when scattered throne. The beginning of his reign gave promise throughout the earth by the fall of Jerusalem, had of happy days to Spain. He redressed grievances, carried with them into other lands the gainful arcana moderated the tributes of his subjects, and conducted of traffic, and were especially noted as opulent money himself with mingled mildness and energy in the changers and curious dealers in gold and silver and administration of the laws. In a little while, how-precious stones; on this occasion, therefore, they ever, he threw off the mask, and showed himself in his true nature, cruel and luxurious.

Two of his relatives, sons of a preceding king, awakened his jealousy for the security of his throne. One of them, named Favila, duke of Cantabria, he put to death, and would have inflicted the same fate upon his son Pelayo, but that the youth was beyond his reach, being preserved by Providence for the future salvation of Spain. The other object of his suspicion was Theodofredo, who lived retired from

Florian de Ocampo, lib. 3, c. 12. Justin Abrev. Trog. Pomp. L44 Bleda. Cronica L2, c. 3.

were enabled, it is said, to repay the monarch for his protection by bags of money, and caskets of sparkling gems, the rich product of their oriental commerce.

The kingdom at this time enjoyed external peace, but there were symptoms of internal discontent. Witiza took the alarm; he remembered the ancient turbulence of the nation, and its proneness to internal feuds. Issuing secret orders, therefore, in all directions, he dismantled most of the cities, and demolish

Chron. de Luitprando 709. Abarca, Anales de Aragon (el Mahometismo, Fol. 5.)

ed the castles and fortresses that might serve as rallying points for the factious. He disarmed the people also, and converted the weapons of war into the implements of peace. It seemed, in fact, as if the millennium were dawning upon the land, for the sword was beaten into a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning-hook.

While thus the ancient martial fire of the nation was extinguished, its morals likewise were corrupted. The altars were abandoned, the churches closed, wide disorder and sensuality prevailed throughout the land, so that, according to the old chroniclers, within the compass of a few short years, "Witiza the Wicked taught all Spain to sin.'

CHAPTER II.

THE RISE OF DON RODERICK-HIS GOVERNMENT. WOE to the ruler who founds his hope of sway on the weakness or corruption of the people. The very measures taken by Witiza to perpetuate his power ensured his downfall. While the whole nation, under his licentious rule, was sinking into vice and effeminacy, and the arm of war was unstrung, the youthful Roderick, son of Theodofredo, was training up for action in the stern but wholesome school of adversity. He instructed himself in the use of arms; became adroit and vigorous by varied exercises; learned to despise all danger, and inured himself to hunger and watchfulness and the rigour of the seasons.

His merits and misfortunes procured him many friends among the Romans; and when, being arrived at a fitting age, he undertook to revenge the wrongs of his father and his kindred, a host of brave and hardy soldiers flocked to his standard. With these he made his sudden appearance in Spain. The friends of his house and the disaffected of all classes hastened to join him, and he advanced rapidly and without opposition, through an unarmed and enervated land.

Witiza saw too late the evil he had brought upon himself. He made a hasty levy, and took the field with a scantily equipped and undisciplined host, but was easily routed and made prisoner, and the whole kingdom submitted to Don Roderick.

The ancient city of Toledo, the royal residence of the Gothic kings, was the scene of high festivity and solemn ceremonial on the coronation of the victor. Whether he was elected to the throne according to the Gothic usage, or seized it by the right of conquest, is a matter of dispute among historians, but all agree that the nation submitted cheerfully to his sway, and looked forward to prosperity and happiness under their newly elevated monarch. His appearance and character seemed to justify the anticipation. He was in the splendour of youth, and of a majestic presence. His soul was bold and daring, and elevated by lofty desires. He had a sagacity that penetrated the thoughts of men, and a magnificent spirit that won all hearts. Such is the picture which ancient writers give of Don Roderick, when, with all the stern and simple virtues unimpaired, which he had acquired in adversity and exile, and flushed with the triumph of a pious revenge, he ascended the Gothic throne.

Prosperity, however, is the real touchstone of the human heart; no sooner did Roderick find himself in possession of the crown, than the love of power and the jealousy of rule were awakened in his breast. His first measure was against Witiza, who

was brought in chains into his presence. Roderick beheld the captive monarch with an unpitying eye, remembering only his wrongs and cruelties to his father. "Let the evils he has inflicted on others be visited upon his own head," said he; "as he did unto Theodofredo, even so be it done unto him." Sʊ the eyes of Witiza were put out, and he was thrown into the same dungeon at Cordova in which Theodofredo had languished. There he passed the brief remnant of his days in perpetual darkness, a prey to wretchedness and remorse.

Roderick now cast an uneasy and suspicious eye upon Evan and Siseburto, the two sons of Witiza. Fearful lest they should foment some secret rebellion, he banished them the kingdom. They took refuge in the Spanish dominions in Africa, where they were received and harboured by Requila, governor of Tangier, out of gratitude for favours which he had received from their late father. There they remained to brood over their fallen fortunes, and to aid in working out the future woes of Spain. Their uncle Oppas, bishop of Seville, who had been made co-partner, by Witiza, in the archepiscopal chair at Toledo, would have likewise fallen under the suspicion of the king; but he was a man of consummate art, and vast exterior sanctity, and won upon the good graces of the monarch. He was suffered, therefore, to retain his sacred office at Seville; but the see of Toledo was given in charge to the venerable Urbino; and the law of Witiza was revoked that dispensed the clergy from their vows of celibacy.

A few

The jealousy of Roderick for the security of his crown was soon again aroused, and his measures were prompt and severe. Having been informed that the governors of certain castles and fortresses in Castile and Andalusia had conspired against him, he caused them to be put to death and their strongholds to be demolished. He now went on to imitate the pernicious policy of his predecessor, throwing down walls and towers, disarming the people, and thus incapacitating them from rebellion. cities were permitted to retain their fortifications, but these were intrusted to alcaydes in whom he had especial confidence; the greater part of the kingdom was left defenceless; the nobles, who had been roused to temporary manhood during the recent stir of war, sunk back into the inglorious state of inaction which had disgraced them during the reign of Witiza, passing their time in feasting and dancing to the sound of loose and wanton minstrelsy.* It was scarcely possible to recognize in these idle wassailers and soft voluptuaries the descendants of the stern and frugal warriors of the frozen north; who had braved flood and mountain, and heat and cold, and had battled their way to empire across half a world in arms.

They surrounded their youthful monarch, it is true, with a blaze of military pomp. Nothing could surpass the splendour of their arms, which were embossed and enamelled, and enriched with gold and jewels and curious devices; nothing could be more gallant and glorious than their array; it was all plume and banner and silken pageantry, the gorgeous trappings for tilt and tourney and courtly revel; but the iron soul of war was wanting.

How rare it is to learn wisdom from the misfortunes of others. With the fate of Witiza full before his eyes, Don Roderick indulged in the same pernicious errors, and was doomed, in like manner, to prepare the way for his own perdition.

*Mariana. Hist. Esp. L6. c. 21.

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