Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/499

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 477 His diadem, his robes, and his courser were found on the bank ; but, as the body of the Gothic prince was lost in the waves, the pride and ignorance of the cahph must have been gratified with some meaner head, which was exposed in triumph before the palace of Damascus. " And such," continues a valiant historian of the Arabs, " is the fate of those kings who withdraw them- selves from a field of battle." ^'^^ Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy thati^nof^^ his only hope was in the ruin of his country. After the battle ^"^^J^^- of Xeres he recommended the most effectual measures to the victorious Saracen. " The king of the Goths is slain ; their princes have fled before you, the army is routed, the nation is astonished. Secure with sufficient detachments the cities of Baetica ; but in person, and without delay, march to the royal city of Toledo, and allow not the distracted Christians either time or tranquillity for the election of a new monarch." Tarik listened to his advice. A Roman captive and proselyte, who had been enfranchised by the caliph himself, assaulted Cor- dova with seven hundred horse ; he swam the river, surprised the town, and drove the Christians into the great church, where they defended themselves above three months. Another detach- ment reduced the sea-coast of Baetica, which in the last pei'iod of the Moorish power has comprised in a narrow space the popu- lous kingdom of Grenada. The march of Tarik from the Baetis to the Tagus '^'^'^ was directed through the Sierra Morena, that separates Andalusia and Castille, till he appeared in arms under the walls of Toledo.-^o The most zealous of the Catholics had escaped with the relics of their saints ; and, if the gates were shut, it was only till the victor had subscribed a fair and reason- able capitulation. The voluntary exiles were allowed to depart 208 Id sane infortunii regibus pedem ex acie referentibus ssepe contingit. Ben Hazil of Grenada, in Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, torn. ii. p. 327. Some credulous Spaniards believe that king Roderic, or Roderigo, escaped to an hermit's cell ; and others, that he was cast alive into a tub full of serpents, from whence he exclaimed, with a lamentable voice, ' ' they devour the part with which I have so grievously sinned" (Don Quixote, part ii. 1. iii. c. i. ). 209 The direct road from Corduba to Toledo was measured by Mr. Swinburne's mules in 72^ hours ; but a larger computation must be adopted for the slow and devious marches of an army. The Arabs traversed the province of La Mancha, which the pen of Cervantes has transformed into classic ground to the reader of every nation. 210 The antiquities of Toledo, Uris Parva in the Punic wars, Urbs Regia in the vith century, are briefly described by Nonius (Hispania, c. 59, p. 181-186). He borrows from Roderic the fatale palatium of Moorish portraits ; but modestly insinuates that it was no more than a Roman amphitheatre.