Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/464

438 438 RISING IN THE ALPUXARRAS. PART 11. 1501. March IS His noble character. this detested name roused all the vengeance of the dying hero ; and, grasping his foe in mortal agony, he rallied his strength for a final blow ; but it was too late, — his hand failed, and he was soon despatched by the dagger of his more vigorous rival. '^ Thus fell Alonso Hernandez de Cordova, or Alonso de Aguilar, as he is commonly called from the land where his family estates lay.'^ " He was of the greatest authority among the grandees of his time," says father Abarca, " for his lineage, personal character, large domains, and the high posts which he filled, both in peace and war. More than forty years of his life he served against the infidel, under the banner of his house in boy- hood, and as leader of that same banner in later life, or as viceroy of Andalusia and commander of the royal armies. He was the fifth lord of his 18 Bernaldez, Reyes Cat61icos, MS., ubi supra. — Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, torn. ii. ubi supra. — Garibay, Compendio, torn. ii. lib. 19, cap. 10. — Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 13. — Sandoval, Hist, del Emp. Carlos V., torn. i. p. 5. According to Hyta's prose, Agui- lar had first despatched more than thirty Moors with his own hand. (Guerras de Granada, part. i. p. 568.) The ballad, with more dis- cretion, does not vouch for any par- ticular number. " Don Alonso en este tiempo Muy grnn bulalla hacia. El cavallo )e liavian muerto, Pormuralla le tenia. Y arrimado A nn gran peiion Con valor se del'endia : Muchos Mores tiene niuercos, Pero pocole valla. Porque sobre el cargan muchos, Y le dan grandes heridas, Tantas que cayo alii muerto Entre lagcnte enemiga." The warrior's death is summed up with an artless brevity, that would be affectation in more stud- ied composition. " Muerto queda Don Alonso, Y eterna fama ganada." 19 Paolo Giovio finds an etymol- ogy for the name in the eagle (aguila), assumed as the device of the warlike ancestors of Don Alon- so. St. Ferdinand of Castile, in consideration of the services of this illustrious house at the taking of Cordova, in 1236, allowed it to bear as a cognomen the name of that city. This branch, however, still continued to be distinguished by their territorial epithet of Aguilar ; although Don Alonso's brother, the Great Captain, as we have seen, was more generally known by that of Cordova. Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 204.