Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/470

444 444 RISING IN THE ALPUXARRAS. PART same high stations, Avhich he before held, and '- — which he continued to fill with dignity to a good old age.^^ Melancholy j^ -^yBS about sevcntv years after this event, in ''"'" 1570, that the duke of Arcos, descended from ihe great marquis of Cadiz, and from this same count of Urena, led an expedition into the Sierra Vermeja, in order to suppress a similar insurrection of the Moriscoes. Among the party were many of the descendants and kinsmen of those who had fought under Aguilar. It was the first time since, that these rude passes had been trodden by Christian feet; but the traditions of early childhood had made every inch of ground familiar to the soldiers. Some way up the eminence, they recognised the point at which the count of Urena had made his stand ; and further still, the fatal plain, belted round with its dark rampart of rocks, where the strife had been hottest. Scattered fragments of arms and harness still lay rusting on the ground, which was covered with the bones of the warriors, that had lain for more than half a century unburied and bleaching in the sun.^^ Here was the spot on which the brave 27 The Venetian ambassador, 28 Guerra de Granada, p. 301. Navagiero, saw the count of Ureiia — Compare the similar painting of at Ossuna, in 1526. He was en- Tacitus, in the scene where Ger- joying a green old age, or, as the manicuspays the last sad offices to minister expresses it, " molto vec- the remains of Varus and his le- chio e gentil corteggiano pero." gions. " Dein semirulo vallo, hu- " Diseases," said the veteran good- mili fossa, accisse jam reliquiae humoredly, " sometimes visit me, consedisse intelligebantur : medio but seldom tarry long ; for my body campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, is like a crazy old inn, where trav- ut restiterant, disjecta vel aggera- cllers find such poor fare, that they ta ; adjacebant fragmina tclorum, merely touch and go." Viaggio, cquorumque artus, simul truncis fol. 17. arborum antefi.a ora." (Annales