Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/328

302 302 AFRICAN EXPEDITIOiN OF XIMENES. PART n. AiMresses the troops. SO near the latter as entirely to command it. At the same time, the fleet was to drop down before the Moorish city, and by opening a brisk cannon- ade, divert the attention of the inhabitants from the principal point of assault. As soon as the Spanish army had landed, and formed in order of battle, Ximenes mounted his mule, and rode along the ranks. He was dressed in his pontifical robes, with a belted sword at his side. A Franciscan friar rode before him, bearing aloft the massive silver cross, the archiepiscopal standard of Toledo. Around him were other breth- ren of the order, wearing their monastic frocks, with scimitars hanging from their girdles. As the ghostly cavalcade advanced, they raised the trium- phant hymn of Vexilla regis, until at length the cardinal, ascending a rising ground, imposed silence, and made a brief, but animated harangue to his soldiers. He reminded them of the wrongs they had suffered from the Moslems, the devastation of their coasts, and their brethren dragged into merci- less slavery. When he had sufficiently roused their resentment against the enemies of their country and religion, he stimulated their cupidity by dwelling on the golden .spoil, which awaited them in the opulent city of Oran ; and he concluded his dis- course by declaring, that he had come to peril his own life in the good cause of the Cross, and to lead them on to battle, as his predecessors had often done before him.^ 9 Bernaldez, Reyes Cat61icos, MS., ubi supra. — Zurita, Anales,