Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/388

 705–15] the adjacent country of Algeciras, when Roderic, receiving tidings of the descent, hastened to repel the invader. Ṭāriḳ, apprised of this through Julian and his followers, appealed for additional troops to Mūsa, who sent him 5000 Arabs. Thus reinforced, Ṭāriḳ was able now, with 12,000 men, to hold his ground against the great army of Roderic. They met on the banks of the Guadalete, to the north of Medīna Sidonia. For a week the issue was uncertain. But there was treachery in the Spanish camp. The numerous party opposed to Roderic, buoyed with the hope that the Arabs, satiated with spoil, would soon recross the sea and leave the throne to its proper claimant, fought feebly, and at last gave way. The Spanish force was routed, and Roderic in his flight drowned. But the spoil had not the effect expected. Instead of retiring, the Arabs, flushed with victory, stormed Ecija; and, daily swelled by fresh contingents scenting from afar a rich reward, spread themselves over the land. Malaga and Granada were captured and the province overrun. The people everywhere fled to the hills and fortresses, vainly fancied impregnable; and all the quicker, at the fearful report spread by the conquerors themselves that they fed on human flesh. Leaving Cordova besieged by one of his generals, Ṭāriḳ, guided still by Julian, hastened to Toledo, the capital, which to his astonishment he found deserted by all but Jews. These, delivered from Christian thraldom, now threw in their lot with the invaders (how different from the days of Moḥammad!), and were placed in charge of cities which the conquerors found themselves too few to occupy. The inhabitants had all fled in terror, some as far even as Galicia. But it was by no means the policy of the Arabs to make the land a desert. And so the people were gradually tempted back by promise of security, toleration for their religion if only preached unostentatiously, and the establishment of Christian courts. In a city beyond the hills, carried there perhaps for safety, a relic beyond all value fell into Ṭāriḳ's hands, the famous Table of Solomon, set with pearls and rubies and all manner of precious stones, and having 360 feet. With this priceless jewel