XXVII. Now when Abeniaf saw that all the people were on his side, and
obeyed him, his heart grew and he was puffed up, insomuch that he
despised those who were as good as himself or better. Albeit he was of
good parentage, for his fathers before him had all been Alcaydes ever
since Valencia was in the hands of the Moors. And because he knew that
the King had not fled out of the town, he made search for him, and
found him in the house where he had hidden himself with his women. Now
the King when he fled from the Alcazar had taken with him the best of
his treasures, pearls, among which was one the most precious and noble
that could be, so that nowhere was there a better one to be found, nor
so good; and precious stones, sapphires and rubies and emeralds; he had
with him a casket of pure gold full of these things; and in his girdle
he had hidden a string of precious stones and of pearls, such that no
King had so rich and precious a thing as that carkanet. They say that
in former times it had belonged to Queen Seleyda, who was wife to
Abanarrexit King of Belcab, which is beyond sea; and afterwards it had
come to the Kings called Benivoyas, who were Lords of Andalusia; after
that King Alimaymon of Toledo possessed it, and gave it to his wife,
and she gave it to the wife of her son, who was the mother of this
Yahia. Greatly did Abeniaf covet these treasures and this carkanet, and
incontinently he thought in his heart that he might take them and none
know thereof, which could no ways be done unless he slew King Yahia.
When therefore it was night he gave order to cut off his head, and to
throw it into a pond near the house in which he had been taken. This
was done accordingly, and Abeniaf took the treasures, and they who were
set over King Yahia to guard him and murder him, took also each what he
could, and concealed it. And the body lay where it had been slain till
the following day; but then a good man who grieved for the death of his
Lord took it up, and laid it upon the cords of a bed, and covered it
with an old horsecloth, and carried it out of the town, and made a
grave for it in a place where camels were wont to lie, and buried it
there, without gravecloaths and without any honours whatsoever, as if
the corpse had been the corpse of a villain.
BOOK VI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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