Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, from the mss. of Fray Antonio AgapidaIrving, Washington
History
Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, from the mss. of Fray Antonio Agapida
Irving, Washington
Granada (Spain : Reino) -- History -- Spanish Conquest, 1476-1492
The trumpet of Lorenzo de Porres was answered by that of the count de
Cabra in another direction, and it seemed to the Moors as if they were
between two armies. Don Lorenzo, sallying from among the oaks, now
charged upon the enemy: the latter did not wait to ascertain the force
of this new foe; the confusion, the variety of alarums, the attacks from
opposite quarters, the obscurity of the fog, all conspired to deceive
them as to the number of their adversaries. Broken and dismayed, they
retreated fighting, and nothing but the presence and remonstrances of
the king prevented their retreat from becoming a headlong flight. If
Boabdil had displayed little of the talents of a general in the outset
of his enterprise, he manifested courage and presence of mind amid
the disasters of its close. Seconded by a small body of cavalry, the
choicest and most loyal of his guards, he made repeated stand against
the press of the foe in a skirmishing retreat of about three leagues,
and the way was strewn with the flower of his chivalry. At length they
came to the brook of Martin Gonzales (or Mingozales, as it is called by
the Moorish chroniclers), which, swollen by recent rain, was now a deep
and turbid torrent. Here a scene of confusion ensued. Horse and foot
precipitated themselves into the stream. Some of the horses stuck
fast in the mire and blocked up the ford; others trampled down the
foot-soldiers; many were drowned and more carried down the stream. Such
of the foot-soldiers as gained the opposite side immediately took to
flight; the horsemen, too, who had struggled through the stream, gave
reins to their steeds and scoured for the frontier.
The little band of devoted cavaliers about the king serried their forces
to keep the enemy in check, fighting with them hand to hand until he
should have time to cross. In the tumult his horse was shot down, and
he became environed in the throng of foot-soldiers struggling forward to
the ford and in peril from the lances of their pursuers. Conscious that
his rich array made him a conspicuous object, he retreated along the
bank of the river, and endeavored to conceal himself in a thicket of
willows and tamarisks. Thence, looking back, he beheld his loyal band at
length give way, supposing, no doubt, he had effected his escape. They
crossed the ford, followed pell-mell by the enemy, and several of them
were struck down in the stream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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