“Eight summer days, from morn till latest eve, The fatal fight endured, till perfidy Prevailing to their overthrow, they sank Defeated, not dishonoured. On the banks Of Chrysus, Roderick’s royal car[4] was found, His battle-horse Orelio, and that helm Whose horns, amid the thickest of the fray, Eminent, had marked his presence. Did the stream Receive him with the undistinguished dead, Christian and Moor, who clogged its course that day? So thought the conqueror, and from that day forth, Memorial of his perfect victory, He bade the river bear the name of Joy.”[5] Flushed with victory, Tarik advanced into the country, and meeting with no organized attempt at opposition, rapidly made himself master of the provinces of Asturias, Biscay, and of the interior of Spain. The Goths, driven into the mountains, gradually settled down into little communities, which after a while were attracted towards one another by the common sentiment of patriotism and hostility towards the infidels. Then they descended from their mountain-recesses, and after a protracted series of contests succeeded in expelling the Moors from the northern provinces. Encouraged by this success, the chiefs allied themselves together for the purpose of driving them wholly out of Spain; and this being accomplished, they founded the several independent kingdoms of Leon, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, and Castile. Meantime, Gibraltar had increased in importance, though at that time it was surpassed by the neighbouring town of Algesiras. Early in the fourteenth century, however, Ferdinand, King of Castile, wrested it from its Moorish garrison, and it remained in the hands of the Spaniards until 1333. Then Abomelique, son of the Sultan of Fez, having landed on the coast with a force to assist the Moorish king of Granada, immediately attacked the fortress of the Rock, and captured it after a brave resistance. The Spanish troops fought with determined resolution, and surrendered at the approach of famine rather than to the summons of the enemy.