Neither history nor tradition has ascribed to Pelayus any other military achievements than the famous one which signalized his accession to supreme power. In the retirement of his little kingdom, for the remainder of his days, he employed the security, for which he was indebted to the contempt of his enemies, in consolidating his authority; in the formation of a plan of government; in the erection of churches, shrines, and monasteries; and in encouraging among his subjects the pursuit of agriculture. His extreme devotion to the interests of the Church has obtained for his memory the grateful acknowledgment of the priesthood; while the little cross borne by him, in lieu of a standard, at Covadonga, and still preserved at Oviedo, is regarded with sentiments of peculiar reverence by the peasantry as a symbol whose miraculous powers were confirmed by the hand of God, and whose virtues were transmitted to the magnificent emblems of the Catholic hierarchy, which, the successors of the Roman eagles, sanctified in distant lands the explorations and the conquests of the Christian monarchs of the Peninsula. The reign of Pelayus lasted thirteen years. Such were the benefits resulting from its munificence to the clergy and his justice to the people that, at his death, the sentiments of loyalty and gratitude overcame the traditions of centuries and the prejudice against hereditary descent, and Favila, his son, was permitted to succeed him by the tacitly admitted right of inheritance. Little is known of the life of Favila excepting that it was passed in peace. Without aspirations to enlarge the circuit of his dominions, and destitute of all desire for military renown, he preferred the rude society of his companions and the excitements of the chase to the perilous and doubtful honors of warfare. Two years after his accession he was torn to pieces by a wild boar, whose fury he had rashly provoked under circumstances which admitted of no escape. He was buried by the side of his father in the church of Cangas de Onis, an insignificant hamlet not far from the battle-field of Covadonga, which was already dignified by the title of capital of the Asturias, and whose church was for many generations afterwards the pantheon of its princes.