Before dawn, on the twenty-third day of October, 1086, word reached the Moslem camp that the enemy was in motion. The suspicions of the officers of Motamid were verified, and the appointment of a day for the engagement had been only a ruse to facilitate a surprise. The situation of the Andalusians was critical. Their camp was not fortified. Their deficiency in numbers and lack of discipline rendered them ill-fitted to withstand the attack of the entire Christian army. Messenger after messenger was despatched to Yusuf representing the danger. But the Berber chieftain, although his troops were under arms, still remained inactive. He had matured a design of whose success he was confident, and he now only awaited a favorable opportunity for its execution. Without the least solicitude for his allies, whose sarcastic allusions to the intellectual inferiority and uncouth manners of his race had embittered the prejudice already existing between the two nations, he was not unwilling that they should expose their weakness by vainly imploring the aid of those whom they had repeatedly insulted. With the first shock of battle the Andalusians were thrown into disorder, and all, except the soldiers of Motamid, who were soon surrounded and overwhelmed by numbers, fled ignominiously from the field. The Prince of Seville and his followers, although taken at such a fatal disadvantage, sustained with unshaken firmness the furious onslaught of the Christian host. Motamid himself nobly redeemed upon that glorious day the tarnished reputation of his house, and emulated the exploits of the ancient heroes of the khalifate by the performance of prodigies of valor. He courted death and martyrdom in the very thickest of the fight. He was twice wounded, and had three horses killed under him. His armor was broken; his sword dripped with the blood of his enemies; and the heap of corpses which lay before him attested the strength of his arm and the dauntless resolution of his spirit. At length a large reinforcement of Africans arrived, and the diversion they caused permitted the Andalusians a momentary respite. In the mean time the crafty Yusuf, favored by intervening mountains, had gained the rear of the army of Alfonso, and suddenly descended like an avalanche on the Christian camp. Enveloped by thousands of ferocious warriors, the guard was instantly cut to pieces. The tents were set on fire, and the Castilians saw with astonishment and dismay the conflagration of their camp and the plunder of their equipage. Day was breaking as the forces of the Moslems bore down upon their rear. The strange aspect, the odor, and the discordant cries of the camels, of which there were hundreds in the Berber army, frightened the horses of the Christians and threw them into confusion. Motamid’s division, now become the assailants,--for the front of the battle had been reversed through the unexpected manœuvre of the Africans,--inspired by the hope of victory, redoubled its efforts.