"Mad to wreak His vengeance for his deeply injured child On Roderick's head, an evil hour for Spain, For that unhappy daughter, and himself. Desperate apostate, on the Moors he called, And, like a cloud of locusts, whom the wind Wafts from the plains of wasted Africa, The Mussulman upon Iberia's shores Descends. A countless multitude they came: Syrian, Moors, Saracen, Greek renegade, Persian, and Copt, and Latin, in one band Of Islam's faith conjoined, strong in the youth And heat of zeal, a dreadful brotherhood." The valiant _Tarik_ crossed with a selected force, the strait between the Pillars of Hercules, which is now named after him "_Gibr-al-Tarik_" (Gibraltar), "the rock of Tarik." On the 24th of July, 711, the two armies met at the river of Guadalete, not far from Xeres, and after a three days' battle a small force of picked men, the indomitable horsemen of the desert, routed 80,000 Spaniards, amidst terrible carnage. Tarik pressed eagerly forward. _Cordova_, _Malaga_, _Toledo_, _Merida_, surrendered after little or no opposition. In six years later the Arab-Moors were complete masters of Spain, and have been so unto this day." Abdallah has ended his narrative. Unconsciously, it seems, he takes the lute at his side, and running his fingers over the strings, he strikes a few chords and finally, as if desirious of supplementing his version of the entrance of Arab-Moors into Europe, he makes the lute accompany his recital of some of the songs and verses he had composed in commemoration of the victory of the Arab-Moors over fair Andalusia, and which have since become as popular in Bagdad and Antioch as in Cordova or Granada. We wish, but our wish is in vain, that _Zelica_ might return to her wonted task, that her young and melodious voice might blend with the melting strains of the Moorish bard. The heroic theme inspires Abdallah more and more. He begins to improvise. He defends _Florinda_, whom the Spaniards execrate, and name "_La Cava_"--"the Wicked." He sings of Roderick's entering the cave over which was written: "_The king who opens this cave and discovers its wonders will learn both good and evil_," and, how upon entering it he read this fatal inscription on the walls: "_Unhappy King, thou hast entered in an evil hour. By strange nations thou shalt be dispossessed, and thy people degraded_." He sings of the combat between Tarik and Roderick. He sings of the captive queen _Egilona_. He sings of the jealousy between Musa and Tarik, and of other themes, heroic and beautiful.