[11] From the minute account of the good friar, drawn from the ancient chronicles, it would appear that the walls of the tower were pictured in mosaic work. [12] Bleda, Cronica, cap. 7. [13] Bleda, Cronica, cap. 7. [14] Bleda, cap. 5. [15] Bleda, cap. 4. [16] Beuter, Cron. Gen. de España, lib. i. c. 28. Marmol. Descrip. de Africa, lib. ii. c. 10. [17] Bleda, Cron. c. 5. [18] Conde, Hist. Dom. Arab. part. i. c. 8. [19] Conde, part i. c. 8. [20] Perdida de España, por Abulcasim Tarif Abentarique, lib. i. c. 7. [21] Conde, part i. c. 9. [22] La Perdida de España, cap. 9. Bleda, lib. ii. c. 8. [23] This name was given to it subsequently by the Arabs. It signifies the River of Death. Vide Pedruza, Hist. Granad. p. 3. c. 1. [24] Bleda, Cronica. [25] Eutrand. Chron. an. Christ. 714. [26] This battle is called indiscriminately by historians the battle of Guadalete, or Xeres, from the neighbourhood of that city. [27] Bleda, Cron. lib. ii. c. 9. Abulcasim Tarif Abentarique, lib. i. c. 10. [28] Salazar, Hist. Gran. Cardinal. Prologo, vol. i. plan i. [29] Mr. D. W—kie. [30] Lord Mah—n. LEGEND OF THE SUBJUGATION OF SPAIN. LEGEND OF THE SUBJUGATION OF SPAIN.[31] CHAPTER I. CONSTERNATION OF SPAIN.—CONDUCT OF THE CONQUERORS.—MISSIVES BETWEEN TARIC AND MUZA. The overthrow of King Roderick and his army on the banks of the Guadalete, threw open all southern Spain to the inroads of the moslems. The whole country fled before them; villages and hamlets were hastily abandoned; the inhabitants placed their aged and infirm, their wives and children, and their most precious effects, on mules and other beasts of burden, and, driving before them their flocks and herds, made for distant parts of the land; for the fastnesses of the mountains, and for such of the cities as yet possessed walls and bulwarks. Many gave out, faint and weary, by the way, and fell into the hands of the enemy; others, at the distant sight of a turban or a Moslem standard, or on hearing the clangour of a trumpet, abandoned their flocks and herds, and hastened their flight with their families. If their pursuers gained upon them, they threw by their household goods and whatever was of burden, and thought themselves fortunate to escape, naked and destitute, to a place of refuge. Thus the roads were covered with scattered flocks and herds, and with spoil of all kind.