“Alas! my sons,” said Teodomir, reining up his steed, as his practised eye showed him the purpose of the dark body of advancing Arabs, with the green flags, galloping rapidly in the rear, under the cover of the heights. “Alas! it has happened as I said. We are cut off. What can our raw troops do against these well-armed Arabs? Let us make for the fastness of Orihuela while we can.” The sons, however, would not listen, but like vain youths opposed their father’s counsel, as did also the captains. The Moor asked for nothing better. He attacked then fiercely in the open plain, cut down the two presumptuous boys before their father’s eyes, and beat his troops, who fled on all sides. Nor could Teodomir stay the flight. Seeing that all was lost, and his sons dead, he seized the bridle of a horse ridden for him by a little page, who tended him in his tent, and who like the rest was spurring onward in full flight. “Tarry a moment, my son,” says Teodomir, grasping the bridle with an iron grip. “Mount behind and part not from me, for I will save thy life!” So digging his huge spurs into his horse’s flanks, at which the well-trained animal, used to his practised touch, reared indignantly on its hind legs and pawed the air, then started off in a wild gallop, swift as the rushing wind. Nor did they pause until, mounting the steep zig-zag path, they were both safe within the fortress of Orihuela. There it still stands, a castle of defence, crowned by dark bulwarks on a mountain chain, an outlook for scores of miles over a flat country towards Granada and the sea. Round and round the base winds the road from Alicante, through overhanging lanes, under palm-trees and embowering citron woods, broken by red earthed _barrancas_. The town itself (Auri-welah) is still very Eastern, with domed church and castellated towers, the whole district with great tidal rivers cutting through, fertile beyond words. As the day fell, and the sun went down in lemon-coloured clouds, Abdul-asis approached, thinking to find an easy conquest. But to his amazement the walls appeared fully garrisoned, and from the keep a proud flag floated, bearing the colours of the Goths. “How is this?” said the son of Mousa. “Is it a necromancy? Or have these men risen from the [Illustration: THE CHURCH OF SAN ISIDORA. (Leon.)] earth? With my own eyes I saw Teodomir flying alone, a page riding behind him. His sons are dead, his forces scattered. Who are these but fiends he has summoned by magic to his aid?” And fear fell upon him as he gazed, and he commanded that no attack be ventured, but that the camp should be formed at the base of the rock until morning. Upon which Teodomir, who was looking out, took a flag of truce, fastened it to a lance, put a herald’s tabard on the back of the page who had fled with him, and a high-crowned hat on his head, and went down to where the purple tent and the Crescent standard marked the spot where Abdul-asis was to be found.