A multitude of Christian prisoners were then brought forth, and
Alahor cried out: “Behold the wife of Count Julian! behold one of
that traitorous family which has brought ruin upon yourselves and
upon your country!” And he ordered that they should stone her to
death. But the Christians drew back with horror from the deed, and
said, “In the hand of God is vengeance; let not her blood be upon
our heads.” Upon this the emir swore with horrid imprecations that
whoever of the captives refused should himself be stoned to death. So
the cruel order was executed, and the Countess Frandina perished by
the hands of her countrymen. Having thus accomplished his barbarous
errand, the emir embarked for Spain, and ordered the citadel of Ceuta
to be set on fire, and crossed the straits at night by the light of
its towering flames.
The death of Count Julian, which took place not long after, closed
the tragic story of his family. How he died remains involved in
doubt. Some assert that the cruel Alahor pursued him to his retreat
among the mountains, and, having taken him prisoner, beheaded him;
others that the Moors confined him in a dungeon, and put an end to
his life with lingering torments; while others affirm that the tower
of the castle of Marcuello, near Huesca, in Aragon, in which he
took refuge, fell on him and crushed him to pieces. All agree that
his latter end was miserable in the extreme and his death violent.
The curse of Heaven, which had thus pursued him to the grave, was
extended to the very place which had given him shelter; for we are
told that the castle is no longer inhabited on account of the strange
and horrible noises that are heard in it; and that visions of armed
men are seen above it in the air; which are supposed to be the
troubled spirits of the apostate Christians who favored the cause of
the traitor.
In after times a stone sepulchre was shown, outside of the chapel
of the castle, as the tomb of Count Julian; but the traveller and
the pilgrim avoided it, or bestowed upon it a malediction; and the
name of Julian has remained a byword and a scorn in the land for the
warning of all generations. Such ever be the lot of him who betrays
his country.
Here end the legends of the Conquest of Spain.
WRITTEN IN THE ALHAMBRA, _June 10, 1829_.
NOTE TO THE PRECEDING LEGEND.
El licenciado Ardevines (lib. 2, c. 8) dize que dichos Duendos
caseros, o los del aire, hazen aparacer exercitos y peleas, como lo
que se cuenta por tradicion (y aun algunos personas lo deponen como
testigos de vista) de la torre y castello de Marcuello, lugar al
pie de las montañas de Aragon (aora inhabitable, por las grandes y
espantables ruidos, que en el se oyen) donde se retraxo el Conde Don
Julian, causa de la perdicion de España; sobre el qual castillo, deze
se ven en el aire ciertas visiones, como de soldados, que el vulgo
dize son los cavalleros y gente que le favorecian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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