John, of Austria, 1547-1578; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598
Entering a vineyard at the boundary of Poqueira, they met, lying in wait
for them, a band of armed Moors, who spoiled them of everything and put
them to a cruel death. One called Pedro de Medina escaped with the
guide, and they went to raise the alarm in Albacete de Orgivar. The same
day five squires of Motril, also going to Granada with Christmas
presents, met with a similar fate. That night there arrived to sleep at
Cadiar the captain Diego de Herrera with his brother-in-law Diego de
Hutado Docampo, of the order of Santiago, and fifty soldiers who were
carrying arquebuses for the fort of Adra. D. Fernando el Zaguer,
Captain-General and uncle of the new King, was hiding in the place, and
he arranged with the other conspirators this blackest treason. He made
all his neighbours give hospitality to one soldier, and at midnight, at
a preconcerted signal, beheaded them all, from the captain downwards, so
that only three remained to return to Adra.
These tidings did not alarm the authorities of Granada as they should
have done; on the other hand, the Moors of the Albaicin mistrusting
them, and fearing lest the hasty rashness of their brothers in the
country should have compromised their plans, hastened to send messengers
everywhere to say that nothing was to be done without fresh orders from
the Albaicin, which was, according to them, the head-quarters.
But the impetuous Farax was not of this mind, and thinking, on the
contrary, that everything would be lost if the events were not pushed
forward, decided to enter the Albaicin that same night and either rouse
the Moors or compromise them.
He then recruited as best he could 180 men from the nearest villages,
and with them went round Granada, defying the cold and the snow which
fell that night, the 25th of December, a Saturday, the first day of
Christmas.
Punctually at twelve o'clock he reached the gate of Guadix, which was in
the wall of the Albaicin; breaking down a mud wall, closed by a small
door, with pikes and implements that they had taken by force from some
mills on the Darro, they entered the town and went straight to his
house, joining the parish church of St. Elizabeth, leaving his people to
guard the door, wearing coloured Turkish caps and over them white gauze
head-dresses, so that they might appear to be Turks.
Farax summoned the principal leaders of the rebellion there and tried to
persuade them of the necessity of rising as one man that same night; but
they of the Albaicin, false and disloyal even to their own brothers,
thinking that enough had already been done to frighten the Christians
without further exposing their lives or properties, excused themselves
on the score of lack of time and of men, as of the 8000 men who were to
accompany him he had only brought 180.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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