John, of Austria, 1547-1578; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598
"What is this? Spaniards! Whom are you flying from? Where is the honour
of Spain? Have you not your captain D. John of Austria in front of you?
What do you fear? Retire in order like men of war with your faces to the
enemy, and you will soon see these barbarians terrified at your arms."
But Luis Quijada also saw the danger D. John ran within reach of shot,
and he went with all speed to make him retire. At the same moment a ball
from an arquebus struck the Prince's helmet, and, had it not been so
solid, would have killed him. Like a lion whose cubs are being hurt,
Luis Quijada turned and urged his horse on as if he would annihilate the
marksman. He then received a shot in the shoulder, and they saw him
first stagger and then fall heavily from his horse, among the cries of
grief and shrieks of rage of those who were near. D. John covered him
with his person, and with wonderful presence of mind, ordered him to be
taken to Canilles with an escort by Tello de Aguilar and the horses from
Jerez la Fontera.
CHAPTER XVII
Luis Quijada arrived at Canilles very much exhausted on a stretcher made
of poles, carried by four soldiers who were continually changed; they
took him to his inn, poor and bare, it being war-time and in an enemy's
country, and there D. John's doctors hastened to dress the wound. He was
consumed with thirst and continually asked for water, and, above all,
was anxious about D. John, whom he had left in such a dangerous
situation. At last Juan de Soto arrived, D. John's new secretary, good
Juan de Quiroga having died months before in Granada. He said that D.
John had been able to effect a retreat with great loss, and that he had
received such a blow from a stone on his shield that the pebble remained
fixed in the metal: a wonderful performance, but by no means unique,
considering the strength of those terrible Moorish slingers, who could
do as much harm with a stone as with an arquebus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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