FROM CORDOVA TO CATHAY.

gain glimpses of the great man unawares. So I will claim the privilege of
digressing a bit, merely to relate one of those exciting encounters that took
place while the army was encamped at Santa Fé, and which, while it enlivened
the monotony of camp life, kept up the spirits of the men.

Among the fiercest of the caballeros in command under the Spanish king, as
the army ae before Granada, was, the historians tell us, Hernando del Enlean
Casting about one day for an opportunity to distinguish himself, he espied the
city gate of Granada but negligently guarded. Galloping through it, he some-
how evaded the Moorish sentinels and penetrated even to the great mosque
in the center of the city. Losing not a moment, he dashed up to the door
and with his poniard there affixed a bit of wood with the Ave Maria printed on
it. Then he wheeled about and darted through the gateway with great clat-
ter of hoof and clank of
weapon, and, hurling cries
of defiance at the astonished
Moors, escaped with a whole
skin to the camp.

The Moors at first were
puzzled to account for this
foray ; but when they finally
found the Ave Maria pinned
against the great door of the
mosque, they were beside
themselves with rage. And
the next day an immense
Moor, Yarfe, one of the
most powerful and renowned
of the Moslem warriors, in-
solently paraded before the
Christian host with the sa-
cred emblem attached to the tail of his horse and dragging in the dust. At the
same time he defied all the cavaliers, or any one of them, to meet him in single:
combat before the assembled armies.

Now, Ferdinand had forbidden any of his nobles to engage in this manner:
with the Moors, because their cavaliers were better horsemen, more skilled in
the feats of the tourney. They generally came off victorious from such en-
counters, thus greatly weakening the esprit de corps of the Spanish host.

But this insult to the Christian religion could not be borne, and the cavaliers.
all burned to avenge it. A fiery young Castilian, Garcilasso de la Vega, rushed
before Isabella and importuned her to allow him to defend the holy faith against.
this pagan Moor and rescue the Ave Maria from further defilement.

Her permission reluctantly granted, he armed himself completely and went.

 

THE HEAD OF THE MOOR, AT SANTA FE,