Alonzo, with a handful more, escapes into the field,
There, like a lion, stands at bay, in vain besought to yield;
A thousand foes around are seen, but none draw near to fight;
Afar, with bolt and javelin, they pierce the steadfast knight.
A hundred and a hundred darts are hissing round his head;
Had Aguilar a thousand hearts, their blood had all been shed;
Faint, and more faint, he staggers upon the slippery sod,
At last his back is to the earth, he gives his soul to God!
With that the Moors plucked up their hearts to gaze upon his face,
And caitiffs mangled where he lay the scourge of Afric’s race;
To woody Oxijera then the gallant corpse they drew,
And there, upon the village green, they laid him out to view.
Upon the village-green he lay, as the moon was shining clear,
And all the village damsels to look on him drew near;
They stood around him all a-gaze, beside a big oak-tree,
And much his beauty they did praise, tho’ mangled sore was he.
Now, so it fell, a Christian dame, that knew Alonzo well,
Not far from Oxijera did as a captive dwell,
And hearing all the marvels, across the woods came she,
To look upon this Christian corpse, and wash it decently.
She look’d upon him, and she knew the face of Aguilar,
Although his beauty was defac’d with many a ghastly scar,
She knew him, and she cursed the dogs that pierced him from afar,
And mangled him when he was slain—the Moors of Alpujar.
The Moorish maidens, while she spake, around her silence kept,
But her master dragged the dame away—then loud and long they wept;
They washed the blood, with many a tear, from dint of dart and arrow,
And buried him near the waters clear of the brook of Alpujarra.
THE BULL-FIGHT OF GAZUL.
Gazul is the name of one of the Moorish heroes who figure in the “Historia de las Guerras Civiles de Granada.” The following is one of many ballads in which the dexterity of Moorish cavaliers in the Bull-fight is described. The reader will observe that the shape, activity, and resolution of the animal destined to furnish the amusement of the spectators, are enlarged upon, just as the qualities of a modern racehorse might be amongst ourselves—nor is the bull without his name. The day of the Baptist is a festival of the Mussulmans, as well as amongst Christians:
King Almanzor of Granada, he hath bid the trumpet sound,
He hath summon’d all the Moorish lords, from the hills and plains around;
From Vega and Sierra, from Betis and Xenil,
They have come with helm and cuirass of gold and twisted steel.
’Tis the holy Baptist’s feast they hold in royalty and state,
And they have closed the spacious lists, beside the Alhambra’s gate;
In gowns of black with silver laced, within the tented ring,
Eight Moors to fight the bull are placed, in presence of the King.