[53] The correspondence between the above story and the following Spanish legend is singularly close.—“The night before the battle was fought at the Navas de Tolosa, in the dead of the night a mighty sound was heard in the whole city of Leon, as if it had been the tramp of a whole army passing through: and it went on to the royal monastery of St. Isidro, and there was great knocking at the gate thereof; and they called to a priest who was keeping vigil in the church, and told him that the captains of the army which he heard were the Cid Ruy Diaz, and Count Ferran Gonzalez; and that they came to call up King Don Fernando the Great, who lay buried in that church, that he might go with them to deliver Spain. And on the morrow that great battle of the Navas de Tolosa was fought, wherein 60,000 of the unbelievers were slain, which was one of the greatest and noblest battles ever won over the Moors.”—Chronicle of Cid, xi. 21. It occurred a.d. 1212.
[54] See Col. Leake on the Attic Demi.
[55] In the Persæ, a tragedy written to celebrate the overthrow of Xerxes, and containing a magnificent description of the battle of Salamis, of which the poet was an eye-witness, having served in all the brilliant actions of the Persian war, from Marathon to Platæa. The passage is too long for the whole to be inserted, but the description of the first onset of the Greeks may furnish a specimen of its character.
“But when the white-horsed morn o’er all the earth
Shed her fair splendour, from the Grecian fleet
A mighty sound rose tuneably, to wake
The sleeping Echo, which returned a loud
Heart-cheering answer from the island rock.
Confused the Persians stood; for not for flight
The Greeks rang forth that lofty battle-shout,
But hurrying on rejoicing to the fight
With high-souled valour. Then the trumpet’s clang
Kindled the battle; then the word was given,
And the quick oars with one united stroke
Dashed into spray the salt resounding surge,
And all bore down in sight. The right wing led
First, in fair order; the main armament
Pressed close behind, and all at once sent forth
A mighty shout; ‘On, children of the Greeks,
Set free your country, free your sons, your wives,
The temples of your country’s gods, the tombs
Of your forefathers—this day fights for all.’”
[56] Frontinus, Strategematicon, lib. I. ii. 10. Frontinus wrote towards the end of the first century of the Christian era, and the story, as far as we know, is not noticed earlier. It may therefore very probably be false.
[57] Vasæus, Hispaniæ Chronicon.
[58] Herod., viii. c. 140-144.
[59] The citizens replied to a summons to surrender, that they would not lack food, while their left arms remained, but feed on them, and fight for liberty with their right. Strada, de Bello Belgico, lib. viii. Vaunts of this kind are dangerous: the Leydenists, however, did no discredit to theirs. It was a maxim of the Maréchal de Grammout, that a governor who began by making a great to-do, and burnt his suburbs to make a brilliant defence, generally ended by making a very bad one. See the Mémoires de Grammont, chap, viii., where there is a capital story of the gallant defence of Lerida, by Don Gregorio Brice, bearing upon this point.
[60] Strada says, with an expression of incredulity however, that by means of this inundation vessels came over-land to Leyden from a distance of forty miles.
[61] The Dutch annoyed the Spaniards much with sharp hooks fastened to poles or ropes, by which they drew up the Spaniards into their shipping. One Peter Borgia was caught up with four hooks into a vessel holding six or seven men, and supposed to be mortally hurt: but presently, while they were deeply engaged in fishing for more men, he caught up a battle-axe, and set on them from behind with such fury, that he killed three, and frightened the rest overboard, and thus carried off to the Spanish camp a vessel laden with provisions.—Strada, Bell. Belg. lib. viii.