Many a turban and tiar,
Moor and Noble's slaughtered corse,
Whilst the Furies of the war
Gore your ranks with equal loss!
Five days you dispute the field;
When 'tis sunrise on the plains—
Oh loved land! thy doom is sealed,
Madden, madden in thy chains!"
[III.] Page 101.
"The king fortified his camp according to the rules of art, and in a single night a town was built, consisting of four streets in the form of a cross, with as many gates; and from the centre, where the streets crossed each other, all the town might be viewed at the same time. The plan was undertaken and completed by four Grandees of Castile, every one furnishing his share, and the whole was encircled with wooden bulwarks covered with waxen cloth, which resembled a strong wall. Towers and bastions were also fabricated, to appear as if built by regular machinery. In the morning, the Moors were prodigiously astonished to see a town so near Granada, fortified in so formidable a manner. When it was finished, the king granted it the rights of a city, naming it Santa Fé, and endowed it with many privileges, which it enjoys to the present day. It is recorded in the next ballad:—
Built is Santa Fé; its bulwarks
With much waxen cloth o'erlaid,
And within shine tents unnumbered,
Tents of silk and gold brocade.
Dukes, and lords, and noble captains,
Famed for valour, heroes all,
Here are brought by King Fernando,
To effect Granada's fall.
When, behold, a Moor at daybreak,
Of tall stature meets their sight,
Mounted on a noble charger,
Spotted o'er with flakes of white.
On it comes with cleft lips chafing
High against the rider's rein,
Whilst the Moor at all the Christians
Grinds his teeth in fell disdain.
Underneath his robes of scarlet,
White, and blue, a shirt of mail
Fortifies his heart most strongly,
Should a thousand darts assail.
Two strong swords of tempered metal
Grace his thigh, his hands a spear
And tough target in Morocco
Made, and purchased passing dear.