GARCILOSA SUDDENLY GAVE HIS ANTAGONIST A THRUST
UPON THE SWORD-ARM
When Garcilosa rode into Santa Fé he was met by a messenger from the King and the Queen. With Del Pulgar he received the thanks of both and the cheers of the men and the tears of the women. That day Garcilosa was ennobled, becoming Don Garcilosa del Vega, in commemoration of the spot on which he fought his gallant fight.
On January 1, 1492, the offer of surrender was made by King Boabdil. The following day the Moorish king and all his followers passed out of Granada and left Spain free from the foreign invaders after nearly eight hundred years. The joy and triumph of the day inspired every heart, even the torturing soul of the great Admiral, who was forgotten and overlooked in the universal excitement. All the highest nobles and grandees of Spain—the warriors, the statesmen, the scholars, all that made Spain great—were assembled on that January day to see the surrender of Boabdil. Only one man, and he the greatest of them all, was not provided with a place and a position. That was the Admiral, Christobal Colon. Diego, however, sharing as he did everything with Don Felipe, was enabled by the thoughtfulness of Doña Christina to see the inspiring spectacle.
The surrender of King Boabdil to the Spanish sovereigns was to take place near a little stone building, until that time a Mohammedan mosque. On that day it had been consecrated as a Christian chapel, the chapel of San Sebastian.
Early in the morning the two lads, with Fray Piña, walked through the town, which was wild with jubilation, down the rocky path to the place assigned for them. Already vast crowds of persons were assembled. The Spaniards had taken possession of the city the day before, and Fernando de Talavera had been created Archbishop of Granada. To him was allotted the honor of raising the standard of Spain over the great mosque, now to become a Christian cathedral. Some expressed pity for the unfortunate Moorish king; but Fray Piña, a man of lion heart, had only contempt for him.
“He has no courage,” said Fray Piña, to the two lads, watching the enormous concourse coming together and the marching across the plain of the armies of Castile and Arragon. “Instead of showing his people an example of fortitude in adversity, he mounted his mule and rode all through the streets of Granada beating his breast and tearing his beard and wailing: ‘Woe is me! Woe is me!’ and inciting the people to shrieks and bewailing. Do you think our great Queen Isabella in the place of the Moorish king would have so acted? No; she would have met disaster with the same calmness that she meets triumph. No cry would have come from her lips, no beating of the breast, no tearing of the hair. She would have been the same great queen in defeat as well as in triumph.”
Every moment in the bright January day the multitude grew larger and more brilliant. The sound of martial music filled the air as the victorious armies assembled and the sun glittered upon the casques, the shining arms, and the splendid standards. Presently the royal procession appeared. The King and the Queen, with their son, Prince Juan, and their daughter, the Princess Katharine, all superbly mounted and surrounded by a magnificent train of nobles, knights, and ecclesiastics, rode across the plain toward the little chapel by the side of the rocky road. As Diego and Don Felipe were watching the glorious sight they heard Doña Christina’s voice close by them. She was leaning out of a closed litter, with the curtains slightly drawn back. Within the litter a glimpse could be caught of the little Moorish boy, the son of King Boabdil.
Fray Piña, with Don Felipe and Diego, obeying a signal from Doña Christina, advanced to the litter.