Thus they pursued
Toward the cave their inauspicious way.
Weak childhood there and ineffective age
In the chambers of the rock were placed secure;
But of the women, all whom with the babes
Maternal care detain’d not, were aloft
To aid in the destruction; by the side
Of fathers, brethren, husbands, station’d there
They watch and pray. Pelayo in the cave
With the venerable primate took his post.