[56] Abarca, Anales de Aragon. Ante regno, § 2.
[57] El Moro Rasis, La Destruycion de España. Rojas, Hist. Toledo, pt. 2, L. 4, cl.
[58] El Moro Rasis, Destruycion de España, pt. 2, c. 101.
[59] Morales, Cronicon de España, L. 13, c. 2.
[60] Judicio Domini actum est, ut ipsius montis pars se a fundamentis evolvens, sexaginta tria millia caldeorum stupenter in fulmina projecit, atque eos omnes opressit. Ubi usque nunc ipse fluvius dum tempore hyemali alveum suum implet, ripasque dissoluit, signa armorum et ossa eorum evidentissime ostendit.—Sebastianus Salmanticensis Episc.
[61] La Destruycion de España, part 3.
[62] Sandoval, p. 301.
[63] It does not appear that Count Fernan Gonzalez kept his promise of founding a church and monastery on the site of the hermitage. The latter edifice remained to after ages. “It stands,” says Sandoval, “on a precipice overhanging the river Arlanza, insomuch that it inspires dread to look below. It is extremely ancient; large enough to hold a hundred persons. Within the chapel is an opening like a chasm, leading down to a cavern larger than the church, formed in the solid rock, with a small window which overlooks the river. It was here the Christians used to conceal themselves.”
As a corroboration of the adventure of the Count of Castile, Sandoval assures us that in his day the oak still existed to which Don Fernan Gonzalez tied his horse, when he alighted to scramble up the hill in pursuit of the boar. The worthy Fray Agapida, however, needed no corroboration of the kind, swallowing the whole story with the ready credence of a pious monk. The action here recorded was known by the name of the battle of the Ford of Cascajares.
Sandoval gives a different account of the fate of the hermits. He says that Almanzor, in a rage at their prognostics, overthrew their chapel, and, without alighting from his horse, ordered the three monks to be beheaded in his presence. “This martyrdom,” he adds, “is represented in an ancient painting of the chapel which still exists.”