[266] It is the language of Marmol, who will not be suspected of exaggerating the cruelties of his countrymen. He does not seem, indeed, to regard them as cruelties. "Unos enviaba el Comendador mayor á las galeras, otros hacia justicia de ellos, y los mas consentia que los vendiesen los soldados para que fuesen aprovechados."—Rebelion de Granada, tom. ii. p. 436.
[267] Ibid. p. 433.
[268] Circourt gives a precise enumeration of the fortresses in different districts of the country.—Hist. des Arabes d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 135, 136.
[269] "Llevando cerca de sí a su hijo, mozo quasi de trece años Don Luis Ponce de Leon, cosa usada en otra edad en aquella Casa de los Ponces de Leon, criarse los muchachos peleando con los Moros, i tener a sus padres por maestros."—Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 318.
[270] For the celebrated description of this event by Mendoza, see Guerra de Granada, pp. 301, 302. The Castilian historian, who probably borrowed the hint of it from Tacitus (Annales, lib. i. sec. 31), has painted the scene with a consummate art that raises him from the rank of an imitator to that of a rival. The reader may find a circumstantial account of Alonso de Aguilar's disastrous expedition, in 1501, in the History of Ferdinand and Isabella, part ii. chap. 7.
[271] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, pp. 298-314.—Marmol, Rebelion de Granada, tom. ii. pp. 425-431.
[272] Circourt quotes a remarkable passage from the Ordenanzas de Granada, which well illustrates the conscientious manner in which the government dealt with the Moriscoes. It forms the preamble of the law of February 24, 1571. "The Moriscoes who took no part in the insurrection ought not to be punished. We should not desire to injure them; but they cannot hereafter cultivate their lands; and then it would be an endless task to attempt to separate the innocent from the guilty. We shall indemnify them certainly. Meanwhile their estates must be confiscated, like those of the rebel Moriscoes."—Hist. des Arabes d'Espagne, tom. iii. p. 148.
[273] "Que las casas fuesen y estuviesen juntas; porque aunque lo merecian poco, quiso su Magestad que se les diese esto contento."—Marmol, Rebelion de Granada, tom. ii. p. 439.
[274] "Saquearon los soldados las casas del lugar, y tomaron todas las mugeres por esclavas; cosa que dió harta sospecha de que la desorden habia nacido de su cudicia."—Ibid. p. 444.
The better feelings of the old soldier occasionally—and it is no small praise, considering the times—triumph over his national antipathies.