[1276] "Questa sola utilità ne cava il Re di quei luoghi per conservatione de quali spende ogni anno gran somma di denari delle sue entrate." Relatione de Soriano, 1560, MS.
[1277] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 426.—Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis Philippi II. p. 90.
[1278] The details of the battle were given in a letter, dated September 5, 1558, by Don Alonzo to the king. His father fell, it seems, in an attempt to rescue his younger son from the hands of the enemy. Though the father died, the son was saved. It was the same Don Martin de Cordova who so stoutly defended Mazarquivir against Hassem afterwards, as mentioned in the text. Carta De Don Alonso de Córdova al Rey, de Toledo, MS.
[1279] The tidings of this sad disaster, according to Cabrera, hastened the death of Charles the Fifth (Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 13). But a letter from the imperial secretary, Gaztelu, informs us that care was taken that the tidings should not reach the ear of his dying master. "La muerte del conde de Alcaudete y su desbarato se entendió aquí por carta de Don Alonso su hijo que despachó un correo desde Toledo con la nueva y por ser tan ruyn y estar S. Magd. en tal disposicion no se le dixo, y se tendra cuydado de que tampoco la sepa hasta que plazca á Dios esté libre; porque no sé yo si hay ninguno en cuyo tiempo haya sucedido tan gran desgracia como esta." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu al Secretario Molina, de Yuste, Set. 12, 1558, MS.—The original of this letter, like that of the preceding, is in the Archives of Simancas.
[1280] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI cap. 10.
[1281] For this siege, the particulars of which are given in a manner sufficiently confused by most of the writers, see Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 431 et seq.; Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 10; Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis Philippi II., p. 94; Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia de España, (Madrid, 1770,) tom. II. p. 127; Miniana, Historia de España, pp. 341, 342; Caro de Torres, Historia de las Ordenes Militares, fol. 154.
[1282] According to Cabrera, (Filipe Segundo, lib. VI. cap. 12,) two thousand infidels fell on this occasion, and only ten Christians; a fair proportion for a Christian historian to allow. Ex uno, etc.
[1283] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 455.
[1284] Campana, Vita di Filippo II., tom. II. p. 138.
[1285] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 461.